Air Fryer Elote (Mexican Street Corn)

Walk any plaza in Mexico City on a warm evening and you'll find the elotero — a cart with a pot of hot corn, a row of squeeze bottles, and a line. Elote is corn on the cob done up the way Mexico does it: charred, then dressed in a slick of crema and mayo, blanketed in salty cotija, hit with lime and chili until the whole thing is sweet, sour, creamy, and a little fiery all at once. Scrape it off the cob into a cup and it becomes esquites, eaten with a spoon on the walk home. Either way it's one of the great street snacks anywhere.

The thing elote really wants is live fire — that smoky char from corn turned over coals is part of its DNA, and an air fryer can't bottle smoke. But it can blister. At 400°F, turned a few times, the kernels brown and caramelize in a way that's honestly close, with none of the grill setup. You give up a little smoke; you gain a side dish you can make on a Tuesday in February.

Note the dairy and egg here — the crema, cotija, and mayonnaise are the dressing's whole personality, so this one isn't built for those allergies. The corn itself, charred and squeezed with lime, is delicious bare if you need it to be.

Char the cobs in our go-to air fryer; give them room to turn and they'll brown evenly.