What Are Corn flakes and How Can I Use Them?

Here's everything worth knowing about corn flakes and how to pick them, what they are, how to store them, and what to use instead, plus 109 recipes to cook tonight.

Key Points

Corn flakes are toasted milled-corn cereal: mild and lightly sweet, with a crunch that fades fast.
Crushed, they make a cheap crisp breading for oven chicken and a buttered casserole topping.
Toss crumbs with melted butter so they brown and crisp instead of just drying out.
Add toppings late and serve soon; sitting on a wet, steaming dish turns the crust soggy.
Swap panko or crushed crackers for breading; crisp rice or bran flakes in no-bake bars.

What are corn flakes?

Corn flakes are thin, crisp flakes of toasted milled corn, the breakfast cereal that has sat in pantries since the Kellogg brothers stumbled onto the process in the 1890s.

Cooked corn grits are rolled flat, then toasted until they shatter at a touch.

In a bowl with cold milk they are mild and lightly sweet, with a crunch that famously does not last long. That short crunch is the whole personality of the flake, and it is exactly what cooks borrow when they reach past the breakfast table.

Crushed and toasted, corn flakes turn into one of the cheapest crisp coatings in the kitchen. They show up as breading on chicken, as the golden lid on a casserole, and folded into cookies and no-bake bars for crunch.

Cooking With Corn Flakes

Most cooking uses start by crushing the flakes. Pulse them in a food processor or seal them in a bag and roll over it with a wine bottle. For breading you want coarse crumbs with some texture left, not dust.

As a coating, corn flake crumbs give fried-chicken crunch from the oven. Oven-Fried Corn Flake Chicken presses the crumbs onto chicken so it bakes up shattering-crisp without the deep fryer, and Oven Chicken Cordon Bleu uses the same trick to crisp a stuffed breast.

On casseroles, crumbs tossed with melted butter make a crackly topping that browns in the last stretch of baking. Cracker Barrel's Hashbrown Casserole with Corn Flakes finishes exactly this way, with a buttered corn flake crust over the potatoes.

In sweets they add crunch without baking. Corn Flake Cookies and butterscotch haystacks bind whole flakes in a melted sugar or chocolate mixture, and Apple Crisp (With Corn Flakes) scatters them through the streusel for extra snap.

For a glassy candy crunch on top of a dessert, leave the flakes whole and add them at the very end.

Getting the Crunch Right

The thing to respect about corn flakes is how fast they go soft.

They drink up moisture, which is the point in a casserole topping but the enemy everywhere it is not.

For the crispest breading, toss the crumbs with a little melted butter or oil before they go on. The fat helps them brown and crisp instead of merely drying out, and it deepens the toasty corn flavor.

Add a topping late, not early. Stir crumbs into a no-bake mixture and serve soon, or sprinkle a buttered crumb crust on only for the final 15 to 20 minutes so it browns but does not turn to paste.

The classic flop is a soggy crust. It happens when crumbs sit on a wet, steaming dish too long, so hold the topping until the filling is nearly set and the oven is doing the browning.

Season the crumbs. On their own corn flakes are bland, so salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder make the difference between a coating and a great one.

Substitutes

The job decides the swap. For a crisp breading, panko gives you the same airy crunch and browns just as well; crushed crackers or cornmeal work too, though cornmeal is grittier and less shattery.

For a buttered casserole topping, crushed Ritz crackers, panko, or crushed potato chips all brown into a similar lid. Each brings its own salt and fat, so taste before you add more butter.

In no-bake cookies and bars, other flake or puffed cereals stand in directly. Crisp rice cereal is the obvious one for that loud snap, and bran flakes or other crunchy cereals work when you want a different flavor. Use the same volume the recipe calls for.

Buying and Storing

Plain corn flakes are sold by the box almost everywhere. Read the label if it matters to you: some flakes are simply corn, salt, sugar, and malt, while frosted versions carry a heavy sugar coating that will sweeten and brown anything you bake them into.

Keep the box sealed and dry.

Corn flakes go stale and chewy by pulling humidity from the air, so once a box is open, roll the inner bag down tight or move the flakes to an airtight container.

A sealed box keeps for months up to its date; an open one is best within a few weeks before the crunch fades. If flakes have gone limp, spread them on a sheet pan and toast at 300°F (150°C) for a few minutes to bring back some crispness.

Crushed crumbs store fine in a sealed jar, so it is worth crushing a whole box at once and keeping the crumbs ready for breading and toppings.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 cup (1 NLEA serving) (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 100Calories from Fat 0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 0.0g 0%

Saturated Fat 0.0g 0%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 265mg 11%

Total Carbohydrate 24.3g 8%

Dietary Fiber 1g 5%

Sugars 1.8

Protein 1.9g

Vitamin A 15% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 0% • Iron 30%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find corn flakes: Corn flakes are usually found in the cereals section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Corn flakes are a member of the Breakfast Cereals US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 玉米片
British (UK) term: Corn flakes
en français: flocons de maïs
en español: copos de maíz

How much do corn flakes weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 cup (1 NLEA serving)	28 grams
1 box, single serving (.75 oz)	21 grams

Breakfast Cereals

All-bran cereal 36 Bran flakes cereal 78 Granola 39 Cereal 54 Crisp rice cereal 128 Corn flakes 109 Oatmeal 296 Grits 37 Grape nuts cereal 24 Oats, quick cooking 270

Recipes using corn flakes

There are 109 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Fried Ice Cream

Mexican restaurant-style fried ice cream with rock-hard ice cream balls coated in crushed cornflakes, dipped in beer batter, and flash-fried at 375°F until golden. Crisp shell, frozen center, the showstopper dessert.

Tuna-Casserole Supreme

Tuna Casserole Supreme is a quick and easy dish that combines pantry staples like canned soup, tuna for a comforting meal. It features a creamy, savory base with added crunch from water chestnuts and almonds, topped with cheese for a delightful texture contrast.

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