Easy Chipotle Aioli

This easy chipotle aioli is just the sauce to jazz up sandwiches and burgers, dip vegetables or fries, and more. Made with a shortcut with mayonnaise as a base, it's easy to adjust the spice level to your liking.

I'm not a big mayo fan. In fact, I never put it straight up on sandwiches, opting for mustard or whatever hummus I have around instead. I'd pick basically anything spreadable in the fridge before I reached for the jar of plain mayonnaise.

But aioli? That changes things. No matter what flavors are added to it (like this chipotle aioli or horseradish aioli), that bit of garlic and other good stuff works wonders to give a plain base some well appreciated oomph.

Reasons to Love This Recipe

• This chipotle aioli is super flavorful, making use of chipotle peppers in adobo for a smoky, slightly spicy twist that works well on sandwiches, as a dipping sauce, and more.
• This recipe has "easy" in the title for a reason: it uses mayonnaise as a base. A shortcut aioli, if you will. With all the flavor going on here, authentic aioli's nuances probably wouldn't be appreciated in the end result.
• Plus the shelf life in the fridge gets an upgrade when there's not raw egg in the mix. Bonus!

Recipe Ingredients

• Mayonnaise: Lite mayonnaise is usually my pick here, but regular of course works, too.
• Chipotle peppers: Found in small cans in the "international" aisle of the grocery store, these peppers bring the heat. Don't use the whole can (which is 4-6 peppers) - just one pepper. You'll use some of the adobo sauce, too.
• Garlic: Essential in an aioli. Freshly pressed or minced is recommended for the punchiest flavor.
• Lime juice: The acidity acts as a nice foil to the other flavors. Just like garlic, freshly squeezed is best.
• Spices: This recipe definitely has wiggle room for you to customize things how you like it. If you're out of dry mustard and/or paprika, they're not technically needed, etc.

Easy Recipe Steps

Easy's in the recipe title for a reason. All you need to do is stir everything together. I don't even bother getting out the food processor, because really, who wants to wash that when they don't absolutely need to?

I recommend dicing up the chipotle pepper as finely as you can so no one gets a big chunk all in one go when they're eating this aioli. That honestly might be the toughest part of this recipe, as the peppers are adobo sauce-coated and slippery.

Ways to Use This Aioli

Beyond a simple sandwich, chipotle aioli has a lot of uses.

Use it in place of regular mayonnaise in chicken salad, and swapping it in for the horseradish aioli in a leftover steak sandwich was a nice variation. It totally makes these chipotle chicken quesadillas.

It's also great as a dipping sauce for french fries, roasted vegetables, baked tuna cakes, salmon cakes, and more.

More Chipotle Pepper Recipes

If you're opening a fresh can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for this recipe, you'll be left with extras. Their smoky, spicy flavor works beautifully into so many recipes. The good news is that stored in the fridge, they stay for quite awhile.

If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating in the recipe card and/or a comment review below!