Side Servings

Grilled corn on the cob

By
24 July 2026
4
Easy
15 minutes
50 minutes

Walk around any plaza or market in Mexico and you will find a corn stall or puesto de elotes. Elotes are fresh cobs of corn roasted on a little barbeque or boiled on a street cart – hence callejero, which means “from the street”. At high school, my friends and I would walk to the nearby Plaza Coyoacán just to have one of these – or esquites – while we loitered around or sat on a park bench to people-watch and gossip. These aren’t too dissimilar to the corn on the cob you’ll find in other parts of the world, but Mexicans like to go a bit extra and bold with the flavours. We cover the cooked cob with mayonnaise and sprinkle it with crumbled cheese, chilli and lime. A messy but delicious business. I don’t know why, but the only fresh corn you find in Australia is sweetcorn, while in Mexico this type of corn is not common. The flavour of Mexican fresh corn is more starchy and not so sweet; the kernels are also less juicy. If you can’t find non-sweet corn or fresh maize, use sweetcorn. Usually, the corn is boiled, and some places sell them charred, which I prefer for sweetcorn.
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Ingredients

Method
  • 4 corn cobs with husks on
  • 4 wooden skewers
  • 150 g mayonnaise
  • 200 g grated queso cotija or ricotta salata
  • chilli powder, for sprinkling
  • 2 limes, halved

Method

Ingredients

1. Place the corn cobs on a hot barbeque and grill for 30 minutes, turning regularly. The husk will protect the corn from burning. After 20 minutes, remove the burnt husks and fibres and char the cob until the kernels get some colour, about 10 more minutes.

2. Remove from the fire and stick the wooden skewers into the cobs. Cover the warm cobs with mayonnaise and sprinkle with cheese until fully covered. Sprinkle with chilli powder. Squeeze a little lime over the corn and enjoy.

Cook's note: It’s hard to find solid skewers that will hold the cob, so I use bamboo chopsticks from my takeaway sushi and sharpen them with a pencil sharpener.

Extracted with permission from Provecho: Real Mexican Food at Home by Daniella Guevara Muñoz. Photographs by Simon Bajada 2025
Daniella Guevara Muñoz

Recipe by: Daniella Guevara Muñoz

Daniella is a Mexican cook who grew up in the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City. A marine biologist, she worked as the director of Puerto Morelos Marine Park on the Yucatan Peninsula before her 2012 move to Adelaide (with her academic husband Kor-jent van Dijk) sparked a delicious career change. In Adelaide, Daniella's passions for community, food and Mexico could shine, and her and Kor's underground dinner series, Mi Mero Mole, enjoyed a cult following before their traditional taqueria, Port Adelaide's La Popular Taqueria, opened in 2017. La Popular Taqueria is now one of Australia's most acclaimed Mexican restaurants, while Daniella is increasingly sought after at festivals and in the media (SBS, The Guardian and Broadsheet) for her expertise and knowledge.

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