Grilled Corn with Bacon Butter and Cotija Cheese.

July 20, 2011

I’m about to show you something. Get ready.

This is butter with bacon in it.

If you do one thing in your entire life, I suggest it be this.

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.

And!

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 and all that jazz. You pickin’ up what I’m throwing down? I thought so. No wonder we get along so well.

I 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 it’s purest form and I don’t even mind picking it from my teeth for 36 hours after eating an ear or three. But grilled corn? I am ALLOVERTHAT. Yeah… I know I already blabbered on back in June about my fascination with the caramely kernels, but they are just too delicious to stop. If you are not riding this train yet, you must hop on.

Actually… for the last few months, I never thought I’d eat corn any other way.

But then I crumbled some crispy, fried bacon into soft, pillowy butter… and I really had no choice other than to slather it on a grilled ear. Then roll it in cheese. Absolutely sinful. We ate this on Sunday night with some delicious chicken I will tell you about later this week. I never knew I liked sinning this much.

Grilled Corn with Bacon Butter and Cotija Cheese

makes 6 ears

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

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.