Mexican Street Corn Soup
Too cold to grill? This Mexican Street Corn Soup features all of the flavors of the delicious grilled version…just in soup form instead!
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During the warmer months, Mexican Street Corn is one of our favorite side dishes whenever we’re grilling dinner in the backyard. It’s a fun recipe to make – even if it’s a bit messy to eat. And when you can get ears of fresh local corn? Oh, that is one of my favorite summer meals!
However, once the colder months arrive, we retreat indoors. I don’t particularly enjoy shoveling a path through the snow to my grill and/or smoker. I’ve done it before – sometimes you just desperately need a good burger! However, pulling out the snow shovel for some voluntary shoveling is not high on my list. That’s where this Mexican Street Corn Soup comes in!
Mexican Street Corn Soup
During the winter months, we eat a lot of soup here in our house. Like a lot of soup. Each Sunday we make a batch of soup that turns into lunches throughout the week. We start with our favorites like Chicken Noodle Soup and Tomato Florentine Soup…but after a while, we start running out of ideas. I had a lot of fun hitting the kitchen and transforming the flavors of grilled Mexican street corn into a soup!
There are several key flavors in Mexican street corn, and I attempted to bring each of them into this Mexican Street Corn Soup. The hardest flavor was mimicking the buttery, grilled corn. However, if you toss frozen corn in a bit of melted butter and just saute it for an extra long time? It tastes remarkably like grilled corn! Some of the kernels get a bit charred, and that step adds a ton of flavor to this soup!
In addition to charred corn, Mexican street corn also calls for lime, Cotija cheese, crema (or sour cream), chili powder and cilantro. I layered each of these flavors into this soup – along with some diced onions and a jalapeno for extra flavor. Oh, and I crumbled some bacon on top, too. Bacon typically isn’t found on Mexican street corn, but I love crumbling a bit of bacon on top of soup. All together, this Mexican Street Corn Soup was delicious!
If you’re stuck indoors and looking for some tasty comfort food to warm you up, then a bowl of this soup is the answer! Aside from letting the corn sauté until it’s a bit charred, the recipe itself is quite easy.
Like most soups, this one will taste better if you let it rest in the fridge overnight. There are a lot of flavors in this soup. If you take a bite when you make it, you’ll be able to taste the individual flavors. However, if you let the soup rest overnight, the flavors come together into a magical combination of deliciousness!
I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do here in our house – stay warm!
Did you make a batch of this Mexican Street Corn Soup at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog) – I’d love to see your version!
Mexican Street Corn Soup
Ingredients
- 4 slices thick-cut bacon
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 6 cups corn fresh or frozen, divided
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeds and ribs removed, finely diced
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro plus more for garnishing
- ½ cup cotija cheese note: crumbled feta can be substituted if cotija is not available
Instructions
- Using a large skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Crumble and set bacon aside.
- Meanwhile, using a Dutch oven or stock pot, add butter and place over medium-high heat.
- Once butter has melted, add 2 cups of corn, salt and pepper; stir until well combined. Let cook without stirring for 8-10 minutes, or until corn has begun to lightly char. Stir and continue cooking without stirring for 4-6 more minutes. Remove corn from pot and set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium and add olive oil, diced onions and jalapeno to the pot. Sauté, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes, or until onions have softened.
- Add garlic, cumin and chili powder; stir until well combined. Continue sautéing for 1 more minute.
- Add the broth and remaining 4 cups of uncooked corn. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Use an immersion blender to puree mixture until smooth.
- Add charred corn (from above), sour cream, lime juice and cilantro; stir until well combined.
- Divide into bowls and top with additional chopped cilantro, crumbled bacon (from above) and cotija cheese.
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cant wait to make this soon for me can i use vegetable broth / coconut cream and vegan cheese i never had mexican street corn soup before and perfect timing as been raining here in Singapore perfect for raining days in Singapore and after office meals love your recipes as always brightens up my day everyday after work
Yes! You can definitely sub in vegan/vegetarian options to this soup recipe, Ramya. Soup is great on rainy days! Enjoy!
This was phenomenal! I’m keeping this one in my recipe book. However I’m looking for a way to make it more hearty to be a standalone meal. I’d like to add another meat, but I worry about overshadowing the flavor. I’ve also thought about just adding noodles or rice to bulk it out instead…but nothing feels right. Any suggestions?
Hey Sarah! So glad you enjoyed this soup – we keep this one on regular rotation during the winter months here. If you’re looking to turn this into a meal, I’d recommend something higher in protein to hold you over. Chopped rotisserie chicken would be a good choice, and I don’t think the flavor would overshadow the soup. Another option would be a can or two of black beans. (Or maybe both chicken and beans? The only thing to keep an eye on is you might need a bit more broth if you bulk up the soup a bunch.) Just a couple of thoughts. Let me know if you have any other questions…enjoy!!
I just love how you turned a summertime favourite into a comforting cold-weather recipe! It’s getting cold around here lately (woke up to frost outside this am), so this delicious street corn soup is perfect timing! I’d love to be curled up with a big bowl right about now topped with extra cotija cheese!!
I guess I’m just not quite ready to give up on the summer flavors yet. 🙂 This soup was a fun way to mix things up a bit. We eat a lot of soup in the colder months, and sometimes it can get a little…well…boring. Not with this one! 🙂 Thanks, Dawn!
oh, this looks really good! and it’s way easier to eat than from the cob. delicious.
Haha – it’s definitely WAY easier than eating it from the cob. Talk about a mess on the cob…a delicious mess, but a mess nonetheless. 🙂 Thanks, Mimi!
What a fantastic idea for soup. And oh the flavors and textures of all these amazing ingredients. Who wouldn’t love Mexican street corn in a bowl? Thanks so much David for a great recipe.
Thanks, Kristy! I love the flavors of Mexican street corn, but as it’s getting chilly here I also wanted soup. This soup was a fun way to mix things up a bit!
Oh yeah, we eat a lot of soup during the cold time of year (Well, we also eat a lot of cold soup in summer.) Just like you guys – a HUGE pot of soup that we enjoy throughout the week. This corn soup looks and sounds great for October – it’s like summer (Corn) meets autumn (Everything else). Comforting and filling yet overall light and fresh!
Yup, that huge pot of soup is always great since it makes weekday lunches super easy. You make a good point about this soup, Ben – you can still get fresh corn but the recipe is perfect for chilly days. I highly recommend a batch of this one…perhaps next week?? 🙂
We adore Mexican street corn and it never occurred to me to have it in soup form. Genius! So excited to try this, David!
This soup came about purely as a way to mix up soup season around our house…and now it’s a new favorite! Thanks, Marissa!
What a gorgeous soup David! Great idea to mimic the grilled corn taste by sautéing the corn in butter a bit longer 😋. The grilled corn with the crema, cilantro, chili powder, and jalapeno sounds so flavorful and delicious. I can see how the flavors would only get better overnight. Such a great way to enjoy summer flavors in the colder months!
Thanks, Shannon! I have to say that the sautéing corn trick really did a decent job of mimicking the flavor of grilled corn. This soup was fantastic, and it definitely earned a spot in our rotation for soup season!
What a great soup and it’s certainly perfect to mimic that delicious summer taste! I love the charred corn and all those bacon bits!
The charred bits of corn are the “secret” here, Kathy – they bring that grilled flavor to this bowl of soup. It’s delicious!
Love the flavours you’ve incorporated into this corn soup, David! Can’t beat that combination of corn and bacon together. Save me a bowl!
Corn and bacon are great partners! This one is delicious thanks to the charred corn that gets blended into soup form. Perfect for chilly nights!!
Looks yummy, David! We’re actually off to Mexico in just 10 days or so. Looking forward to the street corn, among many other dishes I want to try. In the meanwhile, I do have corn and all the fixings for this soup, so I may give it a go.. .
No way! I’m jealous that you’ll be getting a bunch of authentic street corn down there. Have fun!! But when you get back (and it’s cold), put this soup on the menu. 🙂
Love all the flavours on this soup! Definitely a comfort meal
Thanks, Raymund! This soup is perfect for cold days!
I like your soup bowls david. and i like the soup! tho i’d have to leave out the bacon, as we are a bacon-free household these days …
You can just save that bacon for me, Sherry! 🙂
Growing up in Texas, elotes (street corn) were a treat for us, so this one works great for me. It will go into our soup rotation as it’s getting cold over this way. Seems we’re morphing from late summer weather to early winter, bypassing autumn.
We’re having the same weather here, too, Ron. We’re getting used to the new weather patterns here in Asheville, but the locals say that it’s too early for the cold snap that came through recently. Ah well, we’re used to worse! 🙂 This soup is delicious, and it was a fun way to mix up soup season in our house…it’s easy to get into a rut, but this soup broke us out of the routine of chicken noodle.
Excellent.
So glad you enjoyed this soup!