Grilled Corn with Bacon Butter and Cotija Cheese.

We love sweet summer corn just as much as the next person – nothing beats a fresh ear rolled in a bit of butter, sparkling with coarse sea salt and freshly grated black pepper. It’s fabulous in its purest form and we don’t even mind picking it from my teeth for 36 hours after eating an ear or three.

This recipe is a sinful combination of crispy, crumbled fried bacon and soft, pillowy butter slathered on a firepit grilled ears of corn and rolled in cheese. 

Let's start at the beginning:

One of our favorite culinary quotes is from a close friend of the JAG team who said, "Do you see this picture below? That is butter with bacon in it. Enough said!"


Yes, if you do one adventurous culinary thing in your entire life, we suggest it be this. Put bits of bacon cooked on your table grill into creamy melted butter. It's foodie enlightenment.

corn from outdoor grill table

Next get as many ears of corn as you want to cook and grill them on your outdoor grill table. There are a lot of techniques for grilling corn which we will discuss in another grill recipe. 

I can think of precisely 87 more things you can use this butter on, so make a big bowl. The first things that come to mind are pancakes, potatoes, crusty toasted bread, and… cookies. Bacon butter is a carb’s best friend.

Finally...(we sound a bit like cavemen here, but)...

Add bacon butter to your grilled corn.

When you watch people take a bite of this, watch for lightening popping our of their heads. It's essentially mind-blowing. 

And, to give you health peace of mind, just tell yourself that when you put bacon butter on grilled corn (which is a very, very wise choice) all of the calories magically evaporate because corn is a vegetable!

Here are more specifics about this recipe:

Ingredients

  • 6 ears of corn
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 slices bacon, fried and crumbled (very small crumbles!)
  • 3-4 ounces cotija cheese, crumbled
  • Fresh cilantro for garnish
  • Black pepper

Directions
Preheat your grill on the highest setting. Shuck corn ears and brush each with olive oil and sprinkle with pepper. Wrap each in a square of aluminum foil – just so there is one layer cover the corn. Grill for about 5 minutes each “side” – rotating corn 4-5 times during grilling. While grilling corn, combine softened butter with crumbled bacon. Crumble cotija cheese on a large plate.

Once corn is finished, let sit for about 5 minutes to cool a bit before serving. The corn will still be very hot. Serve with a brush for the bacon butter, the plate of cotija to roll the corn in, and a bunch of fresh cilantro for garnish.

Note: there are so many ways to grill corn and this is what we have found to work best for us – feel free to grill your corn another way if you’d like. Also, if you can’t find cotija cheese I’m sure you could sub feta or blue – something that crumbles. 

We hope you enjoy this favorite outdoor grill table treat from the team at JAG!

Firepit Grill Recipes