Craving Chipotle's Adobo Ranch? Make Your Own Copycat At Home

Chipotle doesn't seem to feel the need to change up its menu as often as you change your socks. Though every so often, the chain does drop a new dish, such as 2025's Chipotle Honey Chicken. New sauces, too, come along every once in a while, albeit rarely. Adobo ranch dressing — another 2025 innovation — was the chain's first since 2020's queso blanco. As its name implies, it is ranch kicked up with a little chile heat. If you love the dressing (or just the idea) but don't want to go to Chipotle to drop at least 10 bucks on a burrito bowl, it shouldn't be too difficult to DIY.

Chipotle itself isn't exactly forthcoming with the ingredients, which isn't surprising. The chain did release its recipe for the honey vinaigrette dressing, but this was a one-time offering in celebration of reaching a charitable goal. You'll learn from Chipotle's website that the spicy ranch dressing is made from "a blend of sour cream, adobo chiles, ranch seasoning, citrus, garlic, onion, parsley, black pepper, and other real ingredients." 

If you look up "adobo peppers," though, you'll find they're not a type of chile. Ironically, the ingredient Chipotle seems to be misnaming is probably canned chipotles in adobo sauce. We don't know the exact proportions of everything, but a little kitchen tinkering with some chipotles, sour cream, lime juice, dried spices, and your favorite ranch seasoning packet should give you a reasonable approximation of Chipotle's creamy condiment.

Once you've fiddled with the formula for Chipotle's Adobo Ranch to make a version that's perfectly suited to your tastes, what can you do with the dressing? Perhaps the most obvious use would be to dress a salad, although if it's on the thick side, you may need to add a little more citrus juice (either lemon or lime works well) to achieve a pourable consistency. You can also do what's pictured on the Chipotle website and spoon it over a rice bowl or use it to dip tortilla chips. The chain also suggests it as a topping for burritos, quesadillas, and tacos ... in other words, just about anything on its menu.

Of course, there are numerous other applications for this spicy ranch dressing. It can help make vegetables taste better or be used to top pizza, chili, or burgers. You can stir some into tuna salad or mashed potatoes. As this dressing is sour cream-based, it also makes a great baked potato topper. In fact, you can even substitute it for the sour cream in beef stroganoff to make a kind of Russian-Mexican hybrid dish. If you're more into Polish-Mexican fusion and have a lot of time on your hands, this ranch can also be put to good use in both the dough and fillings for homemade pierogis. Just because Chipotle's own menu is limited doesn't mean you need to hold back on dreaming up new uses for this DIY dressing.