How To Make Elote (Mexican Street Corn)

Sweet corn is pretty hard to beat during the summer months. Whether it’s roasted in the oven or grilled on the cob, corn usually requires little more than a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. However, don’t let the season pass without making elote (a.k.a. Mexican street corn), a beautiful mess of crema, mayonnaise, and cotija cheese.

With just a few simple techniques, elote can become your ultimate grilled corn upgrade. Our step-by-step recipe shows you how to make this popular Mexican street snack at home, from husking to grilling to serving.

Elote (pronounced: eh-loh-teh) is a dish comprised of cooked sweet corn slathered in a spicy mixture of mayonnaise, crema, and chili powder, and then sprinkled with cheese.

It is often advertised as Mexican street corn because it’s a popular snack sold by vendors both on the streets and at festivals in Mexico.

The corn on the cob is cooked — boiled, roasted, or grilled— and served either on the cob or a stick. When buying fresh corn, choose ones with their husks intact, and see if you can pick up cobs with longer stalk ends to eliminate the need for sticks for serving.

The combination of cheese, mayo, and lime along with earthy spices like cumin and chili powder gives elote its flavorful punch of sweet, spicy, smoky, salty, savory, and acidic. You can find both crema and cotija cheese at your local Mexican market and well-stocked grocery stores.

• Cumin: A common spice used in Mexican, South American, and Middle Eastern cuisines. It’s used often in spiced blends to provide an earthy, slightly sweet base flavor. It’s often included in many chili powder blends. It’s readily available at any supermarket or spice store, and is sold ground or as whole seeds.
• Chili powder: Chili powders can be blends of different chilis, different spices, or single chilies that have been dried or ground. Any chili powder available at a supermarket will work well in this recipe, but don’t be afraid to experiment with Tajín Clásico, a habanero chili blend, or pequín chili for those who don’t shy away from heat, or ground ancho chili, for those who like it mild.
• Crema: Crema is a cultured dairy product similar to sour cream. On elote, crema works as the glue for adhering the spices and cheese onto grilled corn. While similar to crème fraîche and sour cream in terms of tang, crema is a bit thinner and sweeter than its tarter relatives. Look for crema Mexicana, which is typically the thickest crema variety sold, for the best sticking power.
• Cotija: Cotija is a mild, salty, crumbly cheese similar to feta. Outside of elote, cotija is delicious crumbled over salads, frittatas, and even quick pasta dishes.

If you’re having trouble locating either of these items, substitutions are easy to find.

• The best substitute for Mexican crema is sour cream or crème fraîche. Add 1 tablespoon of milk to 1/2 cup of either of these products to thin them to a similar consistency to crema. You need it to be thick but spreadable or, as is the case for this recipe, thin enough to submerge the corn cob into the crema and mayonnaise mixture.
• It’s worth the effort to find cotija when making elote, but if it’s not available, crumbled feta or finely grated Parmesan can be used in place of the cotija; you’ll still get the desired tangy, savory results that make this dish so popular.

Know the difference: What’s the Difference Between Sour Cream and Crème Fraîche?

Making and eating elote is a glorious mess. The roasted corn is usually slathered with the mayonnaise and crema, then rolled in the crumbled cheese. The result is a bit of the crema flying here and there as the corn is rolled.

A purely optional solution, but highly recommended method, is to combine the mayonnaise and crema with the spices and lime juice and pour them into a tall glass or narrow pitcher. Then the roasted corn can be dunked in the mixture before rolling in the cheese. One important note: The crema mixture will stick best to cooled cobs.

The flavors of elote inspire endless recipe variations including elote in a cup, which is great to serve as a passed appetizer. We also recommend slow cooker elote rice or elote-inspired butter bath corn, which are both wonderful options for a weeknight dinner.

• Elote in a cup: To make elote in a cup, remove the grilled kernels from the cob and divide the corn into individual serving cups, drizzle with the crema and mayonnaise mixture, top with cotija cheese, dust with a dash of chili powder, and put a lime wedge on the side. Put a fork in each cup and set it out for guests to grab as needed.
• Esquites: Elote prepared off the corn cob and served in a dish is called esquites. It’s a great alternative to the on-the-cob variety if you want to capture these flavors in an easy-to-make, pass-and-serve dish for a crowd.