This quick chipotle lime sauce is ready in under three minutes for thick, tangy, smoky, creamy, spicy goodness. Dollop on tacos, use as a dipping sauce, or thin with a little water and drizzle over everything!
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⭐Why you’ll love it
- It’s fabulous with tacos, grilled dishes, other Mexican-inspired dishes, roasted vegetables, salads, and sandwiches.
- This recipe yields a silky, thick sauce with a texture similar to mayonnaise, which, like this tasty Algerian sauce, is perfect for slathering on food or dipping wedges or fries into.
- Replace boring old regular mayonnaise with this sauce for an instant flavor upgrade.
- If you’d prefer to drizzle this sauce, you can just thin it with a little water.
- It’s vegetarian and egg-free, so it’s perfect for entertaining folks with certain dietary requirements.
- It comes together quickly with no chopping or peeling needed.
I was inspired to come up with this dish because of my love of amazing spicy sauces (check out my super quick mojo picón, spicy labneh, and spicy crema sauces as well). If you like creamy but not spicy, try my herbed cottage cheese dip.
🛒Ingredients and substitutions
Chipotle peppers: Use the soft whole peppers that are packed in adobo sauce. I prefer La Costeña or the San Marcos brand. There is no real substitute for these; in a pinch, you could try using red jalapeño peppers and smoked paprika to taste.
Honey: If you don’t have any honey, you can substitute it with agave syrup or corn syrup, or rice syrup. Don’t use maple syrup, the flavor is too overpowering here.
Oil: Use any plain flavorless oil here, like canola, corn, sunflower, etc. Don’t use olive oil, it will overpower the lime and honey.
Lime juice: Use fresh lime juice preferably, but if you don’t have any try substituting it with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Cilantro: I love the taste of cilantro in this sauce, but if you don’t like it or don’t have it, you can omit it as it’s not essential.
Sour cream: If you don’t have sour cream, you can use crème fraiche or Greek yogurt instead. Greek yogurt is slightly tangier, so I would reduce the lime juice by a teaspoon.
See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for exact quantities.
👩🍳How to make it
Add all the ingredients to a blender or food processor. You can also add all the ingredients to a clean deep narrow container and use a stick blender to emulsify the sauce.
Blend or process until smooth and thickened, which will take around one to two minutes. Serve!
Hint: You will get the smoothest, silkiest results if you use a smaller food processor jar or a smoothie jar.
💡Expert tips
- Don’t drain or wash the chipotle peppers after removing them from the adobo sauce; just add them as is, coated in the delicious sauce.
- This is a spicy sauce. For medium spicy, add three peppers; for hot, add four. If in doubt, add less. You can always blend another one in later on.
🍽️Serving suggestions
I use chipotle lime sauce in so many different ways, but here are a few ideas:
- Slather it on bread when making sandwiches, instead of using mayonnaise or butter.
- Spread inside or drizzle over tacos and burritos.
- Use instead of salsa.
- Dip tortilla chips, fries, mozzarella sticks, or potato wedges into it.
- Thin with a little water and drizzle over roasted or grilled vegetables, or use as dressing for a Tex-Mex style salad.
- Drizzle over a burrito bowl.
- Dip quesadillas in it (like these delicious quesadillas de papa) or add to this epic quesadilla platter.
- Mix into the ingredients inside enchiladas, like in these tasty chickpea enchiladas.
- Dip this delicious guacamole burrito in it.
❄️Storage
This sauce will keep in a jar or a tightly covered container in the fridge for up to five days. Note that the longer it chills, the spicier it will be!
You can freeze this sauce in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container for up to three months.
❓Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It’s spicy! Three peppers will give medium heat, and four hot, but if in doubt, you can always just add one and then add the rest to taste after blending the first time.
Yes, you could substitute it for the oil.
You can find them in most large supermarkets in the US in the Tex-Mex section. Outside of the US, you may have to visit a specialty shop or order them online.
Store them in the fridge for up to three days in a lidded container, or freeze them for up to three months.
Did you make this dish? Let me know how much you loved it with a star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐and a comment below.
More Tasty Sauces
📖 Recipe
Quick Chipotle Lime Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a small blender bowl or food processor bowl.
- Blend or process until smooth. It should be nice and thick but if you prefer a more flowing consistency, you can simply add a little milk or water to thin it.
- Done! Enjoy!
Clement
This was amazing, I didn’t expect it to be so thick but it was so good, we had it on our tacos instead of salsa.
Deirdre Gilna
Thanks Clement, so glad you enjoyed it!