Chipotle ranch dressing is a spicy, smoky homemade dressing that is perfect for salads, tacos, chicken, or as a dip for vegetables or chips.
This chipotle ranch dressing is a delicious salad dressing that can be made in only a couple of minutes. It’s a great way to kick up the flavor of your favorite salads, and other recipes.
Happy May! It’s Cinco de Mayo! Although I’m not sure how much it will be celebrated this year, but it will also be Taco Tuesday, so we might as well try and enjoy a little Mexican or Mexican inspired food, like our huevos rancheros recipe for breakfast, or some guacamole on top of some yummy chicken tacos. Or this chipotle ranch dressing on pretty much anything.
Back in college I worked at the sports grill on campus, I mentioned it before in our philly cheese steak pizza post, and in my bbq pulled pork sandwich post. The food was pretty delicious, and one thing we made was a southwest chicken salad with black beans and corn and grilled chicken, all topped with a simple chipotle ranch dressing.
Back then we made the chipotle ranch dressing just by dicing up chili peppers in adobo sauce and mixing it with ranch dressing. Which is basically what this recipe is, except you’re starting with a homemade ranch dressing for adding the chili peppers into, some cilantro, and a little bit of fresh lime juice. But I’ll give you directions for just adding the peppers in adobo and lime to premade ranch dressing too, in case you don’t have and don’t want to buy the other ingredients.
This salad dressing is naturally a little spicy, but you can add as much or as little spice to this dressing. For the dressing you need a least 1 chili pepper to make this a chipotle ranch, but you can choose if you want to add 2 or 3 if you want it spicier. I added 2 1/2 and didn’t think it was too spicy. The sour cream mixed with the chipotle pepper helps keep this dressing cool, and contrasts well to the spice of the adobo peppers.
How to make Chipotle Ranch Dressing?
This chipotle ranch dressing is so easy to make. You literally just add all the ingredients to a food processor, or blender and blend on high for about 30 seconds till it’s all combined. And voila.
I recommend putting the dressing in the fridge for an hour or so, to help the flavors meddle together a little more and to help the dressing thicken up.
If you don’t have a blender or food proccesor you can also combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir them together by hand. You’ll just want to dice up your fresh cilantro into super small pieces first.
If you want to start with a ranch mix make the packet according to the package directions. Or start with a bottle of ranch dressing. Then blend that up in a food processor with the cilantro, lime juice and chipotle peppers in adobo as called for in the recipe.
How long is chipotle ranch dressing good for?
The chipotle ranch dressing will stay good store in an airtight container with a lid, for up to 1 week in the fridge.
This chipotle ranch dressing is a little bit spicy, smoky, and so delicious. It’s so easy to make, and it’s perfect on salads, tacos, chicken, as a dip for vegetables, or tortilla chips. (Stay tuned for a yummy southwest pasta salad made with this chipotle ranch dressing coming Wednesday)
Looking for more dressing recipes?
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Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (to taste)**
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp salt (to taste)
- 1/4 tsp chives
- 1/4 tsp parsley
- 1/4 tsp dill
- 1/3 cup cilantro (packed)
- 1/2 lime (juiced)
Instructions
- Add everything to a food processor or blender.
- Blend on high until the mixture is smooth.
- Serve on your choice of salads, chicken, chips, vegetables, etc.
Notes
Nutrition
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Barbara Felton-Wilson says
Hi! I’m Barbara and I haven’t tried the recipe yet. But I have a question about substitutions. It’s about cilantro. I’m one of those people who cilantro tastes like soap instead of lemony. Is there something I could substitute for cilantro? Help!
Aimee says
You can just leave it out!