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Grilled Corn Tacos Recipe with Chicken and Tarragon Sauce

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Grilled Corn Tacos with chicken have never been more delicious than when adding the sweet and roasted flavor of grilled corn and a flavorful tarragon cream sauce. Add your favorite taco toppings for an easy weeknight meal.

Grilled Corn and Chicken Tacos on a white plate

When corn is in season, our favorite thing to do is grill it. It adds a sweet flavor to any dish you add it to with the nice roasted flavor that comes from cooking over fire. Add some freshly grilled chicken to these corn tacos for an amazing weeknight meal.

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Ingredients

The two key ingredients to this dish are the grilled corn and grilled chicken. If you want to save time, just grab a pre-roasted chicken from the store (I won’t tell anyone you didn’t grill it yourself). Next, find your favorite corn or flour tortillas. From there you can top with your favorite things in a taco. For us that is:

  • Shaved Radishes – Cut thinly or use a mandolin, and leave the skin on. It adds a nice bright crunch and fresh flavor.
  • Purple Cabbage – We like this for the crunch, texture, and color to the corn taco.
  • Cilantro – Add some fresh chopped cilantro for an herbal flavor.
  • Tarragon Cream Sauce – This has been our favorite garnish all summer. We started using it on our smashed potatoes, but discovered it’s fantastic on so much more, including these corn tacos!

That’s it for us and these delicious corn tacos. Very simple so the corn, chicken, and the sauce are the real stars.

Tip: When buying corn, two ears will make roughly one cup of grilled corn which is good for six tacos. So plan four ears if you make a lot of tacos.

Preparation

  1. Grill the corn with the husks on to prevent the corn from burning over direct heat just before making the tacos.
  2. To prepare the corn the start by gently pulling back on the husks and remove the fibers from the corn. Then close the husks again and soak the corn in water for an hour.
  3. After soaking, remove them, drain, and pat dry. Then they are ready to season and grill.
Grilled Corn and a whole Grilled Chicken on a sheet pan

Advanced Preparation – Consider buying a store-bought roaster chicken or even grilling the chicken in advance using our whole roasted chicken recipe, and then shred the meat. You can also make the sauce in advance so you only have to grill the corn and prep the corn tacos. Simply warm up the shredded chicken in a cast iron pan with some olive oil.

Tarragon Cream Sauce

Adding tarragon to the sauce gives a fresh and bright flavor with a very mild licorice note (but it’s not overbearing and is balanced with the remaining ingredients). Simply place the ingredients in a blender or small food processor until smooth. It will last a couple of days and also makes for a great salad dressing.

The inspiration for the sauce came from our smashed potatoes recipe.

Grilled Corn Tacos

Four ears of corn on a grill
Direct grilling with husks on.

For grilled corn tacos the key is to make sure the corn is cooked just right. To do that we grill the corn over two-zone grilling with the husks on the corn. You can see more details as to how we do that in our grilled corn with compound butter sauce.

  1. Start with setting the grill up for two-zone grilling targeting 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit in the cooking chamber.
  2. Season the soaked and dried corn with a little olive oil. Optional: Sprinkle some dry rub over it. Place the corn, with husk on, over direct heat and grill.
  3. Rotate the corn after five minutes or until you see a nice char form on the husk. Rotate three more times until all four sides of the corn is grilled. Adjust the time down if your fire is burning too hot.
  4. Remove from the grill. Take off the husks and discard them. Place the corn on a cutting board and slice off the corn from the cob using a good knife.
  5. Warm the tortillas on the indirect side of the grill and then assemble the tacos with corn, shredded chicken, and your favorite toppings. Finish with a drizzle of the tarragon cream sauce.
Griilled Corn tacos on a platter with sauce.

Other Taco Recipes

Sauce Inspirations

Here are a few other salsas and sauce inspirations as alternatives to the tarragon sauce.

Grilled Corn and Chicken Tacos on a white plate

Grilled Corn Tacos Recipe with Chicken and Tarragon Sauce

A great corn taco recipe with chicken and a fresh tarragon sauce. Best with Corn Tortillas.
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate Save
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Time to Soak Corn Husks (see notes): 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 563kcal
Author: Mary Cressler | Vindulge
Cost: $15

Ingredients

Grilled Corn Chicken Tacos

  • 4 ears corn, husks on (soaked and dried)
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cups shredded pre-grilled grilled chicken (roughly one small roaster chicken)
  • 8 corn tortillas
  • ½ cup thinly sliced purple cabbage
  • ¼ cup finely diced cilantro
  • ¼ cup diced radishes
  • 1 avocado, sliced

Tarragon Cream Sauce

  • ½ cup spinach, roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest (zest of one lemon)
  • 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (½ of large lemon)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chives, roughly chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, smashed
  • 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup whole fat Greek yogurt

Instructions

The Tarragon Cream Sauce

  • Combine all ingredients up until the anchovy paste in a food processor and pulse until well chopped. Mix in the mayonnaise, sour cream, and greek yogurt until combined and smooth.

Grilled Corn

  • Start with setting the grill up for two-zone grilling targeting 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit in the cooking chamber.
  • Season the soaked and dried corn with a little olive oil. Optional: Sprinkle some dry rub over it. Place the corn, with husk on, over direct heat and grill.
  • Rotate the corn after five minutes or until you see a nice char form on the husk. Rotate three more times until all four sides of the corn is grilled. Adjust the time down if your fire is burning too hot.
  • Remove from the grill. Take off the husks and discard them. Place the corn on a cutting board and slice off the corn from the cob using a good chef knife.
  • Assemble Tacos: Place some of the chicken and corn on a warm corn tortilla. Then layer the radish, cabbage, avocado, and cilantro. Finish with a drizzle of the tarragon cream sauce.

Notes

For warm tortillas, add them to the indirect side of the grill in a stack wrapped in foil to warm them up.
*Time: The total time it takes to make this recipe includes the time needed to soak the corn in its husks. 
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For details on grilling corn, see this post. 
For details on grilling chicken, see this post. 

Nutrition

Calories: 563kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 120mg | Sodium: 300mg | Potassium: 663mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 971IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 150mg | Iron: 4mg
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