Cornbread-Topped Chili Casserole

This is chili and cornbread's best idea: bake them together in one dish so the cornbread steams over the bubbling chili and turns custardy where the two meet. You get a fluffy, golden, jalapeño-flecked top layer, a soft soaked underside where it meets the chili, and a hearty bean-and-beef base underneath — a full dinner in a single baking dish. It's the kind of thing that feeds a crowd, comes out of the oven looking impressive for almost no effort, and gets fought over for the corner pieces where the cornbread goes crispest against the dish.

Let it rest 5 minutes before scooping so it holds its shape. A dollop of sour cream and a few pickled jalapeños on top are excellent.

Swap in ground turkey, or use black beans for kidney. From-scratch cornbread batter works if you'd rather skip the box.