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Our Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad has all of the flavors I love from Mexican street corn tucked inside a simple macaroni salad! Charred corn, queso fresco, chili powder, and sour cream make this Mexican pasta salad a must for any summer meal.
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I am utterly obsessed with Mexican flavors, but the truth is that I live in the middle of America and only get to visit Mexico on vacation every few years.
Most of our Mexican recipes are truly just inspired by the Mexican flavors that we find at the local restaurants. We’re not creating the most authentic foods, but let me tell ya…they are darn tasty. (Our easy Mexican rice and easy refried beans are a major fav!)
What is Mexican Street Corn?
Mexican street corn is a simple, flavorful side dish that is also called Elotes. It’s made of grilled corn on the cob, coated in either mayonnaise or sour cream, spiced up with a little chili powder, and rolled in cheese. It’s to die for.
We’ve shared our recipe for Air Fryer Street Corn and Esquites before. (Esquites is street corn that’s been cut off the cob and is eaten with a fork or spoon.)
I took all of those flavors and turned it into an elote pasta salad. Is this something you’d find in Mexico? Literally no idea, but my guess is no. Does that mean it’s not utterly delicious? No way…this stuff is AMAZING. 🙂 We love fusion foods and this elotes pasta salad recipe is a winner!
What We Love About This Mexican STREET CORN PASTA SALAD Recipe:
- Flavors: The fusion of Mexican street corn with pasta is a tasty one that you’ll love! There is a lot going on in this dish and it isn’t short on flavor at all with the spices, cheese and dressing too.
- Textures: Crunchy charred corn, crumbly queso fresco, diced jalapeno, and tender macaroni noodles is a satisfying combination of both textures and flavors!
- Versatile: This dish goes great with tacos (try our carnitas!) or with a burger (like this chicken burger). Don’t limit this dish to nights when you’re serving up Mexican food. It’s great with anything off the grill.
Mexican Pasta Salad Dressing:
You’re probably wondering what kind of a dressing you would use for a street corn pasta salad and the answer is pretty simple.
Street corn recipes already make good use of creamy mayo and sour cream so that’s exactly what we’ll be using for the pasta salad dressing.
Add to that some freshly squeezed lime juice for a little zip, diced jalapenos, and seasoning. It’s simple, creamy, and just a bit spicy!
Ingredient Notes:
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Pasta – This Mexican macaroni salad starts with, you guessed it, macaroni! Any brand is fine, or use a different shaped pasta if you have a preference. Farfalle, rotini, and shells would all work well.
Corn – It’s hard to beat fresh sweet corn when making a cold summer salad recipe. You’ll char it first for extra flavor before cutting it and adding it to the salad! You could also use frozen corn here, but we love the flavor of fresh.
Pasta Salad Dressing – A creamy mix of mayo, sour cream, diced jalapenos, and seasoning add zippy, bright flavors to this salad.
Lime Juice – To finish off the dressing and add some more Mexican flavors you’ll add some freshly squeezed lime juice!
Queso Fresco – Get yourself some crumbled queso fresco cheese to add to this Mexican street corn salad. Cotija also works well.
Cilantro – Just about all of my favorite Mexican recipes include cilantro, and this one is no exception! You’ll add it in with the crumbled cheese. Hate cilantro? Swap in parsley.
What Readers are Saying!
“I made this today for a family Mexican fiesta dinner. Everyone loved it! Great flavors and easy to make! Thank you!” – Tammy
How to Make Mexican Street Corn Salad:
Char: You’ll start this summer corn salad with some fresh corn on the cob! You can either grill the corn or pop it in a hot skillet and char the corn. You can do this with frozen corn as well, though it does take a bit longer.
Cut: Once the corn is cooked how you’d like, just use a sharp knife or corn peeler to cut the kernels off the cob.
Combine: Add the charred corn to a bowl of cooked macaroni, minced jalapeno, mayonnaise, sour cream, chili powder, cumin, salt, and lime juice.
Citrus Juicer
Freshly squeezed lime and lemon juice is useful in lots of recipes, and this tool makes it easy and mess free.
Chill & Serve: After mixing the Mexican corn salad together you can pop it in the fridge for a couple of hours. When the cold macaroni salad is ready give it a quick stir and then toss in some cilantro and crumbled queso fresco.
Stir it up again, taste, and add more seasoning if needed. I usually give it another squirt of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt.
That’s it! Your Mexican street corn pasta salad is done and ready to serve!
What To Serve With Mexican Pasta Salad:
- Chili’s Salsa Recipe: Look, it’s the best salsa out there. Don’t deny it.
- Crockpot Chicken Tacos: I make these allllll the time. They’re perfectly seasoned.
- Mexican Cheese Dip: No Velveeta in this one!
- Crockpot Chicken Fajitas: So easy and always a hit!
- Fajita Burgers: Who doesn’t love a good burger recipe?
FAQs:
You can keep this Mexican corn salad covered in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 to 4 days! I would not recommend freezing it.
Yes, this recipe works well with frozen corn. Add about 2 cups of frozen corn to the hot skillet and cook until there are browned and blackened bits throughout.
There are diced jalapenos but we don’t think it is overly spicy. If you want a spicy Mexican pasta salad recipe you could either swap the jalapeno for chipotle peppers or just add some ground cayenne pepper!
MORE COLD SUMMER SALAD RECIPES!
- Baked Loaded Potato Salad
- Chicken Salad with Grapes
- Ramen Noodle Salad
- Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad
- Deviled Egg Potato Salad
Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound macaroni
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 ears corn on the cob husks removed
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 jalapeno minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 lime
- 1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Drain and add to a large mixing bowl.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over high heat and add the butter.
- Once butter is melted add the corn and char the outsides, turning as needed, about 10 minutes.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the corn from the cob. Add the corn to the bowl of macaroni.
- Add the sour cream, mayonnaise, jalapeno, chili powder, cumin and salt. Squeeze the lime over the mixture. Stir to combine.
- Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until salad is cold.
- Add the crumbled queso fresco and cilantro to the bowl and stir well.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, adding an extra squirt of lime juice or sprinkle of salt if needed.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
gary says
probably the best macaroni salad Ive ever tried!
Karly says
Love to hear that!
Randall says
Their cheese is one of the best and reduce to smaller portions as
is their cured meats.
Sarah says
Can you sub frozen corn? If so how much?
Karly says
I’ve only made this with fresh corn, but a cup and a half or so of frozen would likely work.
Vera says
Yummy AND easy to make! I grilled my corn and used hot peppers from my garden and Cotija cheese.
Erin Vasicek says
Love Mexican corn, I really need to try this!
Tammy says
I forgot to rate this recipe in my last comment.
Karly says
Thanks for coming back to do so! 🙂
Tammy says
I made this today for a family Mexican fiesta dinner. Everyone loved it! Great flavors and easy to make! Thank you!
Jan Nunes says
Wow Karly! This looks absolutely delicious!… and so easy to make1 I’ve added it to my list of dishes to try!
Robotance says
One of the kind pasta recipes. I can’t stop admiring the ingredients that you have used to make this salad. The combination of pasta, corn, butter, cream, mayonnaise with chilies is mouthwatering.
Marissa says
I love Mexican Street Corn anything and love this twist of making it into a pasta salad! So perfect for summer!
color switch says
wow, this dish looks delicious, i also want to try it, thank you for sharing the way.
Natanja | Home Baked Bliss says
Ooooh yes! I have been having some serious pasta cravings lately and this Mexican Street Corn Salad is right up my alley! Looks delicious!
Carissa Nelson | Spoonful of Easy says
Hi Karly,
This looks amazing! I vote to put Mexican Street Corn in everything — this looks so amazingly delicious!