Chipotle Ranch Dressing Recipe

My chipotle ranch dressing is a 10 minute riff on homemade buttermilk ranch, stirred up with finely minced chipotles in adobo for a creamy base with real smoke and heat. Two ingredients, one bowl, and a flavor that walks the line between a Tex-Mex sauce and a steakhouse dip. This is the dressing I keep in a jar in the fridge year-round.

There are nights I want a quiet lemon and oil moment on a salad, and there are nights I want a dressing that argues a little, and chipotle ranch is firmly in the second camp. If a dip it or pour it sauce is what dinner needs, my homemade Russian dressing and my delicious homemade Greek dressing are right next to this one in my fridge door. I rotate through all three depending on what is on the table.

Chipotle Ranch

Ranch dressing was created in the early 1950s by Steve Henson, a plumbing contractor from Nebraska working on crews in Anchorage, Alaska, who used the buttermilk dressing to feed his guys on the job. In 1956 he bought a guest ranch in Santa Barbara County and renamed it Hidden Valley Ranch, where the dressing was served at the on-site steakhouse and guests started buying jars to take home. Clorox bought the brand in 1972 for 8 million dollars, and by 1992 ranch overtook Italian as the best-selling dressing in the United States.

The chipotle riff is much younger and rode in on the Tex-Mex wave of the last 15 years or so. The version I make at home starts with my own homemade buttermilk ranch and gets a finely minced chipotle pepper plus a few spoons of adobo sauce whisked in. The chipotle is the secret on this dressing, because the smoke and heat both ride on the adobo and you cannot get there with hot sauce or cayenne.

I have to admit that I always make an extra batch every other week and keep it in a squeeze bottle in the door of the fridge, because once it is in there it goes on salads, wings, baked potatoes, and pretty much anything else that crosses the counter. I highly recommend mixing up a jar of this chipotle ranch dressing and you will see why it does not last a week at my house.

Ingredients and Substitutions

This is a short shopping list and an even shorter prep. Here is what I use:

• Buttermilk ranch dressing – My homemade buttermilk ranch dressing is the base, because real buttermilk and fresh herbs are what take this past a bottled-ranch shortcut. Any quality ranch will work too, but I would not bother making chipotle ranch on top of a thin grocery-aisle bottle.
• Chipotles in adobo – I recommend using whole or pre-diced chipotle peppers packed in adobo sauce, sold in small cans in the Mexican aisle.

How to Make Chipotle Ranch

Whisk up the ranch: I make my buttermilk ranch in a medium mixing bowl and set it briefly aside so it has a minute to come together.

Mince the chipotles: I pull 1 or 2 chipotle peppers out of the can and mince them as finely as I can, with the goal of pieces small enough that no one bites into a hot chunk.

Fold the chipotles into the ranch: I add the minced peppers and a few spoons of adobo sauce to the bowl.

Whisk and rest: I whisk the bowl until the dressing turns one even color, a soft rosy beige with flecks of pepper through it. I let it sit for 5 minutes before tasting, because the chipotle blooms into the buttermilk as it stands.

Serving Suggestions

This is the dressing I like serving when something on the table needs a smoky-creamy finish. I drizzle it over a tray of Buffalo wings when the table wants ranch but also wants the wings to taste more unique than every other game-day platter, and I spoon it over a sheet pan of chicken nachos right before it goes to the table so the heat off the cheese opens the chipotle up.

For a heavier weeknight plate, I pour it over a couple of loaded baked potatoes with bacon and chives instead of plain sour cream, and the smoke from the chipotle carries the bacon a full mile farther. It is the dressing my daughter asks for on a tomato onion salad, and the one my wife pours into a small dish next to anything coming off the grill on a Saturday afternoon.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: I make this dressing up to three days ahead, and I actually prefer it after 24 hours in the fridge because the chipotle blooms further into the buttermilk and the heat settles in.

How to Store: I pour the dressing into a tight-lidded glass jar or squeeze bottle and refrigerate for up to 10 days. The base is buttermilk-based, so I do not push it past that.

How to Freeze: I skip the freezer.

More Dressing Recipes

• Green Goddess Dressing
• Poppy Seed Dressing
• Pesto Vinaigrette
• French Dressing
• Lemon Vinaigrette