Ready for the best black bean and corn salad?

I have a good friend, Mary, who makes this corn salad so delicious, I just had to share it with you!  I'm sure she won't mind...  

For starters, you don't measure anything!  Begin with a large can of black beans.  Rinse them before putting in your bowl.  

Next, add a small bag of previously frozen corn (you can use fresh corn, but you probably would need about 10 ears to get enough!)  You want there to be approximately equal amounts of corn and beans.  

 

Chop half of a large purple onion.  Use a large bunch of fresh cilantro (because cilantro has such a long stem, I cut the bottom half of the stems off and only used the upper portion).  

Grind some sea salt and black pepper and squeeze in the juice of two limes.

I think, at this point, I deviated from her original recipe, because I drizzled in a bit of olive oil and sprinkled some rice vinegar.  All that is left is tasting it!   Make sure there is enough lime juice for the flavor....  

How easy is that?  Once I had that made, I decided to make some barbecued chicken thighs.  Did my usual thing of using the Baharat seasoning (which you can recreate by mixing the ingredients listed below).  I thickly sliced a vidalia onion and grilled everything together).  The key is not to over cook the chicken, so they took maybe 20 minutes on the grill, turning every so often.   

 

Once they were done, I brought them in, and painted them with Sweet Baby Rae's bbq sauce.  Covered the pan, and put in a low oven to finish, so I could make my wild rice.

I use any type or brand of wild rice, following the package instructions.  I use chicken broth instead of water.  I chopped part of the onion I used with the chicken and sauteed it. Once the rice is done, I add the onion, slivered almonds, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a handful of craisins.  Done!

What was interesting about this dinner, was that I started out wanting the corn and bean salad.  I then had to figure out what to have with it!  Usually, I figure out the main part of the meal first!  Either way, it was another yummy meal straight from my new kitchen...