Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos Recipe

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We took two of our favorite street foods and turned them into one delicious recipe: Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos.

Mexican Street Corn (Elote) is grilled corn on the cob served with a slather of mayo and cotija cheese, combined with seasonings and lime. It’s a delicious treat, and quite possibly

Chicken tacos are one of our favorite types of tacos. When cooked properly, they can show off bold seasonings better than other proteins, and they play nicely with fun toppings, letting the topping shine instead of dominating the flavors.

These Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos have a slightly smoky and spicy flavor from the seasonings we use on the chicken and corn, as well as how we cook them. There are some lovely crunchy bits from charring the food, that is then balanced by a rich Cilantro Lime Crema served on top.

Oh – and we add bacon to these tacos in to bring more savory, smoky flavor and crunchy texture. You can skip the bacon, if you like, but why would you? Trust us, it makes these tacos so much better!

While there are a few steps involved with these tacos, they are straightforward to make, and everything cooks at the same time, so you can be ready to serve dinner in about 30 – 35 minutes.

Let’s answer a few questions you may have about this recipe before we get to the ingredients and directions. Of course, you can scroll on down and get started if you like!

What type of chicken do you use for these tacos?

We used cubed chicken breast for our Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos, but you could also use cubed boneless skinless chicken thighs, or shredded chicken from chicken breast, chicken thighs, or whole chickens.

  • Boneless skinless chicken thighs have more flavor and will get crispier as they cook, but not everyone likes dark meat. You can cook this the same way you would the chicken breast.
  • Shredded chicken can come from a whole rotisserie chicken, or purposefully shredded chicken breasts. If you use shredded chicken, add it to the pan and cook until it is warmed and one side is crispy.

What seasoning do you use for this meal?

We wanted to bring the spicy and smoky notes of authentic elote to this dish, so we used PS Seasoning Elote Loco Street Corn Blend to season both the chicken and the corn.

We sell it at Lake Geneva Country Meats, or you can buy it online directly from PS Seasoning – they’re an awesome Wisconsin company! Here are a few other seasoning suggestions that would work as well:

All of these rubs have a bit of spice, although none of them are super spicy. If you really don’t like a touch of heat, we recommend using a standard not-spicy taco seasoning of your choice for seasoning

How do you cook these Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos?

We cubed up our chicken and then cooked it in a non-stick skillet. It was fast and easy to cook using this method.

You could of course also cook the chicken on the grill, under a broiler, or in the oven as a whole chicken breast piece, then cube it if you prefer!

What type of corn should I use for the Mexican Street Corn?

Since the corn is a huge part of these Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos, we wanted to use some great quality fresh corn. We used about 6 ears of corn to get the 3 cups of kernels we needed.

If you don’t have fresh corn available, or don’t like cutting the kernels from the ears, or just are in a time crunch, using frozen corn is totally fine!!

What do you serve on top of the Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos?

We think we had a crazy good combination of toppings on these tacos:

  • Street Corn Mixture (of course)
  • Crumbled Bacon (crunchy, smoky, delicious)
  • Cilantro Lime Crema (smooth and creamy)
  • Fresh Lime Juice

You could also add more toppings if you like, but we do think this one is best as a fairly simple tacos. Here are a few suggestions on other toppings that may be delicious:

  • Avocado (mashed or cut into pieces)
  • Quick Pickled Red Onions (a bit more acidity and crunch)
  • Salsa (we’d prefer salsa verde, but a red salsa also would be fine)

Is it hard to make the Cilantro Lime crema?

No, this is a super easy crema to make, just add ingredients to a bowl and whisk together. You could also add everything to a food processor and whisk to make it even easier – but have more to clean up!

Once you’re done with the crema, you can keep it in a bowl to dollop on top of the Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos, or you can transfer it to a squeeze bottle if you prefer. It’ll stay good in your refrigerator for up to 5 days for leftovers as well!

And if you don’t want to make your own crema, you can also buy a ready-to-eat one like this delicious option from Target!

Do you have more taco recipes for me to try?

Heck yeah we do! We have a variety of taco recipes ranging from contemporary recipes like these Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos, to more traditional recipes like Cochinita Pibil. To see all of the taco recipes, just click this link.

Time to get cooking some Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos! We hope we answered all the questions you may have about this recipe, but we may have missed something. Just leave us a comment or rating below if you have questions or feedback.

Enjoy – we’ll see you soon at Lake Geneva Country Meats for the quality chicken you need to make these tacos.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (cut into cubes)
  • 3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil (divided)
  • PS Seasoning Elote Loco Street Corn Blend (or your favorite seasoning – see note above)
  • 3 cup Corn
  • 1/4 cup Cotija Cheese (crumbled)
  • 1/4 cup Lime Juice (divided)
  • 2 Green Onion (chopped)
  • 1 bunch Cilantro (chopped – divided)
  • 3/4 cup Sour Cream
  • 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 4 strip Bacon (cooked and crumbled – for serving)
  • Tortillas (warmed – for serving)
  • Lime Wedges (for serving)

Directions

  1. Add 2 tbsp. of oil to a large, non-stick skillet and heat to medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the cubed chicken and season to your taste. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the chicken is cooked through, 165ºF internal temperature. Once cooked, cover and set aside.

  2. While the chicken is cooking, make your Mexican Street Corn topping. In a separate non-stick skillet, add 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil and heat to high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the corn and cook for 4 minutes. Add the chopped green onion, and cook until the corn is warmed through and charred on one side.

    We want to recreate the flavor of grilled corn, so exposing the corn to heat on only one side is important for this part of the recipe. We recommend stirring it to prevent sticking, but not flipping it.

  3. Once the corn is cooked, remove the corn and green onion from the heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. Let cool slightly, then add 1/4 cup crumbled Cotija cheese, 2 tbsp. lime juice, and half of the chopped cilantro. Mix together and season to taste with elote seasoning. Set aside.

  4. Make your Cilantro Lime Crema by adding the sour cream, mayonnaise, 2 tbsp. lime juice, remaining chopped cilantro, and 1 tsp. Kosher salt to a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Leave in bowl to spoon on top of tacos, or transfer to a squeeze bottle to squeeze on.

  5. Assemble and serve your Mexican Street Corn Tacos as follows:

    1. Grab a warmed tortilla or two and put it down.
    2. Add a scoop of the cooked, diced chicken.
    3. Next to the chicken add a helping of the street corn mixture.
    4. Sprinkle some crumbled bacon on top.
    5. Add a dollop or squeeze of Cilantro Lime Cream on top.
    6. Finish a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

    Enjoy!

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