Corn Salad with Doritos is a creamy mix of fresh sweet corn, colorful peppers, and ripe tomatoes! It’s perfect for picnics and barbecues.
Corn salad is the perfect choice for a picnic, barbecue, or summer get-together. With crisp fresh sweet corn, a light creamy mayo-based dressing, and a just-right blend of spices, you’ll have your guests asking for more!
In This Post
Inspiration For This Recipe
While visiting with a friend, she asked me if I’d ever made corn salad, and I said no, I had not; however, I would love to try it. She got the recipe from her sister and forwarded it to me.
The “recipe” is actually just a list of the ingredients used to make the salad without specific measurements, which is great because it makes this summer salad very adaptable to the number of ingredients you have on hand. I added my own twist to the salad, and now I want to eat it every day for lunch, dinner, and snack!
Ingredients Used In Corn Salad
A colorful blend of fresh summer ingredients, this corn chip salad only takes a few minutes to mix up. Serve it as a party appetizer or as a dip for chips.
Salad Ingredients
- Corn is the star of the show in this dish. We prefer sweet corn straight off the cob for the freshest, best-tasting corn. Use canned corn if fresh sweet corn is not in season.
- In addition to corn, we used ripe tomatoes, bell peppers, fresh chopped cilantro, and diced onions.
- We chose shredded cheddar cheese for the flavor it adds. Try using pepper jack or Monterey Jack for a different flavor profile.
Toppings
- We topped this salad with crushed Nacho Cheese Doritos. For a twist, try different flavors of Doritos, like taco or cool ranch.
- Switch things up and use corn chips such as Fritos or tortilla chips!
Corn Salad Dressing
- The corn salad dressing consists of mayonnaise, black pepper, garlic powder, and lime juice. This creamy dressing perfectly compliments the mix of fresh summer veggies.
How To Make Corn Salad
Put the fresh corn kernels, diced tomatoes, diced peppers, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro, and minced onion in a bowl.
To make the dressing, mix together mayonnaise, garlic powder, black pepper, and lime juice in a small bowl.
Spoon the dressing onto the salad.
Stir until well combined and the dressing is evenly spread over the salad.
Top the salad with crushed Doritos.
Additional Ways To Make Corn Salad
Mexican Corn Salad
Elotes, or Mexican street corn, are perfect for making Mexican corn salad, also known as esquites. It features charred corn coated in spicy mayo, cotija cheese, chipotle garlic seasoning, cilantro, and lime juice.
- To make Mexican corn salad, you’ll need 1 3/4 cups of charred corn. See our recipe for grilled corn on the cob without husks or fry it in a skillet until charred. Allow the corn to cool before making the dish.
- For esquites dressing, combine 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, two tablespoons of sour cream, 1/4 cup of crumbled cotija cheese, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro, two tablespoons of lime juice, and 1/2 teaspoon of chipotle seasoning.
- You don’t need tomatoes, diced peppers, or cheddar cheese in this version.
Frito Corn Salad
Swap out the Doritos and make corn salad with Fritos. Or serve the salad with Frito Scoops, and use them to spoon up each bite of this tasty dish.
Corn Bacon Salad
They say everything is better with bacon, so why not add bacon bits? Just add 1/2 cup of crumbled bacon and bring the flavor up to the next level!
Make Ahead and Storage
- Make Ahead We don’t recommend making this salad too far in advance as the dressing tends to get watery over time. You can prep the ingredients but keep the salad and dressing separate overnight. Then mix it all together a couple of hours before serving time.
- Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Add tuna for a tuna corn salad or diced chicken! You may need to mix up some additional dressing depending on how much meat you add.
This corn salad with Doritos makes a great party dip, like corn salsa. Serve it with chips to scoop it up.
Any kind of corn chips would work well. They would be great with Fritos, any flavor of Doritos, or even plain tortilla chips.
Try adding diced avocados, black beans, shredded cabbage, crumbled bacon, diced cucumbers, diced green chilies, or diced jalapenos.
To make a spicy corn salad, add a seeded, minced jalapeno to the salad. Plus, add 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a couple of dashes of hot sauce to the dressing.
More Corn Recipes
- Packed with flavor, this Corn Dip recipe will be a go-to favorite.
- These zesty Mexican Street Corn Nachos bring snack time to the next level!
- Corn Poppers are a tasty fried treat with melty cheese, peppers, and sweet corn.
- Corn Salsa is a Chipotle copycat with corn, peppers, onions, and cilantro!
Corn Salad
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups fresh sweet corn or use 1 can of corn, drained
- 1 cup diced grape tomatoes
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ½ cup diced peppers
- 3 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoon minced onion
- ¾ cup crushed Doritos
Salad Dressing
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
Instructions
- Put corn, diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, diced peppers, chopped cilantro, and minced onion in a bowl.
- To make the dressing, mix together mayonnaise, black pepper, garlic powder, and lime juice in a small bowl.
- Spoon the dressing onto the salad. Stir until the salad is well combined and the dressing is evenly spread over everything. Store in the fridge.
- Serve with crushed Doritos.
Vickie G. says
I am preparing this for 6 adults do I need to double this recipe?
Tonia says
Hi Vickie,
No, this should be enough for 6 adults.
Enjoy!
~Tonia
nicole says
This has been my lunch (with grilled chicken) for the last two weeks. I love it!!
Tonia says
I’m right there with you! I’ve tried it with chicken as well and it makes a great lunch!
Tricia says
Loved it the first time I ate it & I’ve seriously been craving it ever since!! Hope to make this for my family over Memorial Day weekend:)
Tonia says
Me too!! I’ve eaten it every day since I heard about it! LOL Now I’ve run out of the ingredients so I’ll have to pick more up. 🙂