Warm Mexican Bean and Chicken Salad with Corn and Pickled Onion

Step-by-step recipe

1. You can make the warm bean and chicken salad with canned beans or, if you can, cook the beans yourself. Red and white beans are sold canned in jars of various sizes, or dried, which just need cooking. Choose whatever suits you.
2. To make the salad for two, you need 0.5 cup of each kind of dried beans or one small can of each. Dried beans need soaking in cold water for several hours, or better yet overnight. Naturally, red and white beans must be soaked and cooked separately.
   
3. Peel the red onion and cut it into very thin strips. Put the onion in a small bowl and pour over 1 tbsp of grape vinegar. Let the onion marinate for up to 1 hour.
4. Cook the beans in plenty of water at a very gentle simmer with the pot uncovered. Beans easily fall apart as they cook, their skins burst, and they turn to mush. So don't rush it, and don't add baking soda, salt and so on to the water. Just cook the beans until tender at a very gentle simmer. Drain the cooked beans in a colander and transfer them to bowls, covered with a saucer. If you're using canned beans, rinse off the canning liquid.
5. We'll make the salad with chicken breast. To cook the fillet, you can follow the method for a chicken cutlet, just searing the meat and skipping all the spices. Chicken breast is very easy to pound flat, to a thickness of about 2-2.5 cm.
   
6. Heat the grill: a charcoal barbecue, an electric grill or a grill pan. Put the pounded chicken breast on the hot grate and cook for 4-5 mins. As soon as the underside starts to brown, flip the chicken.
7. Cook the chicken breast until fully done. If the very center isn't cooked through, flip the meat and cook a little longer, but after the first 4-5 mins don't cook either side for more than 1.5-2 mins; flip more often. The chicken should be very well done and release no liquid when cut.
   
8. Wash the mixed fresh herbs very well and pat them dry with a paper towel. Strip all the leaves from the sprigs, discarding the stems. Chop all the herbs very finely with a knife. In a small bowl, mix 1 tbsp of the chopped herbs, a pinch of salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Stir and add 0.5 tsp of the grape vinegar the onion is marinating in. Wait 10 mins for the salt to dissolve. Then add 3-4 tbsp of olive oil and mix the oil and herbs thoroughly with a fork.
   
9. On a large plate, starting from the edge, lay out stripes of drained canned corn and the cooked red and white beans. Leave room on the plate for the grilled chicken. The beans and corn shouldn't be mixed before serving. The bean and chicken salad looks quite colorful and is served that way, then mixed right at the table or just before dishing out.
   
10. With a sharp knife, cut the cooled but still slightly warm chicken breast in half lengthwise, then slice it on the diagonal into narrow strips. Put the chicken in the remaining space on the plate with the beans and corn.
    
11. Squeeze the leftover grape vinegar out of the marinated onion and scatter it along the edge of the plate, separating the strips so they don't stick together. Sprinkle the rest of the chopped herbs along the edge. As a nice bonus, add a few small pickled chili peppers, or, just as fine, sprinkle with 1-2 pinches of coarsely ground chili.
    
12. Drizzle the dish with the prepared dressing, better in the center than all over. The salad will be mixed and the dressing will spread evenly.
13. The bean and chicken salad is very colorful and a treat for the eyes, and its aroma tickles the nose. Don't chill the salad: serve it right away while the grilled chicken is still a little warm.
    
14. Once it's on the table, mix the salad with a spoon and dish it out onto plates with high rims. It looks very pretty served in colorful ceramic or earthenware. Be sure to garnish the salad with sprigs of cilantro and dill.
    
15. Tasty bean and chicken salad is a great appetizer in every sense, though it can easily be a main course too.