Chipotle sauce is an easy way to add smokiness, heat, and zesty flavor to any dish. It can be drizzled over tacos, fajitas, and bowls or enjoyed as a creamy dip. And bonus—it’s incredibly easy to make with just a few pantry staples.
Why You’ll Love This Chipotle Sauce
When I’ve got Mexican recipes lined up for the week, this chipotle sauce (also known as chipotle crema) is a necessity. It’s similar to my lime crema, but with a bolder, smokier, and spicier kick, thanks to chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Chipotle peppers are red jalapeños that are smoked and dried, then rehydrated in a tangy, rich, and slightly sweet tomato-based sauce. Together, they create a zesty, spicy, and flavor-packed combo, which is why they’re often sold in jars together. Aside from the irresistible flavor, here’s why I think you’ll love this sauce as much as I do:
- It’s quick and easy. Just toss everything into a food processor and blend away.
- It stores well. Keep it in the fridge to use throughout the week. I’ve also got tips for storing any leftover chipotle peppers below.
- Endless ways to use it. I love making creamy chipotle shrimp with it or drizzling it over my birria tacos, salmon tacos, or a chipotle chicken bowl. You can even scale it up for parties!
Chipotle Sauce Ingredients
- Mayonnaise: This is the creamy base for the chipotle sauce. I use my homemade mayonnaise (it’s so easy to make!).
- Sour cream: Adds extra creaminess and a subtle tang.
- Chipotle peppers in adobo: I use two peppers and a bit of the adobo sauce, but feel free to add an extra pepper if you like more heat.
- Lime juice, garlic, and salt: The acidity from the lime balances the spice, while the garlic and salt round out the flavor with a zesty, savory finish.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How To Make It
For the best consistency, I find that using a mini food processor works best. Just blend the mayo, sour cream, chipotle peppers (plus a bit of the adobo sauce), lime juice, garlic, and a pinch of salt until smooth and creamy. I like to taste it at the end and adjust with a little extra lime juice or salt if needed.
Common Questions
Any leftover sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. For leftover chipotle peppers, I recommend freezing them in a freezer-safe bag or container. They’ll keep for about 3 months and thaw easily when you’re ready to make more sauce.
Absolutely! For a dairy-free version, swap the sour cream with cashew sour cream. To make it fully vegan, use both cashew sour cream and a vegan mayonnaise.
If you can’t find chipotle peppers, chipotle powder works in a pinch! One dried chipotle pepper is equivalent to about ½ teaspoon of chipotle powder. If that’s not quite enough heat, you can always add a bit more and blend again.
Make my slow cooker barbacoa recipe! It’s a reader favorite recipe.
Ways To Use Chipotle Sauce
- Use it as a dipping sauce for baked zucchini fries, sweet potato fries, yuca fries, or crispy chicken tenders.
- It’s the perfect crema to drizzle on chicken fajitas, steak fajitas, shrimp tacos, carne asada tacos, or even breakfast tacos. It’s also great on a burrito bowl or this taco salad.
- Slather it as a spicy mayo alternative for chicken wraps, breakfast burritos, burgers, or turkey burgers.
- Cook it with meats and seafood such as chipotle chicken, grilled shrimp, steak (carne asada), or grilled salmon.
More Sauce Recipes
- Chimichurri Sauce: My favorite herby sauce for grilled meats!
- Tzatziki Sauce: A must-make with Mediterranean dishes.
- Tartar Sauce: The perfect dipping sauce for seafood.
- Tahini Sauce: A Middle Eastern favorite.
- Or browse through my list of sauces and dressings!
If you make this chipotle sauce recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’re hungry for more healthy food inspiration and exclusive content, join my free newsletter here.
Description
Video
Equipment
- Mini Food Processor The best tool for making sauces!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- ½ lime, juiced
- 1 clove garlic
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Add all ingredients. In a food processor, add the mayo, sour cream, chipotle peppers (plus a little additional sauce), lime juice, garlic and a pinch of salt.
- Blend. Process until the sauce becomes smooth and creamy.
- Taste test to see if you need to add any more lime juice or salt.
Lisa’s Tips
- This recipe yields about 1 ½ cups of chipotle sauce.
- Storage tip: Any leftover sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. For storing the leftover chipotle peppers, I recommend freezing them in a freezer-safe bag or container. They’ll stay good for about 3 months and can thaw easily to make more chipotle sauce in the future.
- Make it spicier: Just add an extra half of a chipotle pepper to the food processor
Nutrition
©Downshiftology. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Recipe originally published July 2020, but updated to include new photos and information for your benefit!
Made this sauce today to put on some beef tips. So delicious!
Wonderful! Glad this sauce was the perfect pairing, Rodney.
I didn’t waste a minute making this and it is a winner! My husband has a favorite chipotle ranch salad dressing and this has taken its place! It is easy to make and so versatile. We use it as a dressing, dip and sauce for everything under the sun!
Sounds like you’ve found a new perennial winning chipotle sauce! Enjoy, Adrienne.
Great sauce with the creamy chipotle shrimp recipe, I may keep it on hand for carrots and celery, it’s so tasty!
The chipotle sauce is great for so many things, including as a dip for veggies. Enjoy, Jennifer!
Made as directed. It was wonderful! Served on ground beef tacos with shredded cabbage.
What a delicious way to use this chipotle sauce! Glad it was a hit, Michele.
This looks delicious! Can I use an immersion blender if I don’t have a food processor?
Hi Jen – yes, that should work fine. Enjoy!
Made this to add flavor to my fajitas and it was a hit. My family really like how this sauce elevated the taste of the dish.
This chipotle sauce with fajitas is the perfect pairing! Glad the whole family loved this recipe, Margie.
So great! Using on rice bowls. Thank you!
I’m sure this tastes amazing on protein rice bowls!
I added Oregano and Cumin. I found it not spicy enough. The next time we used it I added Tapatio sauce until it spiced up.
My wife also liked it much better after spicing it up.
How do I add a picture?
Hi Dale – I’m glad you enjoyed this chipotle sauce with a little extra kick!
Just okay for me. Made it exactly as written at first then added another pepper and more sauce but it was still kind of bland.
When I make this sauce I always double it because it is that good. Everyone who tries it always asks for the recipe. I usually use low fat mayo and replace sour cream with plain Greek yogurt. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Happy you love it, Lisa! And smart move to make a double batch. ;)
I feel like i should have seen this coming – this recipe was much too sour for my tastes. I only used a small amount of lime, and a pretty low vinegar mayo, but with all the ingredients being sour, the result was not palatable for me.
I always use a good strong sour cream (daisy). If i try this again, i will need to find a sour reduction scheme.
Thanks for sharing your recipe!
-greg frohring
Can I use a blender instead?
Hi Cee – You can use a blender, but you might need to double the ingredients to make sure you have enough liquid in your blender.
Can I use it to cook with? I wanted to make chipotle pasta with chicken, will this sauce work for it? I would appreciate your help. Thanks
Hi Maria – Yes! I use it to make my chipotle shrimp recipe, but you could also do chicken and pasta.
My wife and I had lunch in Matamoros, Mexico yesterday. She had “Chipotle Chicken” and I had “Chipotle Trout”. Both were outstanding. The “sauce” was just such a special flavor, for all sorts of dishes. Yummy stuff. Thanks for all of this information?
Hi Lahry – I’m so glad you made such delicious dishes with this chipotle sauce!
Thanks for the help. I have been doing things with Chipotles in Adobo since I first tasted them. My first project was to Craft a Barbeque Sauce. That was a great idea that I still use. Then I moved on to Crema. I haven’t use mayo on mine, but now I will!
There really is so much you can make with chipotles in adobo. That’s wonderful you’re experimenting with lots of creative ideas, John. Enjoy this chipotle sauce!
I think I over-processed it and now it’s runny and not really creamy. Any suggestions on how to thicken it up?
This is excellent! I wish I had made double the amount for the meatloaf, which is wonderful.
Thank you for the recipes.
Hi Diana – I’m glad you loved this chipotle sauce!
Great recipe! Simple and delicious. Adding this to my sauce tab of ingredients.
Happy you loved it, Janeth!
This sauce is amazing. It’s so creamy and flavorful. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by how good this sauce was.
Thanks Jill! It’s simple but really packed with flavor. :)
Love the smokey flavor from this sauce! And it isn’t spicy at all!
Hi, do you have a suggestion for a dairy free option for this sauce?
Thank you!
You can use any vegan sour cream. You could also use the cashew cream recipe on my website, though it will be a bit thinner.
It’s perfect!
Happy to hear you’re loving this chipotle sauce!
Super excited to try this! Just curious, I’d the nutrition label at the bottom per serving? If so, how much is in a serving?
This is a first for me. I am so thankful you came into my file…well your recipes since I’ve never met you LOL. I have never had Chipotle anything. I mixed this up last night and added it to my tacos tonight. Yummy!! You have widened my outlook on food more then you will ever know.
Thanks so much for leaving a review and glad your first try at this chipotle sauce was a success for taco night, Juden!
SO GOOD! I did end up adding a little more lime juice, because I like it zingy. Yummy!
Nothing wrong with a little extra lime juice! Glad you enjoyed it Tracy :)
Its still pretty good but the sourness from the sour cream kind of gets in the way of the Chipotle peppers. I like to use plain yogurt instead. I use two yogurt cups (10.6 oz), 7.5 oz can of Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, everything else in this recipe plus some cumin and a little cayenne and it turns out exactly how it would be from a burrito place.
This was so yummy on fish tacos! I used jalapeño cream instead of sour cream and it was a huge hit! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
So easy and so delicious. I make this all the time. Thanks for recipe, Lisa!
Trying to eat more veges. Got more dip recipes? Hubbie eats a lot of dip from Costco.
Thank you very much!
If you head over to my appetizers/snacks category, you will find more!
I could eat this by the spoonful! I made it to go with fish tacos and it was wiped out in one sitting. Even my picky daughter liked it!
Glad you and your family enjoyed this chipotle sauce!
Subbed Greek Yogurt for sour cream and it was great!
Best tasting homemade dressing. Supper spicy so I have to lesson the amount of Chipotle in Adobo. I think it pairs amazingly with Lisa’s Tuna meatballs!
Sounds delicious with the tuna meatballs!
So delicious!! is it ok to freeze if I make extra and how long is it good for in the freezer?
This will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months!
Do you have a recommendation for chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that has a clean ingredient statement?
I’ve had a hard time finding chipotle peppers in adobo sauce without the inflammatory gmo oils. Might be something we have to make from scratch.
I’ve done several sauces for various taco/quesadilla recipes. This one is my favorite!
Delicious dip! We had it with tacos!
Glad you enjoyed this chipotle sauce Katie!
Hi Lisa,
Unfortunately, you can’t buy chipotle peppers in adobo sauce where I live. Is it possible to replace them with chipotle chilli powder or do you have another idea? I would so love to try your recipe for Creamy chipotle shrimp!
Hi Sabine – make sure to read my tips in the post above. :)
Hi Lisa,
I read your tip right after I posted the comment, but I couldn’t delete it anymore. I am so sorry! But since I asked, I already cooked this recipe 3 times and all just LOVE it!!! Thank you so much again for your delicious recipes!!
I doubled the chipolte peppers to give it more flavor. Very tasty.
Will definitely make this again.
Glad you enjoyed this sauce!
So delicious!!! Thank you Lisa 😉
Glad you enjoyed this chipotle sauce Asun!
The chipolte sauce is insane i loved it it is now my favorite sauce
A added 1tsp smoked paprika and 1,5 tsp chili powder to spice it up a bit.
I LOVE this on zucchini cakes (fake crab cakes). Thank you!
Great idea Susie! Thanks for leaving a review :)
Yes I ve tried this lunchtime it was perfect and I enjoyed, very tasty