Chipotle's Adobo Marinade

Ok, so who doesn't love the burritos from Chipotle? Well there may be a few detractors, but for the most part everyone I know loves the marinated and grilled chicken, steak, and barbacoa at Chipotle restaurants. Let's face it though, not everyone has a Chipotle restaurant in their local area. Have no fear there are quite a few recipes on on the world wide web on how to make your own “Chipotle' style marinade. Some are better than others, but the problem is that even the employees working at Chipotle's restaurants do not know the recipe.So what is Chipotle's secret ingredient? Actually, it is not so secret, it is simply a marinade made from adobo sauce. However, it is the recipe for their adobo sauce that is the secret.

According to the multiple accounts I have read from employees who have worked for Chipotle, their marinade comes in clear plastic bags that are simply labeled 'adobo'. Now I cannot verify this as I have never worked for Chipotle, but it makes sense that they would make their own proprietary adobo sauce in their company commissary and then ship it to their restaurants to keep folks like me from making my own. The best recipe that I tried before deciding to make my own was originally posted over on Chipotlefan.com. I have included a small batch version of their original recipe here for you to look at.

Chipotle Fan's Chipotle Marinade

5 ancho chilies, dried (about 1 ounce)

1 (7oz can) of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

½ red onion, minced

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried oregano)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon black pepper

To be honest, I think this marinade it a pretty close facsimile of the 'Chipotle' marinade, but what I really disliked about this recipe was that it called for you to remove the chipotle peppers and seeds and only use the sauce. Personally I thought this was a big waste. If all you wanted from the can is the adobo sauce, why not simply buy a can of adobo sauce or make your own? With that thought in mind, I started experimenting with making my own adobo sauce. I played around with a lot of recipes making some changes here, adding some other ingredients until I was satisfied that I have a nice well rounded adobo sauce of my own.

Making Your Own Adobo Sauce

Making your own adobo sauce is pretty easy, the only thing that you may not have in your kitchen is ancho and or guajillo peppers. Adobo is traditionally made using dried guajillo peppers, however in many recipes guajillo and ancho peppers are used interchangeably, so if you do not have any guajillo peppers on hand, or do not want to spend the extra money on them, then just substitute ancho chilies for the guajillo.

My Adobo Sauce (makes ½ Cup)

5 to 6 dried guajillo or ancho chilies
1 to 2 dried jalapenos (2 if you like it spicy)

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

½ onion, minced

3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and toast the chilies, turning frequently, until very pliable and soft; do not allow them to burn. Remove the dried peppers from the skillet and transfer them to a plate. Remove the stems and seeds and place in a saucepan. Add enough hot water to just cover and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, remove from the heat and allow chilies to soak for 20 minutes. Remove the peppers and reserve soaking liquid for later use.

In a blender or food processor, combine all of the ingredients and puree until smooth. If needed, add a little of the chile soaking liquid (only as much as is needed) to enable the mixture to blend. The consistency should be thick but smooth. Cover and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Chef's Note: I will be honest, I do not always toast my dried chilies. If I am in a hurry, I simply remove the stems and split the peppers with a pair of kitchen shears and throw them in the saucepan and cover them with water.

Chipotle Marinade (The Final Product)

Once I had created an adobo sauce that I was happy with, I wanted to streamline the process to come up with a quick way to make my own Chipotle style marinade. So the next logical step was to combine the ingredients from my adobo sauce with the ingredients from the 'Chipotle Fan' marinade listed inthis article. I really enjoy this marinade and think that it is a good representation of Chipotle's marinade. Is it exact no...but unless Chipotle decides to publish the steps to make their signature marinade it will have to do.

My Chipotle Marinade

10 ancho chilies, dried (or 5 ancho and 5 guajillo chilies)
1 to 2 dried jalapenos (2 or more if you like it spicy) 

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

½ red onion, minced

3 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons liquid (water from reconstituted peppers)

1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)

2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and toast the chilies, turning frequently, until very pliable and soft; do not allow them to burn. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a plate. Remove the stems and seeds and place them in the saucepan. Add enough hot water to just cover and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, remove from the heat and allow chilies to soak for 20 minutes. Remove the peppers and reserve soaking liquid for later use.

In a food processor or blender, combine all the ingredients and 2 tablespoons of the chile soaking liquid and puree. Add additional chile soaking liquid as required, however, keep in mind the consistency of the marinade should be thick and smooth. Cover and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Chef's Note: This marinade or paste makes about 1 1/2 cups which is enough marinade for about 10lbs of meat (depending on how spicy you like your meat). The marinade or paste is pretty thick and can be thinned with the water reserved from the chilies or stock if you want a more wet marinade. I divide the marinade into three parts and place the other two parts in small plastic containers that I then freeze until I am ready to use next time.

How to Use This Marinade

As I mentioned, no one at the restaurant knows what is in those little clear plastic bags simply labeled 'adobo', but what they do know is how it is used. According to former employees, for 40lbs of chicken, they use two of the 10oz bags (20 ounces total) of adobo (that's ½ ounce of marinade for each pound of boneless chicken thighs). For 40lbs of steak, they use four 10oz bags (40 ounces total) of adobo (that's 1oz for each pound of steak). Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any reference to the amount of marinade used for Chipotle's Barbacoa, so some experimentation is needed here. Remember the marinade for Chipotle's chicken, steak, and barbacoa is the same, just different amounts of marinade are used depending on the meat being marinaded.

I do not believe my marinade is as concentrated as the abodo sauce that Chipotle uses. My recommendation for best results when using my marinade is to use the following ratio of marinade/paste per pound of meat.

Boneless Chicken Thighs 1 ounce of marinade per pound of meat.
Round Steak 2 ounces of marinade per pound of meat.
Barbacoa (chuck roast) 1 ounce of marinade per pound of meat.

Conclusion

There you have it, my version of Chiptole's marinade. A couple of things to think about when it comes to this marinade or paste. Chipotle is the name of the restaurant, not the marinade. The marinade they use is actually an adobo sauce that is traditionally made with ancho or guajillo peppers not chipotle's (which are smoked jalapeños). Varying the amount of marinade that you use will increase or decrease the intensity of flavor of the meat being marinaded. Soon to come, making your own Chiptole style burritos. As always, if you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook and Google+ so that you will not miss out on any of our new articles.


References:

Chipotle Fan Website