Top 12+ 😍 Best Substitute for Adobo Sauce in Cooking

When you cook Filipino, Spanish, or Portuguese, you need adobo sauce. Adobo sauce contains soy sauce, vinegar, salt, garlic, oregano, black pepper, bay leaf, and paprika that give a rich and savory taste to the recipe. If you are cooking any recipe that requires adobo sauce but you run out of it, you can use an adobo sauce substitute. It’s easy to use a substitute to save your dish from ruining.

What is Adobo Sauce?

Adobo Sauce is a rich, ridiculously flavorful, velvety, earthy, tangy-sweet, spicy Mexican sauce made up of chili powder, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and herbs. This is used to flavor and preserve meats and works well with Mexican cuisine. It is also known as a sauce poured over chipotle.

What can I Substitute for Adobo Sauce?

If you are marinating meat or fish and looking for adobo sauce in your kitchen/pantry and you realize you’re running out of it, don’t worry, you can use its substitute. Using a substitute is a good option rather than having your meal without the flavor. You can get a similar flavor as well as texture when you use a substitute. Here, we have listed our best substitute for adobo sauce right here. You can choose what is available in your kitchen/pantry/refrigerator accordingly.

1. Adobo Seasoning:

Adobo seasoning is a mixture of onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and oregano. All these ingredients give a similar flavor to the adobo sauce when mixed well together. This seasoning is pretty much similar to the adobo sauce but in powdered form. You can add some lemon juice and vinegar if you like. It is used as an ingredient in stews, beans, and rice meals or serves as a marinade or dry rub for meat and poultry.

It’s not mandatory to use the adobo sauce as it is. You can also add your special spices to make them more flavorful. Mostly, this seasoning is used in Latin cuisines.

2. Cajun Seasoning:

Cajun seasoning is also a perfect blend of multiple spices such as onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, oregano, and paprika. Cajun seasoning is the spiciest seasoning due to having different kinds of pepper. It has a smoky flavor with a few notes of garlic that make it a perfect adobo sauce alternative in meats, seafood, veggies, stir-fries, soups, and sauces.

You can add some lemon juice or vinegar, or olive oil to marinate the meat. It goes well with Caribbean, French, West African, and Native American recipes. Cajun seasoning is one of the best substitutes for adobo sauce in a recipe.

3. Greek Seasoning:

Greek seasoning is a blend of herbs such as oregano, rosemary, parsley, thyme, and basil. Some of its varieties have pepper, salt, onion flakes, garlic powder, marjoram, and dill. It is mostly used in Mediterranean and Greek cuisine. Greek seasoning works well with salads, dips, dressings, and roasted vegetables and can be used as a dry rub for meat, fish, and other seafood.

You can either purchase it from the shop or you can make your own at home. It doesn’t have the same flavor profile as adobo sauce but gives a very unique and incredible taste to your dish.

4. Chipotle Adobo Sauce:

Chipotle is a type of Mexican jalapeno pepper. It is used to make sauces and more. When these peppers are added to the adobo sauce, usually they get dried and give a smoky flavor. Adobo sauce that contains chipotle is considered a hot sauce. This substitute is not for those who don’t like spicy food.

5. Achiote Paste:

Achiote paste is mostly used in Mexican, American, and Caribbean cuisines. It’s a blend of annatto seeds, garlic, oregano, black pepper, coriander, cloves, and cumin. Annatto seeds have a sweet peppery and nutty flavor. They are best in providing food color in a recipe along with spice.

This paste creates a sweet, smoky, and spicy flavor that is incredible. You can also use this paste for meat and fish rub. You can add some chili peppers to make it spicier.

6. Ancho Chile Paste:

Ancho Chile Paste is a mixture of dried pepper, ancho chile pepper, salt, and water. It has a smoky undertone with a sweet flavor that makes it a perfect replacement for adobo sauce. Ancho chile paste doesn’t have the exact same flavor as the adobo sauce, but it makes a great base to add another ingredient to taste like adobo sauce.

If you don’t know what to add to make it taste like adobo sauce, you can try to add soy sauce, vinegar, and water to it. You can use ancho chile paste in marinades, as a base sauce, or as a dipping sauce for recipes in a ratio of 1:1.

7. Hoisin Sauce:

Hoisin sauce is a good adobo sauce replacement that you can use in a recipe. It works as a dipping sauce in marinades and meat rubs. It has an umami flavor with sweet and salty notes. The saltiness of the hoisin sauce is higher than the adobo sauce. You can dilute it with water and vinegar before adding it to a recipe. Make sure to check the salt in a recipe before adding hoisin sauce.

8. Chili Garlic Sauce:

Chili garlic sauce is made of chili peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Most of the chili garlic sauce is made by frying them in oil for about 10 mins. to incorporate all the ingredients. It’s a versatile sauce used in Asian and other cuisines. Chili garlic sauce is perfect for marinades or as a dipping sauce.

It is usually hotter in flavor as compared to the adobo sauce. That’s why it’s better to use half the amount of chili garlic sauce as compared to the adobo sauce.

9. Ranchero Sauce:

Ranchero Sauce is a mixture of herbs and spices such as onion, tomato, chipotle pepper, cilantro, garlic, and jalapenos. This sauce is often used in Mexican cuisine. Fire-smoked tomatoes and dried chipotle chili give a smokey taste to the ranchero sauce. You can add soy sauce or vinegar to make it thick. You should take 1 tablespoon of ranchero sauce in place of every 3 tablespoons of adobo sauce.

10. Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce:

Tabasco Chipotle hot sauce has a slightly different flavor as well as texture than the adobo sauce. It is made up of garlic powder, onion powder, chipotle peppers, salt, vinegar, sugar, and other spices. This is the reason it gives a spicy flavor along with smokiness. Tabasco chipotle hot sauce works well with grilled meats, marinades, and dips. It also enhances the taste of pasta, salads, French fries, sandwiches, and tacos.

11. Italian Seasoning:

Italian seasoning is another spice blend that mostly contains herbs along with spices such as basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. These herbs are not used to make adobo sauce. They provide a nice aroma and enhance the flavor of the whole recipe/dish. Other variations of Italian seasoning are available in the market that contains red chili flakes, fennel seeds, dried sage, parsley, and garlic powder.

Italian seasoning gives an earthy, savory, sweet, and spicy flavor and can be used in dishes/recipes like soups, dressings, marinades, sauces, meat, fish, and vegetables. When using Italian seasoning in a recipe, you should take 1 1/3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to get a citrusy taste.

12. Chipotle Peppers:

Chipotle peppers are spicy with a smoky undertone and have a little sweet note. Chipotle peppers are roasted first before being added to a recipe to get the smoky flavor. This will add a different tone of flavor to your food. Make sure you know the heat level of chipotle peppers before using them instead of adobo sauce. You should take half quantity of chipotle peppers to replace adobo sauce in a recipe.

13. Homemade Adobo Sauce:

If you don’t like the above-listed adobo sauce substitute, you can make adobo sauce on your own at home. You just only need 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, one tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika or chili sauce, 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, oregano, and cumin, and one tablespoon tomato paste.

Mix all the ingredients and strain the mixture and store in a jar in the fridge/refrigerator. You can store it for a longer time in the freezer.

FAQ:

Now, you know the best Adobo Sauce Substitute. You can choose according to what you have in the kitchen or you can also purchase from Amazon. Please! comment down below your questions, and let us know how much informative is this article for you. 🙂