This Mexican Street Corn Salad is an easy side dish only takes a few minutes to put together with frozen corn, Cotija Cheese, lime juice, and jalapeño peppers.
When you use the delicious Mexican cheese mixed with simple ingredients, you can get a delicious salad recipe that is perfect to serve on hot summer days for your summer potlucks. You can serve this great side dish with tacos or burrito bowls. Mexican street corn salad is the perfect balance of savory flavors mixed into a creamy lime dressing.
Recipe Ingredients Notes
To make this Mexican street corn salad, you need the following ingredients:
- Olive Oil
- Frozen Corn
- Mayonnaise
- Cotija Cheese Crumbled: Feta Cheese also works as a substitute.
- Lime Juice
- Jalapeno Peppers
- Fresh cilantro
- Red Onion
- Garlic
- Chili Powder
- Salt and Pepper
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Mexican Corn Salad Recipe
- Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add frozen corn and let cook until corn starts to char, stirring occasionally (it took about 7-8 minutes before my corn was lightly charred).
- While the corn is cooking, mix together mayonnaise, cheese, lime juice, jalapeno, cilantro, red onion, garlic, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. When corn is done, gently fold it in with other ingredients.
- Serve immediately and store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
Recipe Tips
- You can use whatever type of corn for this salad recipe, including frozen, canned, or fresh. Either way, you will get the most delicious elote salad. You can even use ears of corn cooked on an outdoor grill or fire-roasted corn for a smoky flavor.
- You can also customize this recipe with the following toppings or add-ins: black beans, lime zest or fresh lime juice, chopped red bell pepper, hot sauce, sour cream, green onions, or cayenne pepper.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mexican street corn is an actual authentic dish from Mexico. They take corn and rub a creamy mayo mixture on it. It is usually found being sold on the side of the street, in small shops or carts – hence the name Mexican Street Corn.
I personally could not find the salty cotija cheese at the store the other day when I was making this recipe, so I replaced it with feta cheese, another type of crumbly cheese. You could also use goat cheese if you don’t like cotija or feta.
If you don’t like any of those options, you could also use strained cottage cheese, or simply omit the cheese altogether.
You can serve the salad either way. Our personal preference is to serve it warm. When we serve it as a dip with tortilla chips, we tend to let it cool down. When we serve it for dinner, we serve it immediately after mixing it together so it is still warm.
Storage Instructions
Fridge: Store any leftovers of this classic Mexican street corn in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 5 days. This is not a recipe I would suggest freezing.
Enjoy More Delicious Side Salad Recipes
Want to add more veggies to your meals? Browse our comprehensive list of salad recipes.
- Cucumber Dill Salad
- Deviled Egg Potato Salad
- Loaded Egg Salad
- Mom’s Easy Potato Salad
- Red Potato Salad
Mexican Street Corn Salad
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- 16 ounces frozen corn, 1 bag
- 3 Tablespoon mayonnaise, (I used light)
- 4 ounces Cotija Cheese, crumbled, (could also use feta cheese)
- 2 Tablespoon lime juice, (fresh is best)
- 1 Tablespoon jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoon red onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil over medium heat. Add frozen corn and let cook until corn starts to char, stirring occasionally (it took about 7-8 minutes before my corn was lightly charred).
- While the corn is cooking, mix together mayonnaise, cheese, lime juice, jalapeno, cilantro, red onion, garlic, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. When corn is done, gently fold it in with other ingredients.
- Serve immediately and store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Video
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I am obsessed with roasted corn and this salad looks so amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Hi. My name is Ashton and I?m addicted to eating corn. And Mexican food. Which means I need this in my life, like, NOW! Pinned 🙂
A great way to use one of the best things about summer…CORN!
This sounds really good, but I really dislike mayonnaise. Do you think plain greek yogurt would work for this?
Thank you!
You could add greek yogurt instead, but the taste would be altered.
Is this served warm, cold or room temp? I’d like to bring it to a picnic.
Thank you,
Peggy
Could you use canned corn? And how about when you serve it, could it be warm or cold? We are camping this weekend, and I wanted to try this salad. Thanks!!
I needed a change from the same old sides. Made this tonight and it’s now my absolute favourite!!!!
You can use canned corn and it can be served hot or cold!!
I had some extra corn on the cob so I looked on Pinterest for a corn salad recipe and came across your recipe. I roasted my corn on my gas grill. I did not have any Mexican cheese or Feta in my frig so I used grated parmesan. I also just eyeballed the ingredients which was easy to do. I will definitely make this salad again. Thank you!
instead of feta as a substitute, I would use grated Parmesan. Cotija has a sharp taste much like parm or asiago. there is a mexican restaurant n tucson that makes a street corn salad much like this. 🙂
THIS. IS. AMAZING! I also substituted Parmesan instead of Cotija. Soooooo YUMMY!
Awesome recipe!! I won a contest with it. It’s so easy and sooooo good. Have patience pan roasting your corn. Well worth it. I use thawed frozen corn and it was perfect. This is not just a summer dish. Try it with taco seasoning in place of chili powder. YUM!!
I was wondering if you have the nutrition information for this recipe? I track my food intake daily on MyFitnessPal, and need the info for the recipe so I can enter it in the app…any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Ok – so I see this is an older recipe but I had to comment. I LOVED IT!! I left out the jalapeno and used feta. I ate a few bites warm and a bunch chilled with lunch and now it’s in my fridge…. shhhh, can you hear that? It’s calling to me. Mmmm! Thanks for the recipe!
I made this over the weekend. This has to be absolutely the best thing I ever ate!! I will DEFINITELY be making it again! I added chopped avocado on top — delicious!
Amazing! Just finished making this and I had to stop myself from inhailing it all. I used a mixture of the feta and parm cheese and it was yummy! Easiest and most delicious thing I’ve made from pinterst in a long time.
My family went nuts over this! I am making it tonight for the THIRD time this week!! Thank you!
My family and I enjoyed this for dinner tonight! We made it with Parmesan and served it warm, and it was so great that we are thinking of excuses to make it again. Thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
This is an instant family favourite. Full of flavour and delicious. I used feta and it worked a treat!
I just took a bite of this hot off the stove, and it was sooo good! And that was without cheese – trying not to have dairy – so I can even imagine how much better it is with cheese! My changes: 2 jalapeno peppers, quarter of a sweet onion, juice from 1 lime, and only 1/4t chipotle chili powder (it’s got kick to it).
I can’t eat cheese right now. Should I wait to make this or try it without the cheesy creamy goodness?
I would wait to make this when you can follow the recipe as written and enjoy all the ingredients.
Tried this recipe yesterday and packed it to hubbs for lunch. He loved it and so did I. Absolute keeper.
I have made this salad but I call mine deluxe as i add
one can black beans drained and rinsed, two small zucchini with seeds removed and cut small. Green pepper and used 1/2 again the lime juice and the hot peppers. everything I added was cut to a size close to the corn size but the hot peppers were even smaller, very small. I let it sit overnight and added more sea salt and pepper to taste. I was so amazed how great this went over. The guests used it as a dip and also as a side dish and than went back for the rest. instead of mayo I used a salad dressing. It is a little sharper a flavor.
Once corn comes into season, I am going to put a hurting on this recipe! This is SO YUMMY! It was good with the frozen corn, but I bet it will be amazing when fresh corn is in peak season.
I made the following substitutions based on the time when I lived in TX, and I had street corn there: Mexican Crema for the mayo (most grocery stores have this in either the cold section of the Mexican aisle, or by the cheese), roasted the jalapeno on my gas stove then put in a container for about 15 minutes to soften – roasting mellows the jalapeno a bit. I like things spicy, so I added the whole jalapeno, but removed the seeds. Keeper definitely….perfect different side dish for our Taco Tuesdays! Hubby actually put it ON his tacos, and he loved it!
This salad is so good. I had to make a double batch 2 days in a row since it went so fast the first day. You would think it would be really spicy but it has just the right amount of heat. So good. Thanks for posting this recipe.
This was one of the most incredible salads I’ve ever eaten. Thank you SOOO much for sharing the recipe.
I LOVE THIS RECIPE!! I have made this about once a month for the last 6 months, maybe more! It is my new comfort food! I never stray from the recipe. I have made it with the Cotija and I have made it with the feta cheese. I prefer the feta.
Thanks for sharing!
So good, my wife and I are obsessed with this recipe and make it about twice a month cause we can never get enough of it. We even double the recipe so that we can eat off it for a couple of days.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Just like other Mexican food such as Mexican sandwiches and Mexican rolls, I think this Mexican Street corn salad will also be delicious. I will make this salad this weekend. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I adapted your recipe last week. Thank you so much for posting this, mine came out so good! I love Mexican street corn!
Hi there! I made this and it was DELICIOUS! I am trying to Pin it to be sure that I have the recipe to make again, but every time I try to do so Pinterest tells me that it cannot fetch the image….any idea why this is happening? Thank you for your help!
We switched servers and are still trying to work out a few bugs. One of those being the Pin It button. Hopefully fixed soon. Thanks for your patience.
Cojita =/= feta.
You could use queso fresco if you don’t like or can’t find Cojita, but feta is not a good sub for Mexican smelly foot cheese.
A sprinkle us all you need of Cojita to get the savory essence in there.
This looks delicious! Do you use fresh jalapenos or pickled?
You could use whatever you like. We used the canned jalapenos.
Hello: Could you not use roasted frozen corn – i.e. frozen corn that has already been roasted – in order to skip the cooking process? Just curious.
I bet you could substitute Ranch dressing here, and it would compliment the dish just fine.
I imagine you could also use Ranch dressing as substitute in this dish. Should compliment the flavors just fine.
Wow! This is an absolutely awesome side dish. I was looking for something different to go with the pork street tacos we were having for dinner tonight. My family LOVED it. I used Queso Fresco instead of Cotija. Definitely a “keeper”!
No one in my family has made corn for Thanksgiving in years so I will be making this x5! I hope this recipe multiplies well. It’ll also be my first time making it! No Pressure!
I know this was posted a while ago, but can this be made the night before and serves next day?
You could make it the night before and serve the next day. That’s how we eat the leftovers. You could also char the corn the night before and put in an airtight container in the fridge. Then the next day the prep would be minimal. Just mixing the other ingredients together and then mix in with the corn. We hope this helps!
Is this best served warm or cold?
You can serve it immediately after preparing it and then it’s warm. It’s also delicious at room temperature.
I just discovered this recipe. It is amazing. Made it just as written, definitely my new go to salad for the summer!
How much does this recipe yield?
It serve 6 people.
Hello, I also have the question of whether or not you could use frozen grilled corn like can be found at Trader Joe’s and just thaw it. Thanks!
Melanie
The frozen grilled corn at Trader Joe’s would be amazing in this recipe!
You could use Miracle Whip Salad Dressing. I always substitute Mayo with it.
Was wondering if you could cook this dish in the crock pot?
You could keep it warm in the crock pot or slow cooker. But you would not be able to charr your corn in a slow cooker.
I’ve been making this for years. I also make it like a dressing and cover our corn on the cob with it and sprinkle with the cheese before eating. Delish.
Can you share your recipe you won with ?
Do you Charr the frozen corn or do you defrost it first?
Heat oil over medium heat. Add frozen corn and let cook until corn starts to char, stirring occasionally (it took about 7-8 minutes before my corn was lightly charred).
I used Queso Fresco as well & used green pepper instead of jalapeños (we don’t like them). It was amazing! Took this cold to a party & used as a chip dip & it got rave reviews!
I didn’t see in the directions where it said to add the jalapeño?
Thanks so much for catching that! We fixed the recipe.
What do you think about using queso fresco instead of the other cheese you suggested. I’m not a fan of Feta. Can’t wait to try this with your chicken flautas recipe
Queso Fresco is a great substitute for Feta cheese.
Do you use mayonnaise or miracle whip?
Super yummy and easy to throw together! Everyone in the family loved it. Next time I’ll soak my red onions in water for 15 minutes to cut back on their flavor, they were just a little too strong! I’ll totally be making this again though!
Just made this for lunch! So yummy! Can’t wait to make it again with some fajitas!
I made this with feta cheese and put it on top of my shrimp tacos. It was amazing!
I see the serving is 6. What is the size per serving?
It’s around 1/2 cup.
I have made this recipe SOOOOOOO many times, it is past time I left a review. This is my go-to potluck dish and it is always a hit. Lots of people will tell you they like a dish, but the absolute most genuine compliment is when people ASK for the recipe! Everyone always asks for this one and I am always happy to share the link. I actually prefer it with feta versus cotija cheese (even though I love cotija). Thank you so much for this recipe!
Thanks Lauren! You just made our whole week! So glad you love the Mexican Street Corn Salad.
Do you add small amount of sour cream also?
We just follow what’s in the recipe.
This was excellent, and very easy to make. My family loved it!
Hi Helen – Thank you so much for pointing out that error! It was a mistake in the description. The correct recipe does not include those ingredients. We have updated the post to reflect that. Thanks again!
I can’t eat corn!😕 Can it be left out or what would be a good substitute? I know that sounds crazy. But corn causes me digestive issues.
That’s tough one since the corn is the star of this recipe and it’s designed around it, You could play with adding beans or chickpeas perhaps. Keep us posted!
Great recipe! Next time, though, I will leave off the garlic – it was very strong. I also used feta as cotija cheese isn’t available at my grocery store. Also very strong flavor and took away from the street corn taste. Next time, I think I’ll just use grated Parmesan? Loves the flavor charring the corn brought.
We had it cold as a side to tacos and leftovers went into burritos . Delicious
absolutely delicious!!!
This recipe is delicious. But, unless prep time doesn’t include chopping finely and dicing, the prep time is way off. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth it, but prep time exceeds 20 minutes, at least it did for me.
This is my son’s favorite new side dish, and he asks me to make it often. I follow the recipe exactly as written, and it is perfect every time.
This was so delicious. Where has this recipe been all my life lol I couldn’t find Cotija Cheese so I used mexican panela cheese that I crumbled and I used more chili powder. Will definitely make again.