Mexican Street Corn Salad

My husband and I have had a tradition of heading down to NYC for a couple of nights each year around Thanksgiving.  Living in Boston it's an easy train ride away and on the way home to Philly for turkey day.  It's a fantastic time of year to be in the city – not too cold yet but cool enough that you can be easily lulled into the holiday spirit with all of the parade floats and window dressings the city has to offer.  Now that we have our daughter, we have continued the tradition and the magic of the experience is evident as her eyes light up at the sight of the Rockettes in Radio City.  

This year she is most excited that she is finally old enough to go ice skating at Rockerfeller Plaza.  But this year I am most excited that she is finally old enough to do a bit more walking so we can finally head back to some of our favorite haunts.  The first on my list is Café Habana in Nolita.  I can still remember the first time we stumbled upon the place.  It must have been in 2008 or 2009.  We were walking down the street and noticed a huge crowd gathered around the entrance to a tiny restaurant.  I had to know what was up so rather than asking anyone who happened to be standing there (after all I wouldn't want to give myself away as a tourist!) I instead whipped out my Yelp app and discovered that people were going absolutely nuts over their Elotes (Mexican Style Grilled Corn).  I had to know what would possess anyone to stand outside for 45 minutes+ to partake in... grilled corn.  And so we did.  And when we finally managed to score two seats at the crowded bar and sink our teeth into an ear of that corn, of course it was out of this world!  

Since then I have been trying to replicate that experience at home.  The thing is it can be quite messy to eat.  The trick to delicious Mexican style street corn is the combo of smokey spices, cojita cheese, lime and mayo.  So you can imagine it might take some practice to prepare it in such a way that it isn't a total disaster to eat.  The solution?  Make it in a jar!

This Mexican Street Corn Salad recipe takes the mess out of the classic recipe.  It's everything you love about the classic recipe reimagined as a salad.

Ingredients