Easiest Corn on the Cob EVER

Corn on the cob, home-grown tomatoes, watermelon, ripe peaches. This is summer, pure and simple. They’re all wonderful, but for the moment we’re just going to talk about that corn. It’s the quintessential summer vegetable, without which no cookout is complete.

But don’t you hate having to do all that cleaning first?

What if I told you that you can skip that step?

No, really, this is much, much easier. And it works every time.

Cut off both ends; throw them into the compost bucket. You can do this much ahead. But do the actual cooking as close to sitting-down-at-the-table time as you can manage.
Place the corn—still in the husks– in the microwave, in a single layer. Drape a paper towel over all (not essential, but it helps). Microwave on high till done. If you’re doing just 1 or 2 ears, that’s going to be about 4 or 5 minutes. If you have more, adjust the timing accordingly. Start with 5 minutes and check. Poke a kernel with the tip of a paring knife; it should feel tender.
Remove the ears from the microwave with tongs and set them on a platter for a few minutes till they’re cool enough to handle (that paper towel comes in handy here).

Now comes the magic part. Just peel off the husk and most of the silk comes with it. To remove any laggards, wipe each ear all around with the paper towel. And that’s all there is to it. You cooked AND cleaned those beauties in one step.
You should be doing this just before serving time, but if you’re done and the chicken is not quite ready, line up the corn on that platter and cover with a kitchen towel.
Similarly, if you’re feeding a large crowd and have to do your corn in batches, do the platter/towel thing for the first batch while you move on to the second.

I hit upon this technique last summer when I was jonesing for corn on the cob but just too tired to do all the work. I never thought it was particularly innovative; in fact, before I sent this to you I researched the topic and found several comments about cooking corn this way. Still, everyone I’ve shown this technique to has gone bonkers over it.

And, yes, I know you can do something very similar on a grill. If you have one. Which I don’t. So – – – -.

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER AFTER