Mexican Street Corn Casserole
Published 6/21/2023
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This Mexican Street Corn Casserole is baked all in one dish, and ready to serve in just an hour! Enjoy this delicious vegetarian casserole the whole family will love.
A Fan Fave Vegetarian Casserole
If you’ve been around here awhile, you know we love a good casserole recipe. And this casserole is no exception! This Mexican street corn casserole is not only flavor-packed and deliciously cheesy, but it’s also a meatless meal that’s ready to enjoy in an hour. What’s not to love?!
why you’ll love it!
- Simple, easy dish to make.
- Perfect for meal prep.
- Kids love it!
How to Make Mexican Street Corn Casserole
- Preheat and Prepare: Preheat the oven to 375ºF and grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Then, add the corn, black beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, red onion, rice, chiles, jalapeños, cotija cheese, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, broth, heavy cream, greek yogurt, and hot sauce into the casserole dish.
- Mix and Bake: Mix everything together in your casserole dish, and then cover the casserole dish with tin foil and bake at 375ºF for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle Cheese: Remove the casserole from the oven, mix, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cotija cheese on top of the casserole, and place back in the oven uncovered for an additional 20 minutes.
- Make Cheese Sauce: While the casserole is baking add all of the ingredients for the cheese sauce into a bowl and mix it together.
- Let Rest and Serve: Remove the casserole from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then, serve this casserole with the cheese sauce on top.
Ingredient Swaps
Rice: Feel free to use minute/instant brown rice instead of minute/instant white rice. They both cook the same! We do NOT recommend normal white or brown rice for this casserole.
Corn: Feel free to swap out the frozen corn for fresh sweet corn or canned corn.
Cheese: This recipe calls for cotija cheese, but queso fresco will also work!
Heavy Cream: 2% milk will also work for this recipe if you prefer that.
Broth: We used chicken broth in this recipe, but if you prefer to keep this vegetarian, vegetable broth will also work just fine.
Let’s Talk Cheese Sauce!
This cheese sauce is the perfect topping to this casserole, and only requires a few basic ingredients:
- 2% Greek yogurt
- Cotija cheese
- Fresh lime juice
- Smoked paprika
- Fresh chopped cilantro
One important pro tip with this cheese sauce: we recommend keeping the cheese sauce separate from the casserole itself if you have leftovers. This will allow you to heat up the casserole and top with the cold cheese sauce for a delicious combination of temperatures.
try it!
Mexican Street Corn Salad
Love our Mexican street corn salad? Then you have to try our Mexican street corn salad! It’s absolutely delish.
Can You Freeze this Casserole?
You sure can! Follow these easy steps to ensure this casserole will reheat to perfection with no freezer burn.
- To freeze this Mexican street corn casserole, cook as directed but DO NOT add the cotija cheese topping or cheese sauce. Make sure to use a disposable casserole tin dish so you can place this right into the freezer once it’s cooled.
- Then, let the casserole cool completely.
- Cover casserole with a piece of plastic wrap, pressing it into the top of the casserole. Then, cover that with a piece of tin foil.
- Remove as much air as possible and then write the date on the top.
- Will last in the freezer for up to 3 months.
How to Reheat Street Corn Casserole
Let this Mexican street corn casserole thaw completely. Then preheat oven to 350ºF. Place the entire casserole back into the oven (in its casserole dish) and reheat for around until warm.
Add the cotija cheese for the last 15 minutes of the reheating process. Top with the cheese sauce once reheated, and enjoy!
Mexican Street Corn Casserole
Ingredients
- 20 oz. frozen corn, ~4 cups
- 1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15-oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
- 1.5 cups instant white rice
- 4 oz. green chiles
- 1 tablespoon canned minced jalapeños
- 1 cup cotija cheese, divided
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2.5 cups chicken broth, or vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, or 2% or whole milk
- 1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons hot sauce
Cotija Cheese Sauce
- 1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese
- 2 tablespoon lime juice
- 1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro, minced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF and grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
- Next, add the corn, black beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, red onion, rice, chiles, jalapeños, 1/2 cup cotija cheese, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, broth, heavy cream, greek yogurt, and hot sauce into the casserole dish. Mix well.
- Cover the casserole dish with tin foil and bake at 375ºF for 30 minutes.
- Remove the casserole from the oven, mix, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cotija cheese on top of the casserole, and place back in the oven uncovered for an additional 20 minutes.
- While the casserole is baking add all of the ingredients for the cheese sauce into a bowl and mix. Set aside.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Serve Mexican Street Corn Casserole with the cheese sauce.
Tips & Notes
- Cheese sauce: we recommend keeping this separate if you have leftovers so that you can heat up the casserole and top with the cold cheese sauce for a combination of temperatures.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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So delicious, wonderfully flavorful & filling. Highly recommend & will make again!
So glad you enjoyed, Brittani!
Is the cotija supposed to be the fresh or the aged type?
Hi! You can either get a block of cotija cheese and crumble your own or get the pre-crumbled kind in a bag! Either work.
I used a little too much broth, so it got a little runny, but flavor was great. Easy recipe!
This recipe was packed full of flavor! Loved it as a side or could be the main entree.
Great recipe! Easy ingredients and easy to put together but does take over an hour to prep & cook – but worth the wait! Next time we’ll add shredded chicken. Pro tip: when building the casserole put in the frozen corn LAST and premix before adding! Kernels will stick together and the dish does get very full!
Love that corn tip!!
Fantastic! If you have kids, you might want to dial back the spice a little bit but for those who like it a little spicy – YUM! All of the flavors work well together. For the cheese sauce, I ended up using half Greek yogurt, half sour cream because of my poor planning. Husband went back for seconds, which is major.
WINNING!! Glad you guys loved this!
This casserole was so flavorful! It has a bit of a kick but the cheese sauce on top helps to even out the heat. We ate it as a side dish with shredded chicken but it could be a great vegetarian meal on its own. I will definitely be making this again.
Oh I love the idea of mixing it with shredded chicken. GENIUS.