Best Cornmeal for Polenta

Let’s be honest, polenta is a pain. This cornmeal-based dish can take forever to simmer, with constant checking and stirring, unless you want it to be a ton of lumps. And what’s your reward for all that work? A delicious dish with a mild corn flavor that blends amazingly with butter and parmesan, or just about anything else you want to mix into it.  So, yeah, it’s definitely worth all the work. But it’s still a pain. 

If you’re going to put in all that work, you might as well use the best cornmeal for polenta. But what is the best cornmeal for polenta? There are so many cornmeal brands out there, with some labelled for polentas, while others aren’t. So, we cooked a range of different cornmeal brands into polenta, judging each on taste, texture, and ease of cooking. Here’s our picks of the best cornmeal for polenta you can find in stores and on Amazon.

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Best Corn Flavor

Colavita Instant Polenta Cornmeal

Walmart

Most polenta recipes are more about the other ingredients—typically heaps of butter and cheese—than the cornmeal itself. And it makes sense, since most cornmeals are fairly mild. But this one had the strongest corn taste of all the polentas I tried, with a rich and slightly sweet corn taste that really made for a tasty dish. And that corn flavor only got better after I fried up a slice of leftover polenta, which gave the whole thing a toasty, arepa-like taste. Texture-wise, it was fairly smooth, and blended easily into an even consistency. But if you’re a fan of corn, I’d check this one out.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Mild Corn Flavor

Roland Fine Grain Yellow Polenta

Amazon

On the opposite side of the “corn spectrum,” this cornmeal has a really light corn taste. Now, that taste is still good—I’m not complaining—but the mild flavor really lets the other ingredients stand out—even the mild parmesan cheese I was using. As for the texture, this one is a little coarser, and it creates a thick, dense polenta, which is really satisfying to slice up. Note: No matter how much I whisked, I still ended up with some lumps, but that might be more of a comment on my whisking skills than the cornmeal.

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best for Dense Polenta

Bob’s Red Mill Yellow Corn Polenta

iHerb

Sometimes you want a nice, thick polenta, especially if you’re looking to grill or toast it up after it’s initially cooked. (Personally, I like cutting it into rounds, then grilling it with a healthy topping of Mexican cheese blend.) And if that’s what you’re looking for, Bob’s Red Mill’s brand really holds together, creating a dense polenta, perfect for crisping up. It also delivers a rich, corn flavor.

Credit: Liv Averett / iHerb

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Creamy Polenta

P.A.N. Pre-Cooked Yellow Corn Meal

Walmart

What if you want a creamier, softer polenta? ThenP.A.N. is the best cornmeal for polenta. It’s a pre-cooked corn meal that gives you a smoother, softer polenta that has a similar consistency to grits. It’s a finer grain than most “polenta” corn meals, which means it doesn’t have the “bite” that you normally expect from the dish. In fact, P.A.N. doesn’t advertise itself as a polenta cornmeal, and it’s usually used for making corn dough, which you can fry up into dishes like arepas or empanadas. That said, you can definitely use it to make creamy polenta, which I found to be a great side dish. And since it’s precooked, you don’t have to let it simmer nearly as long as the other cornmeals. Although, you still have to do plenty of stirring to stop it from clumping up. 

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Albers Enriched & Degermed Yellow Corn Meal (Harina de Maíz)

Walmart

What makes this cornmeal the best cornmeal for polenta? Honestly, it’s a combination of several factors. It has a great, thick consistency, a rich corn flavor, and it blends well, without too many lumps. But, as you can tell from the ratings, this was a pretty tight race, and all of these polentas are really delicious. I just found this one slightly tastier than the rest.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Other polenta corn meals we tried: Kroger Yellow Cornmeal (Enriched & Degerminated)