Name: Easy Chipotle Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1 lemon or 2 limes, enough for 3 tablespoons juice; 2 tablespoons tahini; 2 tablespoons Mexican hot sauce (Cholula); 2 tablespoons olive oil; ½ teaspoon cumin; ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt; 1 teaspoon adobo sauce (from 1 can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce)

This easy chipotle sauce is zesty, smoky and creamy: perfect for tacos and burritos! The magic ingredient: canned adobo sauce.

In our household, Alex and I eat a lot of tacos. A lot of tacos. It’s probably our most frequent dinner: these 5 minute egg tacos save our nights often. So it’s pretty often that we’re searching for a tasty taco sauce. Meet our perfect match: this easy chipotle sauce! It’s creamy, savory, smoky and spicy: all at once! Drizzle it over tacos or burritos — even a burrito bowl — and it adds so much flavor, you might want to bathe in it.

A variation? Try this Chipotle Ranch Dressing!

Chipotle sauce ingredients

The magic ingredient in this chipotle sauce? Tahini. What is tahini? It’s a paste made of sesame seeds, typically used in Middle Eastern or Mediterranean dishes. Tahini is perfect for making creamy sauces for salads and tacos, but it’s also fantastic for desserts like cookies or as a replacement for peanut butter for peanut allergies. We use it in many of our vegan recipes as a creamy alternative to dairy. (Here are more tahini recipes you can make with it).

Here’s the full lineup of ingredients in this chipotle sauce:

Tahini
Lemon
Mexican hot sauce (we like Cholula brand)
Olive oil
Cumin
Adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (see more below!)

spoon hovering above glass filled with chipotle sauce

What is adobo sauce?

Alex and I use adobo sauce all the time to bring a savory, smoky flavor to Mexican dishes. What is adobo sauce?

Chipotles in adobo sauce are sold in most mainstream grocery stores here in the US, available next to the Mexican products.
The small can includes chipotle chiles, which are smoked and dried jalapeños that then are rehydrated and canned in adobo sauce, a purée of tomato, vinegar, garlic, and some other spices.

spicy tahini sauce in glass dish with spoon

Make sure to save leftover adobo sauce

Most of our recipes call for a very small amount of adobo sauce, because it’s super potent! Many times we only use the adobo sauce, not the chipotle chilis. In this sauce, we’ve called for only 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce. You can freeze the remainder of the chipotle chile in adobo sauce for future use. See below for more recipes to use up the can!

How to make chipotle sauce (some tips!)

Got all those ingredients? Simply mix all of the chipotle sauce ingredients together in a bowl and you’re good to go! Here are a few things to note:

The consistency of tahini brands differ. So your sauce may need a little more tahini or a little more water or lemon juice to get to the right consistency.
Store refrigerated, then warm to room temp. You’ll need to store the homemade chipotle sauce in an airtight container in the fridge. If it seems a little thick when you take it out of the fridge, let it sit on your counter for a few minutes before serving. Tahini tends to solidify when chilled.

Related: How to Make Vegan Nacho Cheese

More recipes with chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

If you bought chipotle chile in adobo sauce for this recipe and want ideas for using it up, here are a few of our recipes that use it!

Chipotle Aioli or Chipotle Crema Spicy sauces for burgers, fries and tacos.
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup A cozy, easy soup.
Refried Bean Tacos Serve with refried bean tacos!
Stuffed Delicata Squash Stuff your delicata squash with black beans and chipotle.
Quinoa Chili Adobo sauce brings big flavor to chili.
Avocado Quesadilla Drizzle over a quesadilla as a topping.

Chipotle Aioli

Chipotle Crema

Chipotle Ranch Dressing

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

This chipotle sauce recipe is…

Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and refined sugar free.