How To Make Chipotle Ranch Dressing:
Pour apple cider vinegar into milk. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to “curdle” and become buttermilk. No, cashew and coconut milk will not curdle, but it does make it taste like buttermilk dressing so I don’t skip this step.
In a bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together mayonnaise, pressed garlic, parsley, green onions, white wine vinegar, “buttermilk”, and chipotle pepper*…..
Yes, it really is that easy to make homemade ranch dressing!
*If using the canned chipotle pepper, add all ingredients to a blender and puree dressing until creamy and the pepper is pulverized.
Pour into a container and store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Then pour all over your Southwest Chicken Salad for Fall…..
The fall version has roasted pepper, corn, onion, and sweet potatoes!!
Each of my Southwest Chicken Salads have their own dressing and variation on the Black Bean Salsa, but this dressing would be delicious on any of them!
We have Spring with avocado…..
and Summer with fresh mangoes…..
and Winter with pomegranate seeds…..
How To Grill Chicken
Dont be intimidated to use a grill! Its quite simple. Just turn on your grill and set the flame to high.
Pound the Chicken- Boneless Chicken Breats come in thick sections. Pound the chicken breasts with a meat mallet for even cooking. Or you can simply skip all of this and use pre-packaged grilled chicken strips.)
Season the chicken- toss the chicken in oil and 1 Tbsp of Fajita seasoning mix. Mix to coat.
Grill the chicken- place chicken breasts onto the pre-heated grill and lower the temperature down to medium heat. Close the grill and set the timer to 4 minutes. Flip and cook for another 4 minutes. Chicken is done when inserting a thermometer and it reads 165°F.
Rest the Chicken- place the chicken breasts onto a cutting board and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. This helps the juices settle in well.
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 its 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 dont have a blender or food proccesor you can also combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir them together by hand. Youll 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.
You May Like: Chick Fil A Salad Nutrition
Learn How To Make Chipotle’s Famous Honey Vinaigrette In Two Simple Steps From The Comfort Of Your Own Kitchen
Weve all been there. Its 7 p.m. and youre at home with a sudden craving for Chipotle. You dont feel like going all the way to Chipotle, they dont have a drive-thru, and delivery is kind of slow. Whats a hungry person to do?
You make an at-home Chipotle salad complete with a copycat version of their Honey Chipotle Vinaigrette! Its one of our favorite homemade salad dressings.
This task may seem daunting, but the dressing comes together in minutes. You can make the salad with just about any salad ingredients you happen to have on hand in your refrigerator or pantry. Need ideas? Here are some salad-making tips from a former chef.
How To Make Homemade Chiptole Ranch Dressing
I took a shortcut and used Great Value prepared Chipotle Ranch Dressing for the dressing to this Southwest Salad. If you would like to make homemade Chipotle Ranch Dressing, try to puree an adobe Chipotle pepper with your favorite ranch dressing. Use as many peppers to get the right color and taste of your dressing!
You May Like: How To Make 7 Layer Salad
How To Use This Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette
This chipotle dressing is such a versatile condiment to keep on hand. For starters, its excellent on salads. Toss it with a Simple Green Salad for an easy side dish, or drizzle it onto this Black Bean and Corn Salad. Use it instead of the tahini dressing on my Sweet Potato Salad, or add it to any taco salad or burrito bowl.
But the ways to use it dont end there. Here are a few more of my favorites:
- On roasted veggies. I love it with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cauliflower, and broccoli.
- With tacos or a burrito. Drizzle it into veggie tacos, or serve it as a dipping sauce with a breakfast burrito .
How do you like to use this chipotle vinaigrette? Let me know in the comments!
How To Make This Creamy Chipotle Salsa
This creamy chipotle salsa is made with greek yogurt, chipotle peppers in adobo, and some fresh herbs and spices. The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it in just a few minutes, store it in an airtight container, and use it for up to a week after making it!
All you have to do is blend all of the ingredients together in a blender, and then adjust the seasoning based on your own particular tastes.
You will probably want to start with one chipotle pepper or even half because it can get pretty spicy in a hurry. If it isnt quite spicy enough, you can always add more and blend it again.
Recommended Reading: Arby’s Chicken Salad Sandwich
What Is In Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette
Chipotles vinaigrette is made with a combination of red wine vinegar, honey, adobo sauce, spices, and oil.
Chipotle uses Rice Bran oil in all of their recipes. I always substitute olive oil because thats what I have on hand .
First combine all non-oil ingredients in a blender, then drizzle in your oil until it emulsifies. It takes literally one minute once you hit process and youre done.
What Is Adobo Sauce
Adobo sauce is a paste or marinade made from chili peppers, vinegar, herbs, and spices, used in Mexican cooking. It has roots in Spanish cuisine withe literal translation of adobo being marinade.
The flavour of adobo sauce is a tomato based sweet and sour flavour that packs a mild amount of heat and smokiness. It is often paired with chipotle peppers for balance.
You May Like: Wawa Kale And Quinoa Salad
Chipotle Chiles In Adobo Sauce Vs Chipotle Powder
Generally chipotle in adobo contains whole roasted chiles, tomato paste and vinegar. Dried chipotle powder is just dried and smoked chipotles. Regular chili powder is usually a combination of mixed ground chiles with other spices such as oregano, garlic powder, cumin, coriander and allspice.
Chipotles in adobo sauce sounds like a more authentic way to add chipotle flavor to recipes than chipotle powder. But, lets take a closer look. I had a hard time finding any canned or jarred chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that didnt also contain added sugar and canola oil. It was easy to find chipotle powder that ONLY contained smoked red jalapenos or chipotle chiles. This emphasizes the need to read labels carefully, paying attention to ingredient lists, to make the best choices.
Bottom line: the healthier choice is to use chipotle powder. Look for a brand in a glass container without any added sugar, and one that is labeled non-GMO.
Faqs About Making Chipotle Salad Dressing
How long does Chipotle dressing last?
If kept properly stored inside of your fridge, you can expect your dressing to last up to 4 days and still taste great. This is a perfect recipe to use for meal prepping. Making a batch on Sunday to use for your salads throughout the week.
What are some easy storage ideas for leftover Chipotle salad dressing?
You want to keep your chipotle dressing stored inside an airtight container, but you also need it to be easy to access your dressing. Keeping it in a mason jar is a good way to keep it sealed. Just use a spoon to scoop and drizzle as needed.Pro Tip: You can also store your taco salad dressing in a squeeze bottle for easy pouring and less mess!
What goes great with taco salad dressing?
Taco salad dressing tastes amazing with pretty much anything that has a fiesta styled vibe. If you can put it on a taco, you can put it in a salad and pour some dressing over the top. You may even find that this dressing goes great poured over tacos!
You May Like: How To Make Veg Salad
What To Make With Chipotle Vinaigrette
This dressing is spicy and tangy, salty and sweet. Its perfect on a whole host of salads that demand a little heat. While the obvious choice is to drizzle it over your favorite Tex-Mex or Southwest-style salad, you could also drizzle this over burrito bowls or tacos, or use it as a killer marinade for chicken, seafood or flank steak.
Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette Recipe
A great starting point for a homemade salad dressing is a 3:1 oil to vinegar ratio. This is an industry standard and will ensure that the vinegar doesnt overpower the dressing.
I used olive oil but youve got quite a bit of leeway in the oil choice. Keep in mind that you are getting gobs of flavor from the honey and chipotles, so you dont necessarily need the oil to contribute any additional flavor. In other words, a neutral flavored oil is a good starting point.
But oil and vinegar aside, its really these beauties that make the dressing a keeper:
If you are new to chipotles in adobo here is a good page with some details on working with them. They are essentially dried jalapenos swimming in a tangy, smoky adobo sauce and they can be used in a wide range of dishes. Im in the habit of scraping out the seeds but you can consider this optional.
Okay, keeping in mind a 3:1 oil to vinegar ratio, heres what our starting measurements look like:
1.5 cups oil1/2 cup red wine vinegar1/4 cup honeysplash of water
Add ingredients to a blender or food processor and give it a good whirl.
And now take a taste to check on the heat and sweetness. I was happy using 1/4 cup of honey but some of you might want a little more. You can also add additional adobo sauce or another chipotle if you want more heat. Some of the heat will get covered up by the sweetness so you might need more than you think. I used 4 chipotles for this batch.
Which leads to an important question
Buen Provecho.
Recommended Reading: How To Make Tuna Fish Salad
Ingredients In Healthy Chipotle Ranch Dressing
Were taking traditional ranch dressing and lightening up, adding protein and a kick of heat. YUM. Heres what youll need:
- Plain greek yogurt: instead of buttermilk were using protein-packed greek yogurt to lighten up this chipotle ranch.
- Garlic powder: nothing beats a little kick of garlic in ranch.
- Onion powder: the secret ingredient for that authentic ranch flavor.
- Lemon juice: youll want to add a bit of acidity to balance the dressing. Feel free to use apple cider vinegar, too.
- Dried dill: you can use dried dill or freshly chopped chives in this chipotle ranch.
- Salt: to bring out the flavors in the dressing.
- Chipotle chili powder: I like using chili powder for ease, but feel free to sub a few dashes of chipotle hot sauce.
- Water: to thin the dressing a bit.
What You Need To Make Chipotle Mayo Dressing
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from affiliate links.
Mayonnaise is the base of this salad dressing. This is the mayo we use and in my opinion, it is the best there is out there.
Chipotle Peppers with Adobo Sauce are basically ripe jalapeno peppers that have been smoked and dried. They are often sold in a can with adobo sauce. These peppers can pack a punch, so start small and add on as your tastebuds allow.
Fresh Garlic offers another flavor bite to this dressing. I always mince mine with a garlic press to be sure I get all the flavor I can from the juices in the clove.
Fresh Limes are best and I always juice my own with my favorite juice reamer. I use a fine mesh strainer to separate the pulp and seeds from the lime.
Also Check: Wendy’s Taco Salad Carbs
What To Do With Leftover Chipotle Peppers
Theres nothing worse than using only one or two peppers and not being able to use the rest of the can before it goes bad. Luckily, they freeze beautifully! Heres how to freeze leftover chipotles:
- Spread a sheet of parchment paper onto a large pan.
- Spoon out peppers with sauce, 1/2 inch apart, on to the pan. Place the pan in the freezer until peppers and sauce are frozen solid, about 1 hour.
- Once frozen, peel the peppers and sauce off the tray.
- Add all the frozen peppers to a freezer-safe plastic bag, seal while pressing out any air, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- To thaw, take as many peppers as needed out of the bag and let stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes or until thawed through .
How To Make Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette
You May Like: Briannas Salad Dressing Creamy Balsamic
Homemade Southwest Dressing Recipe
Creamy, smoky and with some subtle heat, this homemade Southwest Dressing is so flavorful and will elevate your salad to the next level. Chipotles in adobo and fresh lime juice blended with spices and honey in a creamy luscious dressing. Makes 1-1/3 cups in seconds.
Please tell me youve had McDonalds southwest chicken salad? Normally I wouldnt order a salad from a fast-food place because I swear the lettuce tastes weird and all you get is those hard, white lettuce core pieces. But I was plesantly surprised when I ordered this one night when we were headed to Haileighs softball game and had to eat on the go.
The salad itself was delicious, but the Newmans Own Southwest dressing is gold!
Ive scoured my local grocery stores and even searched online and cannot find a retailer. McDonalds seems to be the only place that has this dressing. How can this be? But you know me, and I never back down from a challenge, so I tried my best to recreate it.
What Ingredients Are In The Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette
The original dressing at Chipotle is made with pretty good ingredients. It is made with black pepper, Chipotle chili, cumin, garlic, honey, oregano, red wine vinegar, rice bran oil, salt and water.
To make this Chipotle dressing Whole30 compliant I swapped the honey for some dates and used olive oil instead of rice bran oil. My version reduces the sugar content from 12g a serving to 3g a serving. It also uses a healthier, more common oil.
Also Check: Good Seasons Salad Dressing Bottle
Healthy Homemade Chipotle Salsa
Most posts contain affiliate links. These are provided for your convenience, and the price isnt increased at all.
This post is sponsored by Celestial Seasonings but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
Inside: This Healthy Homemade Creamy Chipotle Salsa is easy to make, is healthy, and tastes great on just about anything. Learn how to make it today.
In Mexico, salads with creamy dressings are not very common. Usually, if you eat a salad with lettuce, it is dressed simply with lime, salt and pepper, and maybe some olive oil. Since coming to the United States, I have grown to enjoy many different types of dressings, including this popular ranch dressing.
That said, many dressings have lots of calories and practically defeat the purpose of eating a salad in the first place!
For the past year or so, my husband and I have been working hard to meet our health and fitness goals. Part of that has included working out, and the other part has included making healthy food choices. My husband really likes including some type of creamy salsa or dressing on his salads and on other foods, so I decided to come up with a recipe that we could use without sabotaging our healthy eating goals. The result was the creamy chipotle salsa recipe that you can find at the end of this post.
- Peppermint
- Country Peach Passion
- Honey Vanilla Chamomile
How Do I Make A Healthy Chipotle Salad At Home
Well, I couldnt properly enjoy this Whole30 copycat Chipotle vinaigrette without a full Chipotle-style salad. I started with a bed of chopped romaine lettuce. Then I made sautéed fajita veggies.
First, I sliced one red onion and one orange bell pepper and sautéed them in avocado oil over medium-low heat until soft and slightly caramelized about 20 minutes.
Then, I made some quick Mexican chicken by cubing boneless skinless chicken thighs and cooking them in avocado oil and some of my favorite taco seasoning.
Next, I cooked the chicken over medium heat for about 7 minutes, tossing frequently. I allowed both the chicken and veggies to cool slightly and then layered them on a bed of romaine with the pico de gallo and guacamole.
I finished the whole thing off with this Whole30 copycat Chipotle vinaigrette for the perfect healthy, delicious and easy salad!
Also Check: Easy Salad Recipes For Dinner