This easy chipotle sauce is one of my favorite condiments! It's a delicious dipping sauce or topping for tacos, veggie burgers, and bowls.
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This chipotle sauce will punch up any meal! It’s smoky, creamy, tangy, and easy to make with simple ingredients. I started making the recipe to put on the cauliflower tacos in my first cookbook, and now I love it on everything from burrito bowls to breakfast tacos to hearty salads. If you try it, I think you’ll fall for it too!
I say this all the time, but I truly believe that the key to a great veggie meal (or any meal, really) is a great sauce. This creamy chipotle sauce is one of the best—it adds SO much flavor to whatever you’re eating. Keep reading to learn how to make it (and yes, there’s a vegan version!).
How to Make the Best Chipotle Sauce
What’s the secret to making a great chipotle mayo? Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They have an amazing smoky, spicy flavor that makes them one of my go-to ingredients in savory recipes. If you’ve never used chipotles in adobo, don’t worry—they’re not hard to find. Most grocery stores carry them in the Mexican aisle. After you make this recipe, use your leftover chipotles in BBQ jackfruit sliders, black bean soup, or tofu sofritas!
In this recipe, I balance the heat of the chipotles with sweetness from honey, richness from Greek yogurt and mayonnaise, and brightness from lime to make an addictive sauce. Garlic adds savory bite, and a little olive oil loosens the sauce.
It’s easy to make—just pulse the ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Variations
- Make it vegan. Use vegan mayo in place of the yogurt and regular mayonnaise. Replace the honey with maple syrup.
- No yogurt? No problem. Replace it with sour cream. You could also sub in additional mayo to make a chipotle aioli.
How to Use Chipotle Sauce
Ok, you’ve made your chipotle sauce. Now what do you do with it?
You have so many tasty options! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Use it as a dipping sauce. Its smoky flavor is fantastic with sweet potato fries, air fryer French fries, air fryer cauliflower, and more! It even tastes great on tortilla chips.
- Put it on a sandwich or veggie burger. I love it on this veggie burger and this black bean burger.
- Drizzle it over a grain bowl. Try it on your next burrito bowl!
- Or pair it with tacos or burritos. I love it on these mango tacos and these cauliflower tacos. It’s also yummy with a breakfast burrito or these vegan burritos.
How do you like to use homemade chipotle sauce? Let me know in the comments!
Leftover chipotle sauce keeps well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
More Homemade Sauces
If you loved this chipotle sauce recipe, try making these easy sauces next:
- Chipotle Ranch Dressing
- Cilantro Lime Crema
- Spicy Mayo
- Remoulade Sauce
- Avocado Sauce
- Tzatziki Sauce
- Homemade BBQ Sauce
Creamy Chipotle Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup whole milk Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise, Sir Kensington’s is best here
- 1 chipotle pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a food processor, place the yogurt, mayo, chipotle pepper, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, and honey. Add a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of pepper and blend until smooth. Season to taste with more salt and pepper.
Notes
The sauce was good but the raw garlic was awful and overpowering. Next time I’d either use garlic powder or a roasted garlic clove.
This was so yummy. My husband was in total agreement with me. It reminds me of the pink sauce you get with sushi sometimes, but with the smoky flavor of the adobo. Next time I make a veggie platter for a party this has to be one of the dips. We had it with roasted salmon and a freezer clean-out of other veg. I tossed it in salad and smeared some on top of the salmon. It would be great with the Crispy Air Fryer Tofu from this site.
I’m so glad you loved it, Liz!
It was okay…. the addition of lime zest, double the fresh lime juice, and a few tablespoons of ranch powder took this from good to drinkable. Liked the base recipe but it needed tweaks to really pack that chipotle flavor punch. I would also lower the greek yogurt to 1/3 a cup next time. There is just too much bland yogurt flavor.
Hi Allison, glad you enjoyed it with those tweaks!
Really good, it was a little sweet I use honey so added a little more lime (I did not measure so maybe did not use a full teaspoon of lime) and added a little chipotles put it on a black bean burger, will make again with less honey.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, thank you for your feedack.
This is an amazing base recipe!! I made it as is and it was delish! I personally just had made some tweaks, but highly highly recommend trying! It’s so hard to find good sauce recipe with greek yogurt so good job to Love And Lemons!
I mixed one part chipotle to two parts orange marmalade. Makes a delicious orange sauce for orange chicken.
delicious!
This is delicious! Thank you ❤️
Is there something not dairy?I can use instead of yogurt?
Hi Lesley, yep! Just replace the yogurt with more mayo. Vegan mayo works too!
Hi! Could I omit the mayo and use all greek yogurt instead?
you could – I’d add a bit more salt, to taste.
East and delish!
Can you warm up this sauce?
I love this sauce. Have made it many times for tacos, burritos, even on a sandwich. The BEST! Thank you!
This is so good! I added an additional Chipotle pepper in my second batch, for a little extra kick. The family devoured it!
So glad you loved it, Michelle!
My go to for taco sauce, whether is chicken, pork or fish. Amazing!
Delicious! I only had enough to make a half batch, and it was gone in a day. I think purchased more yogurt and made some more mayo to make a double batch. We love it hot here, so in my double batch, I did a bit more than half a cup of chipotle purée. I used non-dairy yogurt and made an aquafaba-based vegan mayo. So good!
No details on calories, fat in Ranch dressing?????
OK, I will definitely give it a try when I get home. It does look good.👍
As a Mexican I can say it’s a bit bland. My whole family & I thought it needed more flavor! It’s a good recipe for non Latinos. Thank you for your effort!
Do you have a more Mexican recipie??
I thought it was bland too just spicy ( I’m not Mexican but Puerto Rican . We don’t like hot lol) we had to do a lot of doctoring. I made it into a coleslaw for zucchini poblano tacos.
Made it exactly as is. My boyfriend and I loved it, next time I’m going to double the recipe.
Amazing! Have been making a batch weekly and using for various dishes. Thank you!
I was looking for a sauce for me fish tacos, I definitely found it. The smokey and slightly hot sauce is fantastic.
I’m so glad you loved it!
It was a hit. My husband loved it too!