I gave this sauce to Nicola mixed in the black-eye bean salad last weekend, and to Monica to add it to her fish dish this weekend and both of them raved about this sauce. Monica who loves everything chili would happily add it to all her food. A very versatile sauce can be used to toss in salads, cold or hot meat, fish or tofu, add it at the end of dishes such as casseroles, stews, tagines, serve it on the side as a dipping sauce or use it as a marinade.
I’ve been having it for my lunches, in wheat berry and chicken salad.
Wheat berry salad
Tossed in some noodles for quick lunch.
There are 2 varieties of chipotle! Morita and Meco.
For this sauce it’s important to chose the right variety of chipotle, the hot one called morita that looks like the one below from Tesco, deep dark red quite small in size.
The other variety of chipotle you can buy is a smokey very mild called meco and for this sauce it’s too subtle and gets lost so instead of a sauce with a kick you end up with a sauce tasting of sundried tomatoes.
This variety has a more multi-layer smoky aroma than the morita variety, this makes me want to cook with it in a lengthy dish to bring out that complex aroma.
Different variations on the sauce
I’ve made this sauce various ways, adding it straight to the blender including seeds and no pre-soaking and no pre-toasting, which actually gave me the best results.
Experimented with pre-toasting the chili to see if I noticed any difference.
In this sauce it didn’t improve it.
Tried the pre-soaking method, which makes it easier to remove seeds and cut into small pieces.
In the end I felt with the pre-soaking that I lost some of the smokiness in the final sauce, even if I added the soaking water to it.
I heard the other week that the ’90s is now retro.
And there is nothing more ’90s than sundried tomatoes.
Here the sauce depends on the tomatoes for its body otherwise there’s no bulk and therefore the sauce won’t cling-on to whatever you add it to. It needs this mass in order to distribute the spicy smoky flavour evenly throughout the dish. How deep red your sauce will be depends on the redness and quality of the tomatoes you start with.
The one step I wouldn’t skip is to toast the cumin seeds, it does really make a difference to the flavour of the sauce.
I made a version of this sauce using ground coriander instead of cumin seeds and it made the sauce taste more of sundried tomatoes.
How to make chipotle sauce
It couldn’t be easier. Add all the ingredients together apart from the cumin seeds. Toast the cumin seeds first then add them.
Blend everything together really well.
The sauce is ready.
Chipotle Sauce
It’s hard to tell you how many chipotle chilies to use because they differ in size that’s why I’m going by weather here, but two small ones can be enough to weigh 4 grams.
If you want to take the seeds out and find it hard to tear them open then soaking them in 2 tablespoons of boiling water for 10 minutes helps. If you’re not worried about the seed just cut the whole chili with scissors into tiny pieces and add them straight to the rest of the ingredients.
If like me you’re not use hot food a teaspoon of this sauce goes a long way.
- 4-6g morita chipotle chilies, cut into small pieces
- 100g sundried tomatoes
- 2 tablespoon of the oil from sundried tomatoes
- 2-3 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 2-3 tablespoon of runny honey
- 2-4 tablespoons of lime juice or lemon (depends how much of the sour tang you like but start with 2)
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 clove of garlic roughly chopped or for stronger crush it
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, dry toasted for a minute or until they are warmed
note: if you soak the chilies first add up to 2 tablespoons of the soaking water as it will be full of flavour.
Husband’s lunch.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Azelia
Glad to see you discovered mecos! I use them to make chipotle en adobo, which is fantastic with everything (even ice-cream!)
The chipotle en adobo you get in cans is the morito, but I prefer it made with meco. Meco are smoked for twice as long, so you get a much profounder smokey taste and the sauce doesn’t blow your head off.
Mrs C doesn’t know it but I always add ground meco to chile con carne, the hint of smoke adds loads of depth.
Have you tried achiote paste? Glorious stuff, just add a 1cm cube to meat dishes and it adds fantastic flavour (even non-mexican). I used so much of it that I bought the kilo block.
hi Johnny – ah yes I remember you’re a chili fan! No haven’t come across achiote paste. Meco chili doesn’t work for this recipe, I tried but as I’ve said it just makes the paste taste of sundried tomatoes, you need the fire of the morito and if you don’t pre-soak it the smokiness of the morito comes through stronger.
I shall be making this sauce very soon, Azélia. Although I brought Ancho and New Mexico chillies back from Florida, I couldn’t find Chipotle chillies at the last minute, so I’m pleased that Tesco stock them. It’s not my closest supermarket, so I rarely go in there these days.
I’d love to know how to make your wheat berry salad. I’m eating a lot more healthily these days.
Nice to see you Johnny!
hi Renée – look for the deep dark colour chipotle for this.
For the wheat berries I bought a pack forget the name now but they appear already semi-prepared than ones I’ve seen which appear to need longer cooking. The packet said cook for about 10mins but I only cooked mine for 5-6mins and it was perfect for me with a tiny bite.
Cook the berries in water with salt as you do with pasta or you can add a little stock to flavour them. When boiling anything like this I tend to throw in some herbs while cooking like sprigs of thyme. Drain and mix in a dressing, in this one I used some pumpkin seed oil which has a very nutty flavour along with lemon juice, honey, mustard in the dressing. Then add parsley, basil and any other soft herbs I have like chives and whatever salad vegetables I have in the fridge.