While watching a movie or something a few nights ago, there was a scene where a young kid runs up to a food truck and snatches an ear of Mexican Street Corn.

It reminded me of a taco I made awhile back, and it occurred to me at the time that I may not have posted the recipe when I made it. That happens often. There are hundreds of food pics and recipes in the file I that have titled, “to be composed.”

I’ll get to them. For today, let’s just work on this here.

For this recipe I put together an intense chili lime marinade for the grilled chicken, as well as a “salsa” inspired by street corn, which I happen to love. To top these off, I stirred up a chili lime sour cream to enhance the flavor profile of the chicken marinade.

The first time I was introduced to street corn, I wasn’t as food forward as I am today. Also, it wasn’t on a street in Mexico and I was not at all interested in corn on the cob slathered in mayo, cheese and chili powder. The whole idea grossed me out, to be quite honest.

It was a counselor at the substance abuse treatment center where I first started on the road to recovery that introduced me to this fabulous street cuisine. Her name was Laura, and she offered me an ear of this on her 3rd shift during a night when I was struggling. The rest is history. After a couple of closed minded “no, thank yous,” I gave it a shot and changed my mind forever. Now I look for the street corn truck whenever I’m in any mobile cuisine environment. Thank you, Laura!!

So, this taco is a meal in itself. No need for rice, beans and all that on the side. When I make this, it’s a solo act.

I’ll go ahead and break this down by components, and you can figure out your own time frame in which to pull it together. I suggest doing all the prep while the chicken is resting in marinade. You can chop all the corn salsa stuff, whip up the sour cream, and then let them both chill while you grill.

There’s a bit of other prep, such as chopping cilantro, grating the queso, dicing onions, cutting limes, cleaning jalapeños, etc.

As I sit and write this, I can feel exactly why I didn’t do it at the time. It was just too much going on. I had to write things on a pad of paper because I had recently “escaped my cell,” meaning I was on hiatus from my phone. So with all that happening, when it was done I just wanted to snap a few pics, eat some damn tacos, clean up the kitchen and put the blog on the back burner.

I hope you’re ready to taste the best tacos ever.

Let’s get to the recipe, shall we?? I’ve seriously already wrabbled on too long. Yes, I said, “wrabbled.”

It’s when you babble on and on in text or writing. I think I made it up, but I’m not sure. Whatever.

Go get your fly little grocery store clothes on, bitch. I’m pretty sure you don’t just have a bag of fresh juicy limes, a bunch of cilantro or queso fresco lying around your basic ass kitchen, so get ready to make a list and head out.

What You Need:

1 pkg soft corn tortillas

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

The Marinade:

1/2 cup lime juice (get a bag of limes)

Zest of 2 limes

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 c cilantro roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 tablespoon honey

2 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 jalapeño pepper (seeds and membrane removed, unless you like heat.)

The Street Corn Salsa:

2 large ears fresh corn, husked  and washed

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup crema fresh or sour cream

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 Tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup cotija or queso fresco, crumbled

1/2 jalapeño, diced super fine

The Taco Sauce:

1 c crema fresh or sour cream

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp cream or milk

1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

2 tsp sriracha sauce

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

The Garnishes:

Cilantro

Fine diced red onion

Jalapeño slices

Cotija or queso fresco crumbles

Avocado slices

What You Do:

Clean and dry the chicken breasts, and then pound with meat mallet to create thin and even pieces.

To make the marinade, take all the ingredients and blend them in food processor or with an emulsion stick blender. I use my single serve NINJA™️ cup and pulse until well incorporated.

Place the chicken into a gallon size sealable bag, and add marinade.

Seal the bag and massage chicken until marinade is evenly distributed.

Allow to sit in refrigerator for 2-24 hours.

To make the corn salad, mix all the ingredients except the corn into a medium size bowl. Cover and refrigerate. We will be adding the grilled corn later.

For the chili lime taco sauce just whisk the ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate until the tacos are done.

This is at which point I’d be getting all my garnishes prepped. The tacos are great with nothing, but we eat with our eyes first.

Add some pretty purple onion, bright green jalapeño, avocado slices and cilantro for good aesthetics and flavor. Oh, and if you have more of that cotija or queso fresco, don’t waste it, Baby. Use some on the top, too!!

When ready, heat grill to 450°.

You’ll want to get the corn grilled first so that it can cool and be cut off the cob, and then added to the salad mix that’s already blended up.

Just grill each side about a minute.

Cool until it can be handled.

Remove the corn from the cob with a serrated knife, and stir into the salad dressing you made earlier. Return it to the refrigerator or you can keep it room temp. That is a matter of taste.

Now, grill your chicken up using whatever method you use. Ours takes about 8 minutes per side at 450° because I pound or slice it thin.

After you pull the chicken off, warm your tortillas by flipping them on the grill grates a couple seconds each.

Slice the chicken into thin strips.

It’s up to you, but I use 2 shells for soft corn tacos.

Fill the shells with chicken and corn salsa, add some of the chili lime sauce, garnish as desired and enjoy…

I’d like everyone to try and not make a big deal of the fact that a portion of this picture resembles a very pale vageeee.

I discovered it and laughed my ass off. John said I shouldn’t blog that info and bring attention to it, so that’s when I decided I absolutely should call it out. That’s what I do!! Always the rebel.

See you next time!!

XOXO, Chelle.

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