Mexican Adobo Sauce 

“Made to preserve, to flavor, to survive colonization and still burn your tongue.”

Mexican Adobo Sauce 

This adobo is not a marinade. It’s a statement.
Ancestral chilis, garlic, vinegar, spices—pounded into a paste that keeps meat, feeds tamales, stains pots, and fuels history.
Pre-dating the Spanish, refined through resistance. Used for barbacoa, enchiladas, stews, or spooned over rice. It’s not meant to be subtle. It’s meant to leave a mark.

Ingredients

  • 3 dried ancho chiles
  • 2 dried guajillo chiles
  • 2 dried chipotle chiles (for smoke and heat)
  • 1½ cups boiling water (for soaking)
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 whole cloves or a pinch ground
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt (or more to taste)
  • 1–2 tbsp oil (for blending or frying)


How The Alchemy Happens

Remove stems and seeds from chiles. Toast them lightly in a dry pan until fragrant, not burnt.

Soak chiles in boiling water for 20 minutes. Reserve soaking liquid.

Blend soaked chiles, garlic, spices, vinegar, and salt with enough soaking liquid to form a thick paste.

Optional: Sauté the paste in oil until deep and fragrant—this brings out its full power.

Store in a jar for up to 1 week or freeze in portions. Use to marinate meats, enrich stews, or spoon over anything that needs to remember where it came from.

🔙 Back to the Kitchen

“This sauce doesn’t just season. It survives.”