This Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad recipe (known in Spanish as Grilled Esquites) is the perfect barbecue side dish.
For more ideas of what to grill with it, check out all of our grilling recipes.
You. Guys. If you only make one recipe ever from Drugstore Divas, let it be this Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad recipe. I made it for a block party and everyone inhaled it. It was the hit of the party.
But the best compliment came from Pete who said, “I don’t even like Mexican street corn and I love this.”
It’s very similar to esquites, which is Mexican street corn served off from the cob and served in a cup. Traditional Mexican street corn is served on the cob.
Since this is plated and served as a family-style side dish, instead of a personalized one, I’m calling it a Mexican street corn salad rather than esquites. But put it in individualized cups, and that’s basically it.
Corn and jalapeños aren’t the only vegetables you can grill. For more ideas, check out all of our Vegetarian Grilling Recipes.
Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad With Tajin Recipe
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Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad With Tajin Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 ears of corn
- 1 jalapeño pepper
- 2.5 oz. queso fresco
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup green onions
- 1 lime
- 3 sprigs cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Tajin
How To Make Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad With Tajin:
Melt the butter.
Husk your corn.
Spread melted butter across one side of the corn on the cob and the jalapeño pepper. Put those sides directly on the grill. Grill for about four minutes.
Spread more melted butter on the the top of the corn and jalapeño pepper and flip them so the butter side is down.
Repeat this until you’ve grilled each of the four sides for about four minutes on each side.
Set them aside.
Shred the queso fresco.
In a bowl, mix together the garlic clove, sour cream, mayo, and green onions.
Squeeze half a lime over the bowl.
Add in 3/4 of the queso fresco and stir to make a dressing.
Cut the corn from the husk.
Cut off the stem of the jalapeno pepper. Cut off the blistered skin of the jalapeño and chop it finely.
Add one-quarter of the jalapeño to the corn.
Add in the dressing and stir until combined.
Taste the Mexican street corn salad now and see how hot it tastes. If it’s mild, keep adding quarters of the jalapeño until it tastes spicy. Grilling the jalapeño pepper makes it spicier, so you definitely want to keep tasting this before blindly adding the entire pepper — especially if you’re making this for a crowd.
Store it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Right before serving, chop the cilantro and stir it into the street corn salad along with half the Tajin and the salt.
Put the remaining queso fresco and Tajin on top. Cut the other half of the lime into four pieces to use as a garnish for serving.
Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad: Frequently Asked Questions
Grilled corn is not a requirement for Mexican Street Corn Salad. However, since this is a grilled version of the corn, grilling is a requirement to make this exact recipe.
If you don’t want to grill, or don’t have a grill, you can cook the corn in the oven or boil it on the stovetop, let it cool, and then continue the recipe as written.
You can use canned or frozen corn to make Mexican Corn Salad. If you wanted the extra flavor from grilling, drain or defrost the corn (depending on which you’re using) and add it to a pan on the grill with some butter. Cook until the corn is heated through, then continue the recipe as written.
Store leftover Mexican corn salad in an air tight container in the fridge. It’ll be good for about three to five days (if it lasts that long; ours is always gone before that).
You can serve leftover Mexican street corn salad cold, straight from the fridge, or you can reheat it in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds. If you reheat it, be sure to add a little bit
Elotes is Mexican street corn served on the cop. Esquites is Mexican street corn salad, served in a cup, off of the cob.
Traditionally, elotes are served warm while esquites can be served warm or cold.
Esquites is great warm or cold. Serving it cold means you’ve given it time to build more the flavors, but serving it warm gives it an extra pop of taste. Honestly, you can’t go wrong either way.
Queso fresco is very similar to grated parmesan in that it’s a mild, crumbly cheese. But queso fresco is more creamy and milky than parmesan. A grated parmesan gets lost in some dishes, but questo fresco holds its own.
Queso fresco is similar to Cotija, in that they’re both fresh crumbling cheeses. Cotija is drier and saltier than queso fresco. If you’re using Cotija rather than queso fresco in this recipe, you may want to omit the salt in the ingredients.
What to serve with Grilled Esquites?
Grilled Esquites is the perfect barbecue side dish. Since you’re already using the grill for the main dishes, you might as well grill your sides too. So we definitely suggest serving it with grilled main courses. But, it’s Mexican and goes well with Mexican main dishes as well. Below, we have a few suggestions for both:
Grilled foods to serve with esquites:
- Grilled Beer Can Chicken
- Bacon-Infused Beef Burgers With Fresh Ground Beef
- Yakitori (Grilled Chicken Skewers)
Mexican foods to serve with esquites:
More Recipes Using Tajin:
If you have any leftover Tajin after making this, you can use it in our Deviled Eggs with Tajin recipe. You can also try our Mexican Corn And Zucchini Salad or our Mexican Street Corn Grilled Zucchini recipe.
Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad
This Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad recipe (known in Spanish as Grilled Esquites) is the perfect barbecue side dish.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 ears of corn
- 1 jalapeño pepper
- 2.5 oz. queso fresco
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup green onions
- 1 lime
- 3 sprigs cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Tajin
Instructions
- Melt the butter.
- Husk your corn.
- Spread melted butter across one side of the corn on the cob and the jalapeño pepper. Put those sides directly on the grill. Grill for about four minutes.
- Spread more melted butter on the the top of the corn and jalapeño pepper and flip them so the butter side is down. Repeat this until you’ve grilled each of the four sides for about four minutes on each side. Set them aside.
- Shred the queso fresco.
- In a bowl, mix together the garlic clove, sour cream, mayo, and green onions.
- Squeeze half a lime over the bowl.
- Add in 3/4 of the queso fresco and stir to make a dressing.
- Cut the corn from the husk.
- Cut off the stem of the jalapeno pepper. Cut off the blistered skin of the jalapeño and chop it finely. Add one-quarter of the jalapeño to the corn.
- Add in the dressing and stir until combined.
- Store it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
- Right before serving, chop the cilantro and stir it into the street corn salad along with half the Tajin and the salt.
- Put the remaining queso fresco and Tajin on top. Cut the other half of the lime into four pieces to use as a garnish for serving.
Notes
Grilling the jalapeño pepper makes it spicier, so you definitely want to keep tasting this before blindly adding the entire pepper.
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 89Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 12mgSodium 172mgCarbohydrates 8gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 3g
Have you tried to make this Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad recipe? Let us know what you think in the comments.