This EASY creamy corn salad with crispy bacon, jalapeño peppers and green onions for extra flavor, and plenty of shredded cheese will be a few FAVORITE side dish! Perfect for your next picnic, potluck, barbecue, or summer holiday like the 4th of July or Labor Day and it’s ready in 15 minutes!
1poundraw baconabout 12 strips, diced into bacon bits
3cupscorn*
1jalapeñoseeded; diced very finely**
¼cupgreen onions or chivesdiced into thin rounds
¼cuprealfull-fat mayonnaise
¼cuprealfull-fat sour cream (full-fat Greek yogurt may be substituted)
¼cupranch dressing
4ouncesshredded cheddar cheese or cheddar cheese blend
1tablespoongarlic powderor to taste
1teaspoononion powderor to taste
1teaspoonsaltor to taste
½teaspoonfreshly ground black pepperor to taste
Juice from 1 large lime
Fresh parsleyfor garnishing
Instructions
To a large skillet, add the bacon, and cook over medium to medium-high heat to render out the bacon fat.
While the bacon is cooking, to a large bowl, add all the remaining ingredients, except the parsley, and stir to combine.
After the bacon has cooked and is as crispy as desired (about 10 minutes), remove the bacon bits with a slotted spoon, and place them on a paper towel-lined plate momentarily to blot the grease. Discard the bacon grease or save for another use.
Add almost all of the bacon o the bowl with all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Tip - Reserve a few bacon bits for garnishing.
Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or foil, and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Tip - You can make this recipe ahead of time, up to about 12 to 24 hours before you plan to serve it. Any longer isn't a good idea because the creamy sauce will thin out too much as it sits.
Garnish as desired with the reserved bacon bits, fresh parsley, and serve.
Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for about 4 to 5 days, noting that as it sits, the dressing will get more soupy and thin out, which is unavoidable. I don't recommend freezing this salad.
Notes
*Corn - The options are listed in order of what I prefer to do or use with grilled fresh sweet corn as my top choice, and canned corn being my least favorite option. Although, even if you do use canned corn, it’s mixed into the lovely creamy sauce which helps “doctor it up”.
Grill fresh corn on the cob, slice it from the ear, and use it. Lightly charred corn is my weakness and this is my favorite way to make this salad. Follow how I suggest to grill corn in my Grilled Mexican Corn (Elote) recipe if you are unsure.
Boil fresh sweet corn, slice the corn kernels, and use it.
Use fresh sweet corn without grilling or boiling it, slice it from the ear, and use it. This only works if corn is super fresh and super in-season, i.e. July or August in most parts of the US.
Use frozen corn. Allow it to thaw, drain it, then use it. You can use “char-grilled corn” or whatever flavor variation of frozen corn that you like.
Usecanned corn. Rinse and drain it, then use it.
**Jalapenos - They add flavor more than they add heat and the overall salad is not spicy. But if you are concerned, you can either omit the jalapenos entirely or halve the quantity. Make sure to remove the seeds of the jalapeno whether you’re using all of it, or half of it. Some people say removing the ribs is also important if you are concerned about the spicy factor. Additionally, do NOT confuse a serrano chile pepper with a jalapeno pepper. Serranos are much hotter (about 10x) and are longer and thinner whereas jalapenos are shorter and more “chubby” or stocky in appearance.***Nutritional Stats - Because of the bacon, mayo, and cheese, this isn't a "lite" salad, although I suspect the stats are skewing on the high side because the computer-generated program is likely taking into account the bacon grease in the computation, but you should drain if off, which would lower the stats. Calculate manually if this is of more importance for you.