Husk On Or Off? Here's How You Should Be Grilling Corn On The Cob

Death, taxes, and peeling the husk and silks from a corn cob. Certain things in life are inescapable, and if you want to enjoy freshly grilled corn on the cob, you're going to have to get your hands messy to unwrap the golden kernels that await inside. But the timing of the husk removal can vary, depending on how you prefer to cook your corn. We spoke to chef Emily Yuen during the New York City Wine & Food Fest, who told us exactly how she prefers to grill her corn on the cob.

"I like to barbecue corn," says chef Yuen. Rather than cleaning and stripping each cob individually before grilling, Yuen says, "I keep it in the husk and barbecue the whole thing in the husk. It steams and chars at the same time." Yuen tells us that the beauty of keeping a cob of corn whole and in its husk is that the husk acts "like a natural foil — and the strings kind of disappear too." When you use a grill with high heat for corn cobs still in their husks, Yuen says that they cook evenly, "like a steamed grill. You just throw it on the grill like that." If you don't have access to a grill, you can always use your oven to cook corn on the cob with its husk on, as the same principles apply; however, note that they will take longer to cook in the oven.

When asked about the best way to bring out the smoky sweetness from grilled corn, chef Emily Yuen told us that "you can't go wrong with really good French salted butter — lots of it." For more flavor than just pure smoky corn and delicious butter, Yuen prefers "cheese and something spicy, like chili powder. You can make a chili butter, that's the best thing." You can make a chipotle chili butter like Gordon Ramsay, or lean into the sidewalk delicacy known as elote with our grilled Mexican street corn recipe. 

Arguably, one of the main perks of using a grill for either meat or vegetables is the delectable char and smokiness that comes from direct contact with the grill grates. So if you're looking for those beautiful char marks on the actual corn cobs, you can always cook the cobs in the husks until tender, then remove the husks (do this carefully as they will be extremely hot), and toss the exposed corn cobs back on the grill for a moment to get those grill marks. Once the corn has been grilled, Yuen prefers to "just cut it off the cob," and you can easily do this without cutting through the kernels, which is a favorite move of professional chefs to keep the kernels whole and intact, although this method does require a sharp knife and some patience until you get used to the method.