This site contains affiliate links. Please see Policies for more information.
This copycat Chipotle Chicken recipe is a favorite in my house. Yes, Chipotle Mexican Grill, home of the giant burritos and that delicious tender chicken that is loaded with flavor–I’ve created a healthy version of their marinade that you can make at home.
This recipe is one of my favorites for meal prep, and I recommend prepping it with Instant Pot Brown Rice, and a side of this Calabacitas Recipe (Mexican squash).
My Favorite Meal Prep Recipe!
I love to double or even triple this recipe for meal prep. I freeze just the marinade with raw frozen chicken and simply defrost when I’m ready to cook.
Once cooked, it can be stored in the fridge for about 6 days, or in the freezer for 2 months.
Enjoy!
– Becca
Ingredients in Chipotle Chicken Marinade
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- Chicken: I use boneless skinless breasts, but you could use chicken thighs.
- Chipotle Peppers in adobo sauce: A chipotle pepper is just a jalapeño that has been smoked, and adobo literally means marinade in Spanish. You can control the heat in this recipe by the number of whole peppers you add to your marinade. If you don’t like spice, remove all of the whole peppers and just use the adobo sauce. The amount of spice will increase with every whole pepper you add. I like to use one.
How to Make Chipotle Chicken in the Oven
Step 1: Add adobo sauce, chipotle pepper, red onions, garlic, black pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and olive oil to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
Step 2: Cover chicken in marinade and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
Want to Save This Recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Step 3: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cook the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 165°F, about 30 minutes.
Step 4: Serve warm, or store in individual serving containers for meal prep.
Recipe Tips
- If you’re sensitive to spice you can omit the chipotle peppers and/or adobo sauce completely and use smoked paprika.
- One of the things I love about this marinade is that it works well for all forms of protein. Give it a try with pork loin, chuck roast, or flank steak.
- To lower the fat and calories in the marinade you can omit or lower the amount of olive oil.
- If you can’t find chipotle peppers, try adding in a teaspoon or two of ancho chili powder. It’ll be a bit spicy.
Chipotle Chicken FAQs
This chipotle chicken is marinated in simple ingredients like red onion, garlic, chipotle peppers, and Mexican spices. All of the ingredients are blended together to create a delicious smoky and spicy marinade.
Marinate the chicken as long as possible to make it tender and flavorful, and be careful not to overcook it—overcooking can dry it out.
Some of my favorite recipes to make to go with this chipotle chicken are Cowboy Salsa, Pressure Cooker Brown Rice, this Calabacita Recipe, Mexican Guacamole Recipe, or this Restaurant Salsa Recipe.
Healthy Eating Plans
21 Day Fix Containers
This entire recipe counts as 12 Red Containers, 12 teaspoons, and ½ Green Containers. Per ¾ cup serving: 1 Red Container, 1 teaspoon.
Weight Watchers Points
For a zero point recipe, replace olive oil with chicken broth: 0 2025 Plan Points
2B Mindset
Fill your plate with 50% vegetables, and 25% ffc for a complete lunch or 75% vegetables for a complete dinner.
If you tried this recipe for Copycat Chipotle Chicken or any other recipe on my site please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
Copycat Chipotle Chicken Recipe
Want to Save This Recipe?
We’ll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Equipment
- Instant Pot 6 qt
- Kitchen Knife
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce more or less depending on your heat tolerance
- 1 Red onion quartered
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp Mexican oregano
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 lbs chicken breast boneless skinless
- ½ tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
Oven Instructions
- Add adobo sauce, chipotle pepper, red onions, garlic, black pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and olive oil to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. If you prefer less spice, use fewer peppers—or even just the adobo sauce. Using all the peppers will make the chicken quite hot! 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, 1 Red onion, 6 cloves garlic, 1 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tbsp Mexican oregano, ¼ cup olive oil
- Marinate the chicken and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to 24 hours. I love freezing this marinade with the chicken, so it thaws and marinates at the same time. 3 lbs chicken breast
- Preheat your oven to 350°F, cook the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F, about 30 minutes.
- Serve warm, or place in individual serving containers for meal prep.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Add adobo sauce, chipotle pepper, red onions, garlic, black pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and olive oil to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
- Cover the chicken in marinade and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- Add your chicken, marinade, and ½ cup of chicken broth (or water) to your Instant Pot.
- Close and lock the lid and turn the pressure valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook (high) and set the cook time for 12 minutes. You’ll be cooking on high pressure for 12 minutes whether your chicken if thawed or frozen–the thing that will change is the amount of time your pot takes to come to pressure.
- When the cook time is complete, allow pressure to release naturally. This means do not move the Sealing valve, it will slowly pop up on its own. This allows the chicken to retain the most moisture. Once the pressure valve drops, remove the lid and remove the chicken. Slice on a cutting board and serve or store in individual serving containers for meal prep.
Grilling Instructions
- Prepare the marinade: Add chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, red onions, garlic, black pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and olive oil into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
- Marinate: Cover the chicken in the marinade and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- Grill: Preheat your grill on medium/high heat. Place the marinated chicken on the grill grates and grill the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF (about 10 minutes per side).
- Serve: Serve warm or place in individual serving containers for meal prep.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum
I’m glad I watched the video because I totally would have used all the peppers! 🥵🥵🥵 Thank you for sharing all of your amazing recipes! I love your meal plans too. It has made my 21 day fixes a no brainer!
If you used smoked paprika, how much would you use?
Hi there,
We don’t use any smoked paprika in this recipe. If you want to add some to the marinade, I’d start with a small amount and go from there.
I didn’t think it tasted like Chipotle’s chicken at all but it was delicious and easy to make.
a family favorite! made this on grill, instant pot and oven. thanks!
In an instant pot do you pour adobe sauce in with the chicken when cooking?
I would definitely add it in there! Add water to make sure you meet the minimum liquid requirement.
Yesssssss this was perfect!! Thank you so much – I see a lot of $ saved in our future ;)
I love the way you prep your meals it looks great. That would give me a great start with my life change I want to do. I hope this helps me to lose weight.
I appreciate the options given under the cooking instructions, but I’m left wondering which is your preference, and also which is the photo.
I do whatever I have time for usually. If we are already grilling I’ll stick them there.
So you pour in the whole can of Chipotles and adobo sauce, but take the actual chipotles back out and toss them? That would be leaving only the adobo sauce?
Hey Kate! I take the can of peppers and pull out the peppers and seeds–they can get hot! Then I put the rest of the can in the recipe–just the sauce. It’s spicy!
Thank you! I just wanted to make sure I was reading it correctly. This looks great!
This looks incredible, I can’t wait to give this a try.