Mexican Street Corn Recipe

A classic Mexican Side dish that’s perhaps even more tasty than the staple Chips, Salsa, and Guac combination is this delicious Mexican Street Corn dish. Sweet Corn is lightly fried in Butter and then served with a combination of Cheese, Cilantro, Lime Juice, Smoked Paprika, and Salt. The dish is simple to make, ready in just 10 minutes and tastes wonderful. It’s the perfect side dish to enjoy next time you’re cooking a Mexican Feast at home, or just whenever you feel like enjoying some delicious Corn for your next meal

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How to make Mexican Street Corn

Like so many Mexican dishes, this recipe is so easy to make. It requires very little prep time, and only about 4 – 5 minutes of cooking time in the frying pan. You can even make it in advance and re-heat it for later (just add the Cheese when you’re ready to eat). The key to making the best tasting Street Corn lies in the quality of the Corn

Corn is at its peak during the Summer months, leading into early Fall. You’ll notice Corn everywhere at your grocery store, with very competitive pricing (especially compared to other produce!). So, once the Corn starts showing up everywhere, you know it’s time to make this amazing dish!

Homemade Mexican Street Corn Recipe — This is a simple recipe to make the most delicious homemade Mexican Street Corn

The first step is to remove the Corn from the Husk. This is a very easy step. Just tear away and discard the outer leaves of the Corn. You can remove the Corn from the Husk by simply grabbing it at the end, twisting it, then pulling it away. You’ll have a bunch of those annoying fibrous strands hanging around too. Just gather them all up and throw them away too

To remove the Corn kernels, place the Corn upright and then cut them away with a sharp knife cutting down the length of the Corn. Don’t cut too deep, just enough to remove the kernels. I recommend doing this in a bowl as those pesky Corn kernels tend to want to bounce around everywhere!

Cooking the Corn

Once you’ve got your Corn, heat up a generous amount of Butter in the frying pan. Once it’s melted and started to slightly brown, add the Corn. Flatten the Corn out so it covers as much of the surface area of the pan as possible and leave it for about 3 minutes. This will help to caramelize it, giving it a wonderful golden-brown color and beautiful flavor

Then, stir it around for the remaining 1 – 2 minutes until it’s cooked through. You’ll notice that the Corn may start to ‘pop’. This is a good indication that it’s done. Once it starts popping, take it off the heat (as we’re not making Popcorn here!) and transfer the Corn to a bowl where we add the additional ingredients

Mexican Street Corn Toppings — The toppings in this recipe are key, with the flavor combination of Lime, Cilantro, Cheese, and Paprika bringing the Corn to life!

The toppings are just as important as the Corn in this dish

The toppings are what truly transforms this dish into classic Mexican Street Corn. It’s a very simple combination of ingredients, but the flavor they produce is so good! Into the bowl we add freshly chopped Cilantro, Smoked Paprika, Lime Juice, Lime Zest, and Cheese. The authentic Cheese to use is Mexican Cotija Cheese, which is a beautiful, crumbly Cheese that is perfect for Tacos and Corn

If you can’t get your hands on Cotija Cheese you can simply use a crumbly Feta Cheese and you’ll achieve a very similar result and flavor. Mix all these ingredients together and your Mexican Street Corn is now ready to serve!

For a nice presentation, reserve a little bit of Cheese and Cilantro for the topping

This is a totally optional step and makes no difference to the flavor. However, if you want to add a nice finishing touch to your Mexican Street Corn, save a little bit of the Cheese and Cilantro and sprinkle it over the top of the dish right before serving

The contrast of colors looks amazing on the plate, and it’s so inviting! Everyone will want to dive right in a get a big heaping spoonful of that wonderful Corn. The finishing touches are, of course, the Smoked Paprika, which adds even more vibrant colors to the dish

Mexican Street Corn for Tacos — There are loads of dishes you can pair with Mexican Street Corn. Tacos are naturally the perfect combination

What to enjoy with this delicious Corn Side Dish

What is so great about this dish is it is so easy to make that you’ve got plenty of time to make your favorite dinner to pair alongside it. There are so many great options for pairing with this dish, however my top recommendations would have to be Mexican dishes. Specifically, any Mexican dish where you can add the Corn to enhance the overall flavor

So, anything along the lines of Tacos, Burritos, Nachos, where adding Corn to the Tortilla along with some perfectly cooked protein is going to taste great. Mexican Street Corn goes amazing with Chicken, so our Pulled Mexican Chicken or Spicy Chicken Tacos are the perfect pairing

For Beef, why not try it alongside our amazing Flat Iron Steak Tacos. The combination of marinated Flat Iron Steak, a Spicy Chimichurri Sauce and Sweet Corn is a perfect combination of flavors. For something a little bit more unique you can even try our Duck and Mango Tacos. Mangoes, just like Corn, are at their peak during the Summer. So, you’ll be able to enjoy the best possible flavor from both of these ingredients when making this dish

Reheating Corn for serving — If you like, you can prepare this dish in advance. Simple re-heat it in the Microwave before serving, but avoid adding the Cheese until you’re ready to serve

Making the Corn in advance

If you make this dish in advance, we highly recommend serving it on the same day you made it. That’s ok, just make the Corn in the morning and then re-heat it once your’ delicious Mexican feast is ready! You can just nuke it in the Microwave to warm it back up and it’ll be good to go

If you plan on making the Corn in advance we do recommend not adding the Cheese until after you’ve re-heated it. This way it’ll be lovely, fresh, and crumbly when you add it to the Corn just before serving. I’d also suggest checking for seasoning, as you may want to add a little more Lime Juice

The dish will also freeze well, so you can batch cook a huge amount and simply portion it off into individual Ziploc bags and store it in your freezer. This is a great option to make the most of the Corn season. Get your hands on a load of Corn in Summer and batch cook enough to get you through the year!

However you choose to enjoy this amazing Mexican Street Corn dish, we just encourage you to give it a go. It’s so easy to make and the flavors are huge. It’s the perfect side dish to a great meal and we just know you’re going to love making it!

Recipe Details

Servings

2 – 4 people

Prep time

5 minutes

Cooking time

5 minutes

Total time

10 minutes