Chili Lime Dressing
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Make this creamy, flavorful Chili Lime Dressing to toss with salads, drizzle on tacos, smother on Mexican street corn, or use as a dipping sauce. It’s easy to mix up this recipe with 6 simple ingredients in just 5 minutes!
I originally created this chili lime salad dressing to toss with this Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. I’ve since been putting it on everything! It’s so flavorful, creamy, and downright delicious that I knew it needed it’s own spot on the blog.
This is a perfect salad dressing for a taco salad, or southwest salad. It’s also a great sauce for drizzling over nachos and tacos. It’s the sauce I use on these Mexican Chicken Street Corn Tacos, and I’ve been drizzling it on all of the Mexican meals at our house lately.
You can mix it up in 5 minutes and store it in the fridge for up to 10 days, so you can keep using it over and over again to add a delicious taste to all of your meals!
Ingredients
- Sour cream – half of the base of the creamy chili lime dressing.
- Mayonnaise – the other half of the base of the salad dressing. If you don’t like mayonnaise, you can use all sour cream, but the dressing won’t be quite as thick in texture, or rich in flavor.
- Lime juice – I always recommend fresh-squeezed juice for the best flavor.
- Chili powder + salt + black pepper – to season the dressing.
- Cayenne pepper (optional) – if you don’t like spice, do not add the cayenne pepper. I add just ½ teaspoon to the dressing, giving it a medium heat level. Without the cayenne pepper, the dressing is very mild in spice. You could also add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce to amp up the spice of the dressing, instead of using the cayenne pepper.
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper. Optionally add cayenne pepper for heat.
- Store the dressing in the fridge in an airtight container, like a mason jar, for up to 10 days.
Recipe notes
- Let the dressing sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving. This isn’t required, but I can tell you from experience, the flavor of the dressing develops more and more as it sits in the refrigerator for the first 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- I do not recommend freezing the dressing because it’s dairy-based and the texture won’t be the same after it’s defrosted.
- This recipe makes just over 1 cup of chili lime dressing. If you’d like to double the recipe, simply click the 2X button in the recipe card below. The ingredient amounts will automatically update to make 2 cups of the dressing.
- For even more lime flavor, zest the outside of the limes before you juice them into the dressing. The lime zest will add another tangy layer of flavor to the dressing.
- This recipe is naturally gluten free.
Ways to use the dressing
While this creamy chili lime dressing was originally created as a salad dressing, I’ve found so many ways to use it as both a dressing and a sauce! Drizzle it, dip it, or toss it with any of these delicious recipes.
- Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad (pictured above) – you’ll need the entire amount of dressing that this recipe makes for the pasta salad. I recommend doubling the recipe, so you’ll have more to use on other dishes!
- Mexican Street Corn Chicken Tacos – you’ll need ½ cup of the dressing for this recipe.
- Elote – to make traditional Mexican street corn, cook corn on the cob using any of the 6 methods in the post linked above. Spread a thin layer of this dressing on all sides of the ears of corn after they’re cooked. Sprinkle crumbled cotija cheese over the corn and finish with a garnish of fresh chopped cilantro. You’ll need about 1 tablespoon of dressing per ear of corn.
- Taco salad – use ⅔ cup of this dressing to toss with a simple ground beef taco salad for a delicious dinner!
- Southwest salad – use ⅔ cup of this dressing to toss with a Southwest-style salad, topped with red onions, corn, black beans and cherry tomatoes.
Drizzle it over nachos, fish tacos, shrimp tacos, or burrito bowls. Or use it as a dipping sauce for taquitos, quesadillas, fries, chicken tenders, or raw veggies, like carrot sticks, celery, bell peppers, broccoli, or cauliflower florets.
More sauce recipes
Try these other delicious sauce and salad dressing recipes to add tons of flavor to your next meal!
Chili Lime Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons lime juice, fresh-squeezed
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional – for spice
Instructions
- Add the sour cream, mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder, salt, and pepper to a medium bowl, and stir to combine. Optionally add cayenne pepper for heat.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days.
Notes
- Let the dressing sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving. This isn’t required, but I can tell you from experience, the flavor of the dressing develops more and more as it sits in the refrigerator for the first 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- I do not recommend freezing the dressing because it’s dairy-based and the texture won’t be the same after it’s defrosted.
- This recipe makes just over 1 cup of dressing. If you’d like to double the recipe, simply click the 2X button above under the word “ingredients”. The ingredient amounts will automatically update to make 2 cups of the dressing.
Nutrition Facts
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