Bacon Nacho Street Corn
Bacon nacho street corn – 4 words I love but never expected to heat together, but here we are! I grilled the corn first and brushed on a mixture of sour cream and cream cheese, then rolled it in crushed chips and bacon. Then dumped an entire thermos of melted cheese sauce on top!
I was inspired to put the cheese in the thermos because a friend of mines father actually uses a thermos to hold their gravy at Thanksgiving and it is the most genius thing I have ever heard of. It worked SO WELL that I plan to take a thermos of hot cheese with me to every backyard BBQ for the rest of the year.
Prep the ingredients
The bacon and nacho chips were just crushed up together in the food processor and coated the street corn perfectly. You can see them on the bottom left here. Then there is some sour cream mixed with a little cream cheese, pickled jalapenos, and two sauces. One of the sauces is avocado based, and the other is chipotle, and you can make them both in the blender.
Make the cheese sauce
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by how well the thermos worked but wow… Typically cheese sauce gets a film on top after about 3 minutes in a bowl. It stayed perfectly silky smooth in the thermos for about an hour! It poured over the bacon nacho street corn like butter! The cheese sauce is easy to make is is just some cheddar, evaporated milk, and cornstarch.
Head to the grill
Grill the corn until it gets some charring.
Stick the chips and bacon to the corn
The reason for the cream cheese-sour cream mixture was I wanted to just use sour cream to drive home the nacho flavor but on it’s own it isn’t quite thick enough to hold the tortilla chips. I needed to blend it with the thick cream cheese to give it a paste like consistency.
Coat the corn in the creamy mixture, then dip it in the bacon and tortilla chip mixture. Because of the sour cream glue, the bacon-tortilla mixture stuck really well!
Assemble the bacon nacho street corn
Pile all the pieces of corn on a platter and then it’s finally time for the cheese!
Then add on the avocado sauce, the honey-chipotle sauce, and some pickled jalapenos and dig in!
Serve the bacon nacho street corn
This bacon nacho street corn was insanely flavorful. The best part about it was that it tasted like pure nachos with every bite. It was messy and wonderful, spicy and sweet, crunchy and chewy, and everything you want in a late summer BBQ side dish.
I have made street corn nachos before for my nacho cookbook, so I loved flipping it around for this nacho street corn
Twists on bacon nacho street corn
I loved when the three different sauces came together in this bacon nacho street corn, but you could use a bunch of other sauces, whatever you like with corn or with nachos! You could also easily leave out the bacon or do a vegan bacon if you want to keep it meat free. Another option is to use more traditional elote toppings like cotija and cilantro!
Speaking of traditional elote, if you want to make it, grab this recipe.
Watch me make this recipe on youtube!
For more fun twists on street corn, check out my deviled eggs, or this elote kimchi pancake. Or get crazy with this elote inspired corn dog!
Bacon Nacho Street Corn
Ingredients
Chipotle Sauce
- 1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 3 plum tomatoes
- 1 shallot
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Avocado Sauce
- 2 avocados
- 3 limes juice
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 clove garlic
Cheese Sauce
- 8 ounces evaporated milk
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 5 ounces cheddar cheese
- 5 ounces jack cheese
Everything Else
- 4 cups tortilla chips
- 5 strips bacon cooked
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 8 ears corn shucked and cut in half
- pickled jalapenos
Instructions
- Chipotle sauce – Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth
- Avocado Sauce – Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth
- Put some boiling hot water into a thermos and allow to sit uncovered while you make the cheese sauce.
- Put the evaporated milk in a pan and whisk in the cornstarch until fully combined.
- Bring to a simmer, whisking often. You will see the mixture thicken as it starts to simmer. Remove from heat.
- Whisk in the cheese. The residual heat should melt the cheese but if you need to, you can turn the pan back on low for 15 seconds once or twice to help the process, just don’t overheat it or it can separate.
- Dump the hot water from the thermos and add your cheese sauce. Cover immediately until ready to use.
- In a food processor, add the chips and bacon. Pulse until they are reduced to small crumbs.
- Wipe out the food processor and add in the cream cheese and sour cream. Pulse until combined. This may take a handful of times of pulsing, then scraping down the food processor and repeating to actually get the cream cheese to soften and combine with the sour cream. You could also add a splash of milk if needed but remember this mixture needs to stay thicker than just plain sour cream. Refrigerate until needed.
- Grill the corn with a little oil until browned.
- Brush the sour cream mixture onto the corn after it is cooled slightly.
- Roll the corn in the chip mixture to get the chips to stick to the corn.
- Pile up the corn on a platter and top with the cheese sauce, then the avocado sauce, and finally the chile sauce. Add some pickled jalapenos on top. Serve