This delicious elote salad turns Mexican street corn into a salad! It’s creamy, smoky, salty, and absolutely irresistible.

Our favorite summer side dish over here? Elote, aka Mexican grilled corn. The smoky sweet corn kernels slathered in an irresistibly sauce is the epitome of the season for us. So here’s another fabulous way to eat the same flavors: this Elote Corn Salad! It’s absolutely irresistible, pairing grilled corn with a tangy sauce and bursts of salty cheese. Don’t want to fire up the grill? There’s a shortcut method, too.

What is elote?

Elote, aka Mexican street corn, is grilled corn slathered in a creamy sauce of sour cream, mayonnaise, and chili powder, and sprinkled with cheese. It’s a popular snack served by street vendors in Mexico. Of course, it’s the very best on the street in Mexico or cities that have a strong Mexican heritage to their cuisine: there’s nothing like it!

This elote salad is a spin on the popular side dish that uses all the flavor of elote. But you’ll cut the corn kernels off the cob, making it into a free form corn salad. It’s essentially the same as esquites, a version of elote served in a cup by Mexican street vendors.

Ingredients in elote salad

This elote salad is easy to make: the only part that requires any sort of technique is cooking the corn. See the methods below! Otherwise, all you’ll need is:

• Corn on the cob (or frozen corn, see below)
• Green onion
• Cilantro
• Mayonnaise
• Lime juice
• Cotija cheese, queso fresco, or feta cheese
• Spices: Chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, and kosher salt

Find Cotija cheese or queso fresco (feta is a substitute!)

If you can, look for Cotija cheese for this recipe! It’s the traditional Mexican style of cheese that’s use in elote. Here’s a bit more about it and a few substitutes:

• Cotija cheese is a Mexican cow’s milk cheese: it’s white with a dry texture and a very salty flavor. You can buy it fresh or aged, but it’s usually easiest to find fresh at the grocery.
• Queso fresco means fresh cheese in Spanish and is another Mexican cow’s milk cheese. It works as a stand in for Cotija, but it’s much less salty. You may want to add a little salt to recipes if you use this substitute.
• Feta cheese is a Greek cheese that has a similar crumbly texture to Cotija, and it’s easy to find at the store. It’s similar in saltiness to Cotija as well.

5 ways to cook the corn

This elote salad is delicious no matter how you cook the corn! Mix mayo, lime, and spices into pretty much anything and it will taste delicious (really). Here are our top methods for cooking corn for this recipe:

• Grilled: Elote salad is at its best with grilled corn! Try this Perfect Grilled Corn.
• Roasted: Roasted corn is delicious and easy. Try Roasted Corn.
• Boiled: The standard way to cook corn? Boiled. Try Boiled Corn on the Cob.
• Sauteed: You can use fresh or frozen corn kernels for this recipe too! Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet, then add the corn kernels and cook 3 to 4 minutes until bright yellow and tender.
• Smoked: If you have a smoker, this is the way to go! Try Smoked Corn.

That’s it! We hope you love this elote salad recipe. It’s the perfect summer side dish for a grilled dinner! Let us know in the comments below what you think.

More corn salad recipes

There are so many more ways to make a corn salad! Once you’ve tried this elote salad, we recommend the following:

• Try this summery standby, the Classic Corn Salad
• Opt for Grilled Corn Salad, similar to elote salad but with more veggies
• Short on time? Here’s a 5-minute Black Bean and Corn Salad

01

Classic Corn Salad

02

Grilled Corn Salad

03

Quick Black Bean and Corn Salad

04

Perfect Grilled Corn

This elote corn salad recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

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