For me, the Super Bowl is more about the commercials than the sporting aspect of the event. My other favorite part of this day is the food, of course.

This year our game day included a chili cook off and we are certainly not ones to pass up this kind of challenge. And we’re always looking for some sort of twist – an accoutrement if you will – to set our dish apart. We brainstormed all kinds of ideas but kept coming back to what we think of when we think of chili..cornbread! So we combined the two to come up with a bite sized appetizer.

Start with your favorite cornbread recipe, dressing it up with flavor boosters like chiles or cheddar cheese. Spoon the batter into mini muffin tins coated with non-stick cooking spray and bake per your recipe’s directions. It’s not necessary to fill them as full as you would normally since you’re going to cut the tops off so experiment with the amount of batter needed to make a muffin that just rises above the top of the pan.

Once the muffins are cool, use a serrated knife to cut off the tops. On the first batch, I used a melon baller to hollow out the bottoms, but then my husband had the bright idea to just carefully press down and compact the insides into the little cups which creates a much sturdier end product.

We tried putting the shells back in the oven to see if that would crisp them up but in the end, we felt like that dried them out too much.

Fill the cute little cups with chili and top with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and a sprig of cilantro. Not only were they tasty, they were fun to eat!

These could easily be made in full size muffin tins for a main course.

Now if only I could figure out a way to get everyone to talk while the game is on and hush for the commercials!