This Mexican Adobo Sauce 🌶️ is made with dried ancho chiles, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, and apple cider vinegar. The result is a thick, rich sauce with a deep chile flavor and just enough tang from the vinegar.
Use it as a marinade for chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp, or add it to your favorite Mexican recipes for extra flavor. It takes just a few simple ingredients to make, and you can keep it in the refrigerator or freezer to have on hand when you need it.
If you are a fan of ancho chiles, check out my Tamales Rojos.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe ❤️
- Easy to make. Once the dried chiles are rehydrated, everything goes into the blender.
- Big Mexican flavor. Ancho chiles give this sauce a deep, slightly sweet chile flavor without making it overly spicy.
- Versatile. Use it as a marinade for chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp, or add it to other recipes.
- Make it ahead. The sauce keeps in the refrigerator or freezer, so you can make a batch and have it ready to use.
- Easy to customize. Use ground or whole cumin and oregano, and swap apple cider vinegar for white distilled vinegar if that’s what you have.
-Maggie
What is adobo sauce made of?
This Mexican-style adobo sauce is made with dried ancho chiles, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, apple cider vinegar, salt, and water. Ancho chiles give the sauce its deep red color and rich chile flavor, while the vinegar adds a little tang.
👩🏼🍳 Instructions
How to Prep Dried Chiles
- Cut the stems from the dried ancho chiles. Using kitchen scissors or a small knife, cut each chile lengthwise and open it up. Remove the seeds and as many of the veins as you can.
Don’t worry if a few seeds remain. The sauce will be strained later.
Pro Tip: The seeds and veins can add extra heat, so removing them gives you more control over the spice level.
Rehydrate the ancho chiles
- Place the cleaned ancho chiles in a stock pot and add 4 cups of water, or enough to cover the chiles.
- Bring the water to a boil, then turn off the heat. Let the chiles sit for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft and pliable.
- Drain and discard the water used to rehydrate the chiles.
Can I rehydrate the chiles in cold water? Yes. Place the chiles in cold water and let them soak until soft, about 1 hour. This method takes longer but works just fine.
Add the ingredients to a blender
Add the rehydrated ancho chiles to a blender along with:
- 2 cups water
- 8 garlic cloves
- ¼ cinnamon stick
- A pinch of cumin
- A pinch of oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Blend until smooth
- Blend until the sauce is completely smooth.
- The sauce should be smooth, deep red, and thick enough to coat the sides of the blender.
Strain the sauce
- Pour the blended sauce through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl.
- Use a spoon or spatula to press the sauce through the strainer.
- This removes any remaining chile skins, seeds, or pieces of spices and gives you a smoother sauce.
- The finished sauce should be smooth and thick, with a deep red color.
🙋🏻♀️ Frequently Asked Questions
Ancho chiles are relatively mild, so this recipe has more chile flavor than heat.
For a spicier adobo sauce, add 1 chipotle pepper or ½ teaspoon dried chipotle powder. You can adjust the amount to your taste.
Yes. The recipe notes give 2 ounces (½ cup) of ancho chile powder as a quicker option.
If using chile powder, you can skip the step of rehydrating the dried chiles and proceed with the remaining ingredients.
Store the sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months, or freeze it for up to 6 months. This recipe makes about 2½ cups of adobo sauce.
For smaller portions, freeze the sauce in individual containers or ice cube trays so you can thaw only what you need.
Yes. This sauce is a great make-ahead recipe. Prepare it in advance and store it in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to use it.
Use it as a marinade for chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp. Coat the meat or seafood with the sauce and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to overnight. Try it in recipes like Slow Cooker Ancho Pork and Slow Cooker Ancho Beef.
If you don’t have adobo sauce, mix 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon vinegar, ½ teaspoon chipotle powder, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of oregano, ½ teaspoon garlic, and ½ teaspoon salt. This makes a quick substitute when you need a small amount of adobo sauce.
Mexican adobo sauce has a rich, earthy chile flavor from the dried ancho chiles, with garlic and warm spices and a little tang from the vinegar. Ancho chiles are relatively mild, so the sauce is more flavorful than spicy.
More Mexican Sauces
Homemade Mexican Adobo Sauce is one of those recipes I like to keep in the refrigerator because it can turn a simple dinner into something much more flavorful. The ancho chiles give it a rich, earthy flavor, while the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, and vinegar round everything out.
Make a batch and use it as a marinade for chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp. Once you have it ready to go, you’ll find plenty of ways to use it.
Mexican Adobo Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 ancho chile dried
- 4 cups water (to rehydrate the chiles)
- 2 cups water (to blend)
- 8 garlic cloves
- ¼ piece cinnamon stick
- pinch cumin either whole or ground
- pinch oregano either whole or ground
- 3 tbsps apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cut the stem from the ancho chiles.
- Cut lengthwise and remove the seeds.
- Place the chiles into a stock pot with 4 cups water.
- Bring to a boil. Turn off heat.
- Let sit for 5 minutes, or until pliable.
- Discard the water used in the rehydration process.
- To a blender, add the rehydrated chiles, 2 cups water, and all of the remaining ingredients.
- Blend until smooth.
- Strain.
- Store in an airtight container until ready to use.
Notes
- You can use ground cinnamon.
- Whole or ground cumin and oregano work just fine in this Adobo Sauce recipe.
- Instead of apple cider vinegar, you can use white distilled vinegar.
Mix 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon vinegar, ½ teaspoon chipotle powder, pinch of cumin, a pinch of oregano, ½ teaspoon garlic, ½ teaspoon salt.
Maggie,
This sauce is great. I used to buy it remade.
I was wondering if you had a recipe for el pato sauce?
You know, I don’t have a recipe for el pato sauce. I’ve tried many, many times, but I can’t get the right mixture. I’ll keep trying though.
A good sauce can make such a difference in the way something tastes. This sauce looks amazing, and I would love to try it on ribs.
I like your idea! Hope you try it!
I would really like to try this sauce. It looks really easy to make and would work with a lot of recipes!
Yes, it does. Fish, chicken, beef, pork. You name it!
I love a good ancho chile. My grandmother has bushes that line the side of her house full of the peppers. I need to visit her and try this adobo myself.
Yes. It’s a very versatile recipe too. Hope you enjoy!
This seems like the perfect recipe for me! We’ve been using canned adobo peppers, but I think I would like this even better, especially with the garlic.
This recipe is amazing. Hope you try it!
I have never tried it but the ingredients make it looks amazing! I have to try this out for sure.
It’s delicious. Hope you try it!
I’ve never heard of this kind of sauce before. Sounds like something I may be interested in trying though. I’ll have to make these and see how it tastes.
Hope you try it Kathy!
I’ve never had adobo sauce before. I think I’ll like it though. Going to save your recipe so that my family can give this a little taste test soon!
So good right? We love this one too
I bet I’d love this sauce. I tend to love spicy things. I will have to try this out the next time I make tacos.
You would love it! It’s amazing.
This was such a great way to learn about Adobo sauce and chiles that are used in it. I might not make this but I have the basics to do it if I try.
Hope you try this recipe!