Mexican Corn Salad is a wonderful fresh corn salad made for summer BBQ’s and Mexican feasts! It’s a giant salad form of Esquites, a corn street snack sold in cups on the streets of Mexico. Corn kernels are sautéed in butter and garlic until golden brown, then dressed in a creamy lime dressing and finished fresh coriander/cilantro and a hint of zing from Jalapeño. It’s outrageously and insanely good!
Mexican Corn Salad
This recipe generated a tizzy of excitement among my group of friends when I first started making it a few years back! Something a little different to the usual steamed-butter-slathered corn on the cob (and there is nothing wrong with that!!), it’s bright and colourful, and it’s a brilliant dish for sharing.
Mexican Corn Salad is essentially the giant salad form of Esquites which is a popular Mexican Street corn that is sold in cups by street vendors. And in fact, Esquites is the “off the cob” version of Elotes, the famous Mexican Street corn where cobs are grilled over charcoal before being slathered in a creamy-spicy sauce then rolled in crumbled cheese!
What goes in Mexican Corn Salad
Here’s what you need to make this corn salad:
The creamy dressing for Mexican Corn Salad
The dressing is a creamy mayonnaise based dressing with a lovely tang from lime juice and a savoury flavour boost from parmesan (this is the secret ingredient that gives this dish the wow factor!!).
You’ll find many versions use a lot more mayonnaise than I do. I prefer to use a mix of mayonnaise and sour cream to lighten it up a touch whilst still have a good amount of creamy dressing. This way we get the best of both worlds – lots of dressing but not overly rich! I use this for most of my mayo-based dressings, such as Coleslaw, Macaroni Salad, Broccoli Salad.
Fresh corn vs canned and frozen corn
This recipe will work with any type of corn BUT it is definitely best made with fresh corn because it browns the best when you sauté it in the butter and garlic.
How to cut corn off the cob
Here’s a tip for an easy way to cut corn kernels off the cob without the kernels flying everywhere! Just place an inverted ramekin in a large bowl OR use a bundt pan. Stand the corn cob on the ramekin then use a knife to cut the kernels off. The walls of the bowl / bundt pan will stop the kernels flying all over your counter!
How to make Mexican Corn Salad
This recipe starts off by pan frying the corn in butter and garlic until it’s tinged with gold, at which point you will need to summon the strength to not shovel spoonfuls of it straight into your mouth because golden brown buttery corn? YES!!!
But WAIT! It gets even better! While the corn is hot, add in the parmesan, mayonnaise, sour cream and lime and give it a good mix so the dressing melts and mingles with the butter on the corn and coats every kernel beautifully…
And lastly, we give it a hit of freshness with onion and coriander/cilantro, and jalapeño if you want a touch of heat, and finish with a sprinkle of Cotija (Mexican cheese like feta) if you happen to be fortunate enough to get your hands on it (which I am not) or feta, parmesan or goats cheese as a fallback.
Serve this as a side dish for all things Mexican. Take it to summer BBQ’s, potlucks, casual lunches, a side dish for dinner tonight.
Just find any excuse to make it! Because honestly, to say my friends love this corn salad is an understatement. Whenever it makes an appearance, we’re in a situation where you have to eat fast, or miss out.
Literally. You snooze, you lose.
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Mexican Corn Salad
Ingredients
- 5 cups corn cut from the cob (~4 large ears) (or frozen corn, not thawed, Note 1)
- 2 tbsp / 30g butter
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise (can cut down to 2 tbsp)
- 1/4 cup sour cream (or yoghurt)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese , finely grated (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp Jalapeno , deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
- 1 cup coriander / cilantro leaves , roughly chopped
- 1 cup green onion , finely sliced (~2 stems)
- 1/2 red onion , finely chopped
- 2 – 3 tbsp lime juice , fresh (plus more to taste)
Garnishes
- 60g / 2 oz Cotija or Feta , crumbled (optional) (Note 2)
- Jalapeno slices, coriander/cilantro leaves, lime wedges , optional
Instructions
- Cut off kernels: Cut the corn off the cob (see photo in post or video for how I do this without getting corn everywhere!) If using frozen, do not thaw.
- Brown corn: Melt butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and stir for 10 seconds. Add corn and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every now and then, until you get lovely golden brown bits and the corn is cooked and sweet (don't stir constantly, harder to brown).
- Season corn: Add salt and pepper halfway through cooking corn.
- Toss with dressing: Transfer corn into large bowl. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice and parmesan. Toss well to combine – heat will "melt" dressing. Add coriander/cilantro, red onion, green onion and jalaepno. Toss again.
- Serve: Transfer to serving bowl. Crumble over cotija/feta and garnishes of choice. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published March 2017. Updated with new video and photos!
Life of Dozer
Keeping this from the original publication date because it’s an adorable photo of him!
Whenever I take a photo of Dozer running, all I can think is that there’s a lot of flapping. Ears, giant tongue, mouth flap, that feathered tail.
I know how he feels. I have quite a bit of flappage when I run too….. 😂
I added a bit of paprika and chilli powder as I’m not a fan of coriander and I’m trying to cut out salt. Very delicious. My corn stuck a bit in the bottom of the pan. How frequent is the ‘now and again’ stirring? I was stirring after every minute.
Coriander is dried cilantro….
Yes, I know. I don’t like the flavour. It tastes like soap to me.
This salad is so delicious and my non salad eating partner adored it and has requested it again (and took the leftovers into work for his lunch the next day. 10/10 Nagi 🫶🏼
This was on our menu on Christmas Day! So light, fresh and zesty. I made the dressing and salad in advance and just fried the corn and added it all together on the day
I have made variations on Mexican Street Corn and this one is by far the best. Hope it lasts until the guests arrive🤦🏻
Wow, I’ve just made this salad and it is beyond awesome. I had to use frozen corn but managed to get the charred flavour. It’s so quick and easy to make, and will be gracing the dinner table on Christmas Day!
This is ridiculously good.
Great easy tasty salad. Will definitely make this again
Is there a way to make this Mayo free? My son has severe egg allergy. Thanks
This was absolutely delicious! I added pasta to this to bulk it out for my husband and he just loved it. If you add pasta to it, you can have this as a meal itself and we served it with roasted vegetables on the side. Thank you Nagi!
This is a fabulous dish! I made it on a whim tonight because I was planning on making your nachos for a fun dinner tomorrow, and I hadn’t read the recipe all the way through (🤦🏼♀️) thinking this was a make-ahead side dish.
So the good news is we enjoyed it tonight with leftovers for dinner – & even though it was not even slightly Mexican fare, it was gobbled up!
My husband doesn’t like cilantro so I pulled a couple scoops out for him separately before I threw the cilantro in, and I topped mine with Tajin, a seasoning that we have here in the US (not sure if you have it in Australia?), which is a chili lime salt seasoning, and it was perfection sprinkled over the top! Will be making this again soon!
This is soooooo gooood!! Made this for my dinner tonight with fresh ingredients from a local garden market. I had a hard time stopping myself from eating the whole thing in one go! LOL!!
For those of you who live in the United States and are near a Trader Joe’s, there’s a shortcut for steps 1 & 2. TJ’s has a product called Roasted Corn. It’s frozen, already browned corn kernels that should work just fine!
Yes! I used the TJ roasted corn. So easy and delicious!
How long is this recipe? Good for. Can you make it ahead of time?
Nagi, please adjust the fresh corn amount! I bought 4-large ears, & it barely made 2-cups.
Anyone making this take note: you will need much more than 4-large ears, to make 5-cups of corn.
I was bringing this to a BBQ, and my husband had to run back out to the store to get a lot more corn.
The flavor is terrific, once the amount of corn is correct.
Agree with Renee! This salad is fantastic, and I make it fairly regularly, but I always buy at least 7 corn cobs for it (and even then I sometimes have to reduce the size of the recipe). I’m in WA – maybe we have smaller corn here??
I used 4 corn ears and it made pretty much the correct amount.
Carbonara was delicious. So much better than with cream!
Would this recipe reallt suffer if I left out the cheese and sourcream (and home-made the mayo..)? We’re dairy intolerant, and also can’t have any seed oils (which rules out shop-bought mayo). This recipe looks great, but we can’t have the dairy!
I made this recipe for a group of ladies who went back for seconds .. It was delicious they all voted. I followed the instuctions with the fresh corn,mayo,sour cream & parm, then used what I had on hand… Sauteed in the butter.. a little onion a small amount of red pepper & then the corn, I used dill as my fresh herb.
Cooked as served hot.
You really need to try this recipe.
This is, by far, the best corn salad I have ever had! I make this for every Mexican Fiesta that we have in our home! And I always make and take this to friends when we catch up.
I haven’t cooked this yet but I’m about to. It will need to travel about an hour so I was wondering if it gets soupy after time or is dressing thick enough to prevent this? Sounds amazing ☺
Can I cook this in a foil pan on the grill?
Oh my word! You weren’t kidding that this is spectacular! I’ve had to be very firm with myself- no more sampling before company gets here! I’ve made a ham dinner and this is on the table- it’s truly splendid! Thanks!