Chipotle Corn Salad

With July 4th weekend quickly approaching many people are gearing up to host or attend a cookout.  Hubby (Master of the grill & smoker) and I love cooking out.  Summer staples for these events usually include squash, zucchini, beans and corn.  Normally, Hubby just rubs the corn with some blend of spices and grills it - delicious!

But I ran across this grilled corn salad in a Food & Wine annual cookbook and I knew I wanted to try this. This is a great alternative to the typical corn on the cob (which, for the record, I looove and could eat every day).

We loved this salad - which actually works not just as a side, but we also topped smoked chicken tacos with this corn mixture and it was to die for!

The char on some of the corn kernels give the salad some nice texture and smoke. More smokiness comes from the chiles. The recipe calls for removing the seeds from the chiles, but having worked with these a lot and loving the heat that the seeds bring, I chose to leave them in.

The lime juice keeps everything bright and the vidalia onions lend a tad of sweetness.

Also, I used fat free sour cream and it turned out wonderfully.

So if you are still working on your menu for this weekend or trying to decide what dish to bring to a cookout, I strongly suggest choosing this!

Chipotle Corn Salad

5 ears of corn
1/2 medium Vidalia or Walla Walla onion, thickly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and finely chopped
1 scallion, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
 
Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Brush the corn and onion slices with the olive oil and grill over moderately high heat until charred in spots but still slightly crisp, about 7 minutes. Let cool slightly, then cut the kernels from the cobs and coarsely chop the onion.

In a medium bowl, mix the sour cream with the lime juice, chopped chipotle chiles and sliced scallion and stir in the charred corn and onions. Season the corn salad with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

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