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….. 😂
This salad was delicious. There were only two of us eating so I tried to scale it down. (Two pieces of corn, etc.,) Wish I had not done that, because I wanted to eat this for breakfast. So, so good. I’m making this for our annual 4th of July party. I did add halved cherry tomatoes to the corn mix after it cooled down a bit. Thank you for a great recipe (as always). Making your chicken gyros tomorrow.
Oh my goodness this is delicious! Did it as a side with the bbq and it was so good, will definitely be making it again. Also easy to make it ahead of time and just construct it as needed.
Used the reduced amount of mayo, no jalapeño as didn’t have any but added the chipotle at the end on the top and it was great
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.
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
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
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!
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!
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.
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.
Can I cook this in a foil pan on the grill?
Made this for our boardgame lunch to go with burgers and roasted potatoes. It was fantastic. Now in the regular rotation. Thanks!!
I made this today to take to a luncheon. It was well received…, I love it!
Perfectly delicious, full of flavor. Made it for the first time for a Memorial day party and everyone loved it!
I didn’t have Cilantro and I substituted lemon juice for lime and a Serrano for the jalapeño because that’s what I had. I will say it is best warm right after cooking the corn, I made mine a day ahead but next time will make it the day of. Such a great use of fresh corn, easy and very yummy, thank you for the recipe!
This recipe is always a hit and always has people asking about it. Which is also how I got this recipe in the first place. Thank you!
Merci mille fois pour cette excellente recette, à refaire…très souvent !!!
Love this recipe, I make it every time I make the oven baked ribs. Best combo. Another tasty, simple recipe!
Made a double batch this time in the hope of having a bit for lunches over the following days. Nope! It’s amazing what my family can put away if the recipe is to their liking.
Amazing. The flavour is like no other. Always a favourite when I take to a bbq