Mexican Corn Salad
Published 6/21/2023
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This Mexican corn salad with a delicious queso fresco cream sauce is an amazing side dish or appetizer. Serve on tacos or as a dip with tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Our Go-To Mexican Corn Salad
This is our take on a Mexican corn salad, and we hope you love it as much as we do! It comes complete with a creamy queso fresco sauce and a rainbow of veggies. It’s amazing served atop walking tacos, as a cheesy dip with tortilla chips or as a stand-alone appetizer!
why you’ll love it
Make it hot or not: we’re recommending a few easy ingredient swaps if you don’t like the spicy flavors of cayenne and jalapeño. We’re also sharing a few ways to amp up the spice if that’s your jam 😀
Serve hot or cold: this Mexican corn salad is delicious served hot or cold. Pair it with tortilla chips and get dipping!
Quick appetizer: this Mexican corn salad comes together in under 30 minutes!
What is Mexican Corn Salad?
This recipe is our take on a Mexican corn salad that, of course, includes CHEESE. We’ve opted for queso fresco in a delicious cream sauce tossed with sautéed sweet corn, bell peppers, jalapeño, red onion, fresh cilantro and amazing spices.
Traditional Mexican corn salad is cooked and then tossed in mayo, sour cream, chili powder, lime juice and cheese. Sometimes it is served spicy and sometimes it is served mild.
Try it!
Homemade Queso Fresco
Have you always wanted to learn how to make queso fresco? Now is your chance! This queso fresco recipe is easy to make and a perfect addition to so many dishes!
Featured Ingredients
- Frozen sweet corn: you can’t have a corn salad without corn! We’re using frozen sweet corn and then sautéing it to caramelized perfection.
- Red bell pepper: red bell pepper adds beautiful color and crunch to this Mexican corn salad!
- Red onion: we love the flavor of red onion, but any onion will work.
- Jalapeño: like things hot? Don’t remove the seeds 😀 Like it a little more mild, de-seed the jalapeño or use green chiles instead.
- Fresh cilantro: we’re garnishing this Mexican corn salad with chopped fresh cilantro.
- Queso fresco cream sauce: we’re using a combination of queso fresco, Greek yogurt (or sour cream!), red wine vinegar and mayonnaise for the sauce. It’s seasoned with salsa verde, lime juice, salt and cayenne YUM 😀
try it!
Mexican Street Corn Casserole
You’ll love our Mexican street corn casserole! It’s baked all in one dish, and ready to serve in just an hour.
How to Make Mexican Corn Salad
Prepare the corn
Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium/high heat, and add avocado oil. When the avocado oil is fragrant and begins to sizzle, add the corn to the cast iron. Toss the corn with the oil and then let the corn sauté in the pan for 2-3 minutes before moving the corn around a bit in the pan.
Sprinkle the corn with taco seasoning and then let the corn sauté until the corn begins to caramelize and brown.
prepare the sauce
Mix together the Greek yogurt, mayo, red wine vinegar, salsa verde, lime juice, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir all the ingredients together until combined, and then add the queso fresco and stir to combine.
mix it all together
Add the red pepper, red onion, jalapeño, and fresh cilantro to the corn and toss all the ingredients together. Pour the Greek yogurt sauce over everything and fold together.
garnish & enjoy
Garnish with fresh cilantro, season with salt and pepper.
Serve warm or cover the salad and place it in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to serve cold. Enjoy!
Top Tips for Perfect Mexican Corn Salad
Browning the sweet corn: we love browning the sweet corn for this Mexican corn salad on high heat in a cast iron skillet because the skillet gets hot hot hot and retains heat really resulting in perfectly browned corn.
Make it SPICY: like things super spicy? Increase the amount of cayenne and keep some of the jalapeño seeds
Make it mild: don’t love a spicy corn salad? Eliminate the cayenne and replace the jalapeño with green chiles.
Storage
Store this Mexican corn salad in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in an airtight container. Garnish with additional fresh cilantro when serving leftover Mexican corn salad.
Mexican Corn Salad
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 6 cups frozen sweet corn
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 1 large red bell pepper, minced
- ½ large red onion, minced
- ½ medium jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 cup 2% Greek yogurt or sour cream
- ¼ cup mayonaisse
- 3 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons salsa verde
- Zest from one medium lime
- 3 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 5- oz. crumbled queso fresco
Instructions
- Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium/high heat. Add avocado oil.
- When the avocado oil is fragrant and begins to sizzle, add the corn to the cast iron.
- Toss the corn with the oil and then let the corn sauté in the pan for 2-3 minutes before moving the corn around a bit in the pan.
- Sprinkle the corn with taco seasoning and then let the corn sauté for another 3-4 minutes or until the corn begins to caramelize and brown.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the corn to a large bowl and set aside.
- Add the red pepper, red onion, jalapeno, and fresh cilantro to the corn and toss all the ingredients together.
- In a separate small bowl mix together the Greek yogurt, mayo, red wine vinegar, salsa verde, lime juice, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir all the ingredients together until combined.
- Add the queso fresco to the Greek yogurt mixture and stir to combine.
- Pour the Greek yogurt sauce over the corn and fold all of the ingredients together.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro, season with salt and pepper, if needed. Serve warm or cover the salad and place it in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to serve cold.
Tips & Notes
If you don’t do well with spice, leave out the cayenne pepper and/or the jalapeno pepper.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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