Mexican Street Corn Casserole
This Mexican street corn casserole is a Mexican-inspired dish that’s perfect for taco Tuesdays, summertime, and any time the cravings for Elote appear. This dish is full of delicious Mexican street corn spices, queso fresco cheese, and cilantro. This casserole is the perfect side to our Mexican Lasagna, Mexican quinoa, Ensalada de Pollo (Mexican Chicken Salad), and sheet pan chicken fajitas. It’s also incorporated into my Corn Fries recipe.
Why This Recipe Works
Elote is a Spanish word meaning “corn” and street corn is a pretty famous and delicious treat enjoyed by many. Although that corn is served still on the cob, you can’t deny how much easier it is to prepare in a baking dish and “off the cob” like we’re doing here today.
We love this street corn casserole because it packs all of those delicious flavors into every bite and requires minimal effort to prep. Serve it alongside some tasty tacos like my Baja Taco Recipe or my Roasted Cauliflower Tacos if you want a veggie-filled dinner.
This Mexican corn casserole is actually pretty perfect on its own and doesn’t need much to make it feel like a complete meal. The flavors complement many dishes and meats though so you shouldn’t have too hard of a time planning something fabulous for dinner.
Ingredients
- Corn: You’re going to need corn for a corn casserole, and while you could simply cut corn off of the cob, frozen corn works best. Not only that but frozen corn makes it so much easier to prep!
- Spices: We use a combination of chili powder, garlic powder, and salt.
- Cheese: While you could use cotija cheese, we enjoy this dish best with queso fresco Mexican cheese because it gives such a great flavor.
Step-By-Step Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Combine the corn (frozen or thawed) and the mayo, sour cream, 1 ½ teaspoon of chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and 4 ounces of queso fresco cheese in a large bowl.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining chili powder over the top. Bake for 35-45 minutes until heated through and bubbly around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and top with the remaining cheese and cilantro. Serve warm.
Recipe Tips
Corn: You can thaw the corn or bake it frozen (I didn’t notice a difference when I did it both ways). When frozen it’ll bake longer, around 40-45 minutes. Feel free to use fresh corn cut off the cob as well.
If you want a punch of lime flavor, squeeze some fresh lime juice over the top of the Mexican street corn casserole after it finishes baking. You can even add some lime zest as well if you want a strong lime flavor.
For another delicious corn recipe, try my Honey Butter Skillet Corn.
FAQs
While I have personally not tried it this way, I do not see any reason why it wouldn’t work out. The taste should be incredible and the texture should be even closer to the real deal street corn. I do recommend being careful to cut the corn off the cob so that there aren’t too many hard cob parts in the mixture.
This dish is best when served with a squeeze of fresh lime juice over the top just before serving. As for main dishes to serve alongside corn casserole, I suggest enchiladas, pork carnitas, steak tacos, and more. If you can picture it going great with Elote, then there’s no doubt it would taste fabulous here too.
More Mexican Inspired Recipes
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Mexican Street Corn Casserole
Ingredients
- 40 oz bag frozen corn - thawed, or not thawed (see notes)
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 2/3 cup sour cream - full fat or light is fine
- 2 teaspoons chili powder - divided
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 oz queso fresco - crumbled and divided
- 3 tablespoons cilantro - chopped
- fresh limes - optional, for spritzing at the end if desired, see notes
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 13×9 with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl stir the corn (can keep frozen or thaw it), Mayo, sour cream, 1 ½ tsp chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and 4 oz of the queso fresco.
- Pour in the pan, sprinkle the remaining chili powder on top and bake for 35-45 mins or until heated through and bubbly on the edges. Remove and top with the remaining cheese and cilantro. Serve warm.
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241 Comments on “Mexican Street Corn Casserole”
AMAZING!!!I highly recommend!
Thanks for your great review, Alex!
Would this casserole be good for a picnic pot luck?
Cheryl, I think this would be awesome for a picnic pot luck! Which, by the way, sounds super fun. This dish is best served warm, so if you have a way to keep it warm, that’s great. However, the flavors are so good, it should still be delicious as it cools off.
So delicious 😋 Thanks for sharing!
Glad you liked it Angela! Thanks for your review 🙂
Super yummy and so easy!! Took it to the office and everyone loved it… tonight I made a 1/2 recipe for just me and my husband. And it’s great to mix ahead and pop in the oven the next day. Thank you….will be making this a lot!
Glad everyone loved it, Susan! Thanks for your great review. This is in our permanent rotation as well, it’s so good!
I have made this multiple times and it is SO GOOD! I am just wondering if you think this recipe would work if I cooked it in a crockpot? I have a large family party this weekend and going to need the oven for a bunch of things, so trying to do a crockpot for as many things as possible.
Hi Amanda! Sorry for being late to reply to you. You can definitely make this in the crockpot! Mix all the ingredient together and either bake them on low heat for two hours, or high heat for no longer than an hour. Then you can just set it to stay warm. I hope the family party went well!
What can I replace the mayo with? Want to try this dish but family does not like mayo
Cherie, you can use sour cream in place of the mayo. So instead of 2/3 cup of mayo and 2/3 cup of sour cream, just use 1 and 1/3 cup of sour cream.
It’s expected that I make this for every family gathering; it’s good. I veganized it!
Love that Steff! Thanks for sharing your review.
This was easy to make and tasted great. I made it to go with bbq burgers.
Yum! That sounds like a perfect combo. Glad you liked it Gary! Thanks for your review.
Loved the Mexican casserole. Can I make it ahead and cook it later??
Absolutely! Since this recipe can be made with either frozen or thawed corn, you can mix it up, leave it in the fridge, and bake it later. It should work great.
This is so good 😋 thank you for sharing
You’re welcome Maria, I’m glad you loved it.
We made this tonight but added some cilantro lime shredded chicken underneath the corn to make it a complete dish. It was amazing and we’ll definitely be adding this to our favorites!
That sounds like a delicious addition! I’m happy to hear you loved it Angela.
Awesome side dish. This will be the 3rd time we’ve made this in 2 weeks and thanks again for sharing!
Glad it’s been such a hit! Can’t go wrong with easy and delicious.
Thanks for the recipe. I’ve made this three times before. I usually add a little red bell pepper, green onion, and yellow onion before baking. Always comes out creamy and delicious 😋. A squeeze of lime is a must
Yes definitely love the lime! Thanks for sharing those fun additions as well, Meg.
It was easy to make and awesome! Five stars!!
Glad to hear you loved it, Trina!
Incredible crowd pleaser. Use authentic Mexican ingredients.
It’s a definite fan-favorite recipe. Thanks for the great review, Guy!
I couldn’t find queso fresco at my grocery store. Do you know of a good replacement?
Cotija cheese could work.
Made it for our monthly couples dinner a few months back. Hostess made a Mexican themed main dish. Everyone loved it.
Making it again tonight for our Christmas couples dinner….ham and pork roast main dish…..but thought since everyone loved it the first time……they’ll love it again❤
So true! Never gets old. Thanks Resa!
This is my go to side for gatherings as my friends always ask for my Mexican Street Corn Casserole. It is always devoured! Any suggestions on how to make this recipe into an appetizer/dip? I want to bring it to an appetizer night to serve with tortilla chips or Frito’s Scoops.
Hi Vicky! I would just do more of the mayo, sour cream, and seasonings to create a thicker dip-like texture. Cook the corn separately so it is cooked and then add it to the mayo, sour cream, and seasonings mixture and opt out on baking it. You can try that and see how it goes!
Huge hit with my family and friends. Absolutely delicious. Recipe is perfect as written. I added extra cheese to the top because I wouldn’t have a use for my remaining queso fresco.
Nothing wrong with a little extra cheese!
I absolutely love this recipe! It turned out amazing for a taco night I had with my friends. They all loved it and wanted the recipe! Thanks for sharing 🙂
So glad you enjoyed this recipe Erin!