Maque choux combines corn, red peppers, green peppers, and sweet onion in a creamy sauce to make a beautiful, colorful side dish that tastes amazing!
Maque Choux
Today's recipe comes from Cooking with JB and Jamie, the cookbook from the famous Royers Roundtop Cafe in Round Top, Texas.
Pronounced "mock shoe," this Cajun dish is simple to make-but its origins are not quite so straightforward.
What Does Maque Choux Mean?
According to the Shreveport Times, there are no less than three theories on the origin of the phrase.
- Spanish settlers used the word machica for a dish of toasted cornmeal.
- Maigrchou, or "thin child" in French, for the practice of thinning the vegetable mixture with milk or cream.
- Moque-chou, or "mock cabbage," possibly indicating that the original recipe included cabbage.
A 1984 letter to the New York Times doesn't clear up the question, but it does offer a recipe from all the way back in 1967, in the out-of-print cookbook called Le Livre de la Cuisine de Lafayette. Unlike the Royers Round Top recipe, it includes a substantial quantity of tomatoes.
Maque Choux vs Succotash
The Tallahassee Democrat describes maque choux as a Southern type of succotash. Succotash is similar in that it contains a mixture of vegetables, but it's different because succotash typically contains legumes of some kind, whereas maque choux does not.
What to Serve with This Recipe
Maque choux can be served as a side dish with other Cajun or Southern dishes, like Creole Beef Tenderloin, Honey Cola Baked Ham, Shrimp and Grits, or Sweet Tea Brined Pork Tenderloin, or it can be elevated to a meal in itself by adding shrimp or sausage.
Be sure to check out Cooking with JB and Jamie for more Southern recipes with a Texas twist!
Maque Choux
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ sweet onion chopped
- ½ green bell pepper chopped
- ½ red bell pepper chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- 12 ounces frozen corn
- salt
- pepper
- pinch cayenne optional
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and bell peppers, cooking until onions are translucent.
- Stir in garlic. Cook for additional minute.
- Add corn. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add cayenne for a kick. Cook 1-2 minutes.
- Pour in cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer until cream reduces and thickens slightly (approximately 5 minutes).
- Pour into a serving dish. Garnish with red and green bell peppers.
Nutrition
For more background information on this dish, you can watch a similar recipe prepared by Southern Foodways here.
This turned out real well for me. Nice and simple, good balance of flavors.
Love the creamy version of maque choux. Good stuff.
That looks yummy. Is it like corn chowder? I love corn chowder.
This would be perfect to enjoy tonight for dinner.
This has such a huge blast of flavor! I made some for my family then my coworkers! Everyone loved it!
I am sure I'd love this. I haven't had it before but it looks delish!
Is it weird I want to dip tortilla chips in this? It looks so good!
That looks absolutely delicious and tasty! I would really love to try this recipe!
Wow! This is such a really amazing recipe! It looks absolutely delicious I love it!
This was really fun and easy to make. I'd give this a more than 5-star rating if I can.
This looks so yummy, I love the sweet little burst of flavor corn provides!
That looks absolutely delicious, I'd love to make this for my family. Thanks for sharing!
I love the cajun flavor so I will love this dish. It looks amazingly delicious!
I've never heard of this dish before, and it sounds tasty. I enjoy corn and spicy dishes, and this would be fun to make.
This turned out awesome. The alteration I made was to use all red bell pepper (no green pepper) and add chopped smoked sausage. I also smoked the cobs of corn before stripping the kernels. Smoke really gets into corn! And I used chipotle ancho for heat, which also builds on the smokiness. I got rave reviews.