chipotle baked thighs/drums from an earlier cooking night….
Why the exclamation points? BECAUSE I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS STUFF. Since discovering it, this is something I will never, ever NOT have in my freezer, stored in individual little baggies for multiple meals.
I dunno where this recipe originated, and I’m sure it’s nothing that special or too different from other chipotle marinades out there. The real amazingness about it is it’s simplicity and versatility AND OVERALL DELICIOUSNESS!
I contributed the recipe as a post to a verrrrry yummy website called Young, Married and Chic. You can find the recipe here and some photos from my first night making it. Oh heaven.
http://youngmarriedchic.com/2011/06/model-chef-chic/
I pretty much ummmm….quadruple the recipe and even throw in what is pretty much 6 or 7 times the amount of garlic for an already quadrupled recipe. The key to this marinade is just tasting. It will be SPICY….if you don’t like spicy, more brown sugar! Still too hot? More garlic and ketchup! Too sweet now? More vodka! Love cilantro? Put some cilantro in that bitch! Aaah endless possibilities. I’m not sure where this recipe originally comes from, but my trainer gave it to me and I am forever grateful.
To make enough to save, I pour 4 cans which is usually around 12 peppers or so. From that, I pour in enough vodka to make it perfectly mushy even when frozen. Easy to scoop into a pot from the freezer bags, and mmmm flavor country. After making it so many times now, I’ve realized that measuring is overrated when it comes to this. As long as you use all the ingredients, you have a gold mine!
Look at this ridiculous elephant garlic banananess! The best use for this giant garlic is roasting it…it turns into a yummy paste for spreading on whatever you want (your body), but it is also great for the marinade. Peel 10 little cloves or a couple of these monsters! The flavor isn’t quite as strong, but it does jusssst fine. God I love garlic.
Bag into little baggies! I love sautéing shrimp with a few scoops of frozen marinade for lunch with a light salad to cool off that tongue. But you MUST bake chicken legs and bone-in thighs with this.
I gotta stop. I’m starving. And I know I have a ton of this in my freezer right now so I’ll be making home cured bacon and munching on chipotle shrimp as soooooon as I get home on monday….
Enjoy! xx
I bought all of the ingredients for this and am excited to try it. Do you think it would work with rum? I LOVE that you can make it and store it for future use, Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Looks amazing. I love when you post simple recipes like this because, well, I suck at cooking. So keep ‘em coming!
I’m going to have to make this. Braaing today, so I will try this on my chicken and lamb chops?
So I just came home from work and made this in all of 15 minutes. LOVE it. I used Skyy Citrus Vodka because that’s all I had but it added a nice flavor and I’ll def be using this all the time. I had put a pork roast in the crock pot before I left for work and have been grabbing yummy pieces of perfectly tender pork and dipping it into the sauce. Must stop now. Thanks for the recipe!
oh my god. i haven’t had it with pork yet but that will now change by the end of this week! that sounds greattttttt. i actually wipe the baking dish clean with my fingers the morning AFTER i bake the chicken. because i am gross and don’t do dishes right after i’ve feasted!
i still have marinade im playing around with bc im obsessed. I was in a breakfast for dinner mood/i have leftovers i need to get rid of and cooked some hilshire chicken sausage in it over some yellow rice, mixed with eggs and avocado. nom nom. the gift that keeps on giving.
I made this yesterday and threw it in the freezer! It tasted SO good. I can’t wait to throw it on some shrimp and cook them when I get home from work. It was so simple to make. I didn’t measure anything, just sort of guesstimated. Super easy !!
glad you like! yes, it is totally just pouring things in until it matches what you love
you really cannot go wrong! I am starting to experiment with different herbs in it….mmmmm
so I cooked my shrimp with it last night.. they were the BOMB. soo good. I want to try messing around with the recipe too! I think it would taste great with maple syrup instead of brown sugar. I also want to try it with cumin (bc I can’t get enough cumin in my life).
Holy crap, this is good. I marinated chicken thighs and legs for about six hours, reserving some sauce, and then cooked them over charcoals, basting them with the reserved sauce a couple of times as they cooked. I used three chiles instead of two because we like the heat here. Other than that, I follwed the recipe exactly. Served it with black bean and corn relish and braised carrots. My girlfriend called it the best meal I have ever made for her. I have enough left over chicken to make quesadillas tomorrow! Thanks for sharing.
Now to make the bacon.
P.S. My girlfriend laughed when I told her where I got the recipe.
Have you ever had moldy elephant garlic? My gf & I grabbed a couple this Saturday to roast as an accompaniment for our ribeyes after seeing your post. We often roast garlic but had never done the elephant variety and figured it’d be fun to try. Garlic turned out fine but lacked the bold flavor of the smaller cloves as you mentioned. Unfortunately though, one of them was completely molded through on the inside but this could only be seen by cutting into it. Anywho to wrap this story up when we got home from work today our apt had this nasty funky odor. It literally smells like I kept it up my ass while running a full length marathon. No bueno. We’re taking it back because I’m not letting a WF-ish grocer gouge me even more than they already do by getting over with some moldy ass garlic. Probably will make the manager smell it too. Can’t wait to try the marinade!
Okay, Chrissy, I just have to say that I am SUCH a beginner, but you are encouraging even to people who don’t think they can cook. And I have NO idea if I’m supposed to bake the chicken at 400 for 55 min IN the marinade or remove it from the marinade and bake it. =( Neither your site nor the Model Chef site specifically says, so I went with the safe option and removed it from the marinade after baking it with for about 10 minutes. I put the marinade in a pan and brought to a boil and now it’s simmering on the stove, but I’m PETRIFIED that I’ve done it wrong… help!!!!!!!
I’m sure it’ll be fine! but yeah, you shoullllld just throw all the marinated chicken and marinade into the dish to bake altogether. all the juices brown nicely and you get a nice flavor. but it’ll still be good and you’ll nail it next time! really…you can’t mess it up too badly
let me know how it is!
It turned out absolutely AMAZING! I got your message about halfway through the cooking time of the chicken, so I poured the marinade back over the chicken and continued the baking. The chicken was so soft you could cut it with a fork, and the sauce was awesomely spicy… Thai food is my favorite and I would say it compared nicely to that (which I always order HOT). I made it with the Southern Fried Corn recipe and also a recipe for creamy cheese red potatoes that a Norwegian lady known as “Granny” gave me this weekend. I will post a photo on Twitter and tag you in a minute. Hubby loved it and I feel like a REAL chef, which is a big deal because my whole family makes fun of the fact that I can’t cook! Well, IN YOUR FACE, DAD!
this made me so happy! congrats! and man those potatoes sound amazingggg
O…M…G!
I got out of then gym late last night and stopped by the grocery store on the way home. I planned to just pick up some eggs and tomatoes, but I remembered how much I wanted to try this marinade. I picked up the ingredients expecting to prepare them, marinate some chicken, and have a bangin ass meal the next day.
That. Did. Not. Happen. I dipped my finger into this blended gloriousness and after that I was like a crackhead looking for something to cook it with. Immediately. At 11:30 pm. I had a rotisserie chicken from the night before and sautéed it together… And died. So good!!!! I relapsed into my fat girl days and made some banana-walnut-chocolate chip pancakes for desert. At 1 am.
Damn (Thank) you Chrissy and your crack marinade!
I’m off to the store to get the ingredients for this.. This sounds so delish!!! I’m going to try it with boneless chicken breasts in the crock pot.. I’ve just been debating what to serve it with. Thinking about a black bean/rice combo and maybe some skillet cornbread… hmmm….. Or maybe a southwestern inspired salad… AHHHH, too many possibilities!!
Just made the marinade for tomorrow’s chicken leg dinner!! I AM SO EXCITED!! It’s sooooo yummy! Gracias Chrissy!!
Ummm 3 things about this marinade:
1. You’re hot.
2. It’s fucking delicious.
3. It got me laid last night.
I love you.
I’m pretty sure if you add some creme Fraiche or sour cream and cream to this it would make a rockin sauce for over grilled steak. My favorite place in southern cal Javiers makes killer filet in chipotle cream sauce served with plain rice, mushrooms and sliced up avocado. Sounds just like this saucy sauce. Yum! Glad I found your blog
soooooo AMAZING. cannot wait to make this again for the man when he get’s back to NYC.
Hi Chrissy,
I am going to make this marinade tonight after dreaming about it for months. I’m new to cooking. After 31 years of life, and many, many years of trial and error, sweat, blood and plenty of tears, I think I actually LIKE cooking now. I get excited when I find amazing recipes like these that you post on your blog, and I really look forward to making things that my family enjoys. Anyway, as a former Take-Out/Dine-Out Queen, I am beginning to realize that I don’t have much in my kitchen that I find people using to make these recipes. Example: A blender. I don’t have a freaking blender. So now I am on a mission to get an amazing blender. I have never seen one like yours before, so I was wondering where you got it?
I love that your clothes stay spotless!
your blog is outstanding! And love your tweets!! 
Oh Christ, I regret waiting to make this. My best friend is a vegetarian and she came over for dinner to celebrate some thangs in my life. I didn’t know what to make at first, but then I was like whatevs, I just need a good marinade and I can from there. So I made your marinade and then I used it with ultra-firm tofu and sauteed that bitch up and threw it in zucchini ‘pasta’. Girl. Goddamn. God.Damn. Ridic. Props to something that tastes like that. I was really not looking forward to dinner, but it ended up being fucking fantastic. Drank a bold red with it and botta bing botta boom. I’ll be making it again, maybe even with tofu.
I just made this for the first time on tilapia filets and shrimp and coupled it w/ sour and spicy spinach w/ bacon and vodka cocktails. OMFG….I just can’t even describe my satisfaction. I could/have been drink(ing) this stuff!
This Is Amazing! I tried this last night with chicken and it was so good and had a great kick…
You’re hilarious, smoking hot and you love good food- what more could I ask for in my go-to blog?! You make me want to start my own!
My bf is loving these new recipes I am trying
Clearly I was a terrorist! I FINALLY made this. Wtf took me so long, I’ve been following your blog for a long time and waited this long…?! I can’t express my disappointment in myself.
Wow. OMG. Thank you!!! I am so in love with the chipotle marinade. Words cant describe the yumminess. Used tequila in it and used it on tofu, large shell-on shrimps, eggs, tacos, stews.. and on pretty much everything. And i am obsessed with your blog. Nice photo of you two in background of the first photo.Very cute
This is a weekly staple for me. So easy and delish! I typically opt for the boneless, skinless thighs.
Have you tried freezing the marinade in ice trays, then (once frozen) transferring the cubes into a baggie? It’s neater, plus less plastic. Saw this on America’s Test Kitchen.
Okay, so this is the third recipe of yours I’ve tried and it was so damn good!! I marinated it overnight and it was saturated with yummy flavor. So this will be added to my regular rotation in addition to the ham cups (have you tried pepper ham?) and boursin chicken. Hmm…which one to try next??? Thanks for sharing!
I tried this on Father’s Day and it was so good! Spicy (really very spicy) but soooooooo good! And my dad LOVED it!!! I do not cook and the times that I have tried, have been bad. Like started an oven fire bad. But I love your blog and it makes me want to try and learn to make something amazing in the kitchen. And I love the fact that bacon is in here a lot. #teambacon
Thank you so much for posting!
i made this last night and invited a few of my guy friends over, mainly because i didn’t feel like going to the store and knew they’d bring booze (yeah, i have everything, except the recipe calls for vodka so bring some of that and actually you might as well just go ahead and get enough for the night awesome see you soon!) and it was… amazing. we’re college students, and the guys are used to living off of whatever take-out is cheapest, so not only was it delicious, but they were also pretty amazed that i could actually make something like that. so thanks for helping me impress my friends, and for making me look like i have my shit together!!
Made this for my girlfriend last night. First attempt at it. Loved it. Will definitely put it in the rotation. Thanks Chrissy!
I’m curious as to what the alcohol (tequila/vokda) does in this marinade. Vodka is basically alcohol with no flavor. Does it tenderize the meat or something?
I asked for a food processor for Christmas because I became mildy obsessed with your blog in December and knew my boyfriend would fall in love with me more if I made this marinade. Turns out I can’t handle as much spice as all of you so I added more brown sugar and ketchup to try and tone it down. The boyfriend loved it. Even made the black beans with green onion as a side which was suprisingly good. Next time I’ll remember to add cilantro and make a larger amount to freeze for later. Thanks for sharing.
so sos so good. i adapted a bit and used lemon juice (had no limes) and a jalapeno pepper in addition to the chipotle peppers. it turned out spicy and delicious. just the way i like it.