Fiesta! Aaron Sanchez's favorite sauce recipe

Dress up your next meal with chef Aaron Sanchez's tasty, garlic-chipotle sauce

Video: Add ‘chipotle love’ to a chicken dinner

Closed captioning of: Add ‘chipotle love’ to a chicken dinner

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>> this morning on "today's kitchen" delicious one, two, three easy mexican meals. good morning, aaron sanchez .

>> good morning.

>> you were raised in the kitchen of a legendary chef of mexican food .

>> yes.

>> in this country.

>> yes, absolutely, my mom is sort of one of these pioneers in mexican cuisine and i grew up in that environment and it inspired me so much that i wanted to do that with my life as well.

>> so you've now branched out and have this book and also i understand a restaurant but also created this sauce that you say is multipurpose. you don't have to just do it for one thing. it's called your garlic chipotle love sauce. why do you call it the love sauce?

>> food is love.

>> it is.

>> i get excited when i start to cook and this sauce exemplifies how simple and packed with flavor the recipe is. starts simple with garlic and we make a garlic oil, so i've taken canola and garlic cloves.

>> why canola and not olive?

>> you don't want something flowery. you want something neutral. put this in the oven 45 minutes to an hour, low temperature, let it get nutty and sort of sweet.

>> look at that.

>> this is what we're left with. no tord make the base for the chipotle love, we put a couple cloves of garlic in the processor and lime zest, something i enjoy, a little bit of cilantro and chipotle. this is a smoked jalapeno that comes canned. straightforward, a little bit of residual oil , give that a pulse, you get the idea, vvvt! it gets grounded up and this is the love sauce.

>> the love sauce people, there it is. what do we do with that?

>> mix it with a butter and in essence you make a compound butter or flavored butter. keep it in your fridge or up to a week or a month. taste how that comes together simple. spicy.

>> nice.

>> you take a little bit of this butter, stack it underneath the chicken carcass, put fresh herbs underneath the skin, leave that there, make sure it gets beautiful and march nates for 45 minutes, cook this in the oven for about an hour and a half at 350.

>> let's check it out.

>> what you have back here is you have the chicken after it's been cooked.

>> wow, look at that!

>> another quick recipe to show you how versatile and easy the sauce is.

>> hey guys, come on in.

>> you want your friends?

>> yes, hey guys.

>> how are you matt?

>> nice to see you.

>> al always a pleasure. lime juice , extra virgin olive oil and you're left with a beautiful vinaigrette that goes on top of the vegetarian.

>> making it easy for those of us at home don't want the complication of one recipe after another. you can use the same bases. can you freeze that? how long can it last?

>> a month in the freezer, tightly wrapped, wrapped tightly -- you know what i mean , basically said the same thing and drizzle this over the salad, and what you're left with is something beautiful.

>> yum! now we're going to mangia. thank you, aaron sanchez .

>>> coming up, bruce jenner and

Show transcript

TODAY recipes

updated 10/3/2011 4:10:17 PM ET

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Looking to spice up your kitchen? Aaron Sanchez, author of "Simple Food, Big Flavor: Unforgettable Mexican-Inspired Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours," shares his favorite sauce — perfect for chicken, salad or potatoes.

Recipe: Garlic-chipotle love (on this page)

Recipe: Garlic-chipotle love

Aaron Sanchez

Ingredients

1 cup canola oil
12 garlic cloves, peeled
3 tablespoons chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Grated zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Pour the oil into a heavy ovenproof medium saucepan and add the garlic. Cover the pot with foil, put it in the oven, and cook until the garlic turns a nutty brown and is really soft (think cream cheese), about 45 minutes.

Remove the pot from the oven and let the garlic and oil cool to room temperature.

Put the garlic and the now garlic-infused oil in a food processor or blender. Add the chipotles and sauce, cilantro, lime zest, and salt and puree until the mixture is very smooth.

Store in the fridge in a tightly covered container for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to a month.

Tip: For an off-the-hook whole roast chicken, blend 1/2 cup garlic-chipotle love with 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, perhaps tossing in some sturdy,pollo-friendly fresh herbs like sage, thyme, or oregano. Let the chicken come to room temperature, then spread the Love butter generously under the skin. Roast the bird in a 375°F oven for about 1.5 hours.