Roasted Corn Nachos (Elotes-Style)
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Inspired by delicious street-style elotes, these spiced corn nachos are topped with a blend of cheeses and jalapeño crema. This recipe is perfect to make for a fun appetizer or casual snacking.
The classic Mexican street snack of smoky corn-on-the-cob slathered with creamy cheese and condiments — or elotes — is absolutely delicious.
Next to straight-up chips and salsa, this snack has flavor, crunch and gooey cheese, times ten. Whenever I’m loaded up on summer sweet corn that’s not going into my favorite corn salad, enter corn nachos.
What could be a better topping for warm, cheesy corn tortilla chips than more corn, in grilled, spicy form? If you happen to be firing up the grill for dinner, it’s easy to throw some corn on too. On a hot grill, the ears reach perfect char pretty quickly.
Grilling the corn adds an authentic smoky flavor, but you can also get great flavor by roasting frozen corn in a hot oven.
If you’ve ever tried traditional esquites from a street vendor or food truck, you know they’re covered with a good amount of mayonnaise along with cheese. I was going for simplicity with this recipe, so I seasoned the nachos to focus on the spices and melted cheese and less on a heavier sauce (which makes the nachos kind of soggy).
Instead of mayo, these nachos are drizzled with a tangy crema, a simple combo of sour cream, green chilies and lime juice. The layers of seasoned spiced corn, cheese and tangy crema make these nachos crazy good!
Make the best cheesy corn nachos:
Here’s how to make perfectly crunchy and totally delicious nachos:
- Get a bag of tortilla chips that are on the thicker side — they’ll hold up better with toppings.
- Make sure the bag has more whole chips than crushed, broken ones!
- Layer the chips in one layer in your pan. That way each chip will stay crisp and cheesy at the same time.
- For easy clean-up, line your baking pan with a piece of foil or parchment paper.
- If it’s not corn on the cob season and you want to make these nachos, use a bag of frozen corn instead: Toss with the oil and spices and roast at 450 degrees until the corn browns, about 12 minutes.
