Vinaigrette – Recipe Professional

Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:20:13 +0000

This balsamic vinaigrette recipe is one of those dressings I always come back to. It’s tangy, a little sweet, and honestly, it is so much better than store-bought!

I love making salad dressings from scratch, and this balsamic vinaigrette is the one I reach for most. We almost always have everything on hand, and it’s delicious on just about any salad you can think of.

You’ll find our basic balsamic vinaigrette recipe below, plus two fun variations: a creamy version and a strawberry one. We especially love drizzling it over our balsamic strawberry salad!

Key Ingredients

Balsamic Vinegar: Use what you have. Most of us have the less expensive bottles with thin, pretty tart vinegar inside. That’s what I’ve assumed in our recipe below. If you have thicker, aged balsamic vinegar, it will still be lovely in our recipe. We recommend tasting it before using it to make the dressing. If it already tastes syrupy and sweet, you can probably skip the sweetener. If it’s tart and acidic, you’ll want to add a little sweetness with maple syrup, honey, or jam.
Dijon Mustard: We use mustard in many of our salad dressing recipes and love it in this balsamic dressing. It helps the ingredients emulsify and makes it taste more like what you are served in nicer restaurants. Whole-grain mustard is a good substitute.
Olive Oil: Use your favorite extra-virgin olive oil. I like fruiter, lighter olive oils, but use what you have or love.
Sweetener: Maple syrup and honey are lovely (I only add a little bit) and balance the tartness of balsamic vinegar.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make the Best Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tip 1: Whisk everything but the oil first. To get a really nice emulsion, whisk your balsamic, mustard, sweetener, salt, and pepper together until well combined. Then slowly stream in the olive oil, whisking as it is added.

Tip 2: Be ready to adjust to taste. Balsamic vinegar varies in sweetness, thickness, and acidity. Less expensive bottles are usually thinner and quite tart, while more expensive bottles can be syrupy and sweet. You can use either in our recipe, but it’s helpful to know what you are starting with before adding your sweetener. If your vinegar is tart, add the sweetener as recommended below. If it’s already sweet, hold off, make the dressing without sweetener, then adjust to taste.

Recipe Variations

Make it creamy. If you prefer creamy dressings, add a spoonful of mayonnaise, sour cream, plain yogurt, or crème fraîche (my favorite).
Add jam. Honey or maple syrup are in our basic recipe, but to add more fruity flavor, swap the sweetener with your favorite jam. Strawberry jam is incredible. Fig jam pairs really well with balsamic, and I adore this peach jam!

More Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes

Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

PREP
10 mins
TOTAL
10 mins

This easy balsamic vinaigrette dressing is a staple recipe in our house. We like vinegary dressings and use twice as much olive oil as vinegar. To make a less vinegary dressing, add more olive oil to taste. I like to add a little sweetener to the dressing. Maple syrup or honey is lovely, or add a little fruitiness with your favorite jam (strawberry jam is especially good). If you are using a thicker balsamic vinegar or one that is aged, it may already taste sweeter, so you may not need to add a sweetener.

Makes 3/4 cup

You Will Need

¼ cup balsamic vinegar (60 ml)

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon maple syrup, honey, or strawberry jam

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste (120 ml)

1 tablespoon mayonnaise, sour cream, or crème fraîche, optional to make creamy

Directions

1Whisk balsamic vinegar, mustard, sweetener, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl until well blended.

2While whisking, slowly stream in the olive oil until completely incorporated and the dressing has thickened and looks creamy. Taste and then adjust with salt, pepper, olive oil, or sweetener as needed.

3To turn it into a creamy dressing, whisk in mayo (sour cream or crème fraîche).

Adam and Joanne’s Tips

Storing: Keep balsamic vinaigrette in an airtight container or jar for up to 1 week.
How to make in jar or blender: Instead of whisking ingredients together, place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine. Or, use a blender. Add all ingredients to blender then blend until thick.
Nutritional information are estimates.

Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1 tablespoon
/
Calories
87
/
Total Fat
9.3g
/
Saturated Fat
1.3g
/
Cholesterol
0mg
/
Sodium
71.4mg
/
Carbohydrate
1.3g
/
Dietary Fiber
0g
/
Total Sugars
1.1g
/
Protein
0g

AUTHOR:

Adam Gallagher

We are Adam and Joanne Gallagher, the creators of Inspired Taste. Established in 2009, Inspired Taste grew from a childhood dream into one of the internet’s most trusted recipe sites with hundreds of reliable recipes, step-by-step videos, and expert tips.More About Us

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Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette Recipe

admin — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:12:30 +0000

This juicy salad tastes like summer! With chipotle chicken, sweet corn, avocado, cilantro vinaigrette, bacon crumbles, and fresh strawberries for a pop of sweetness.

Summah summah summahhhhhhtime!

I kinda can’t believe it since here in Minnesota we were all “April Blizzard” a minute ago, but you guys, it’s totally here. And I totally had it for dinner last night.

Here’s what it tasted like:

juicy strawberries
crisp salty bacon
sweet green lettuce
bursts of sweet corn
creamy avocado chunks
and smoky chipotle grilled chicken! REPEAT: GRILLED!

How To Make Our Chipotle Cobb Salad:

Heya! FYI, Book links are Amazon affiliate links.

This dream team of ingredients better known as a Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad is coming to our hearts today from the What’s Gaby Cooking Cookbook.

Remember when I published those BEST EVER chicken tinga tacos and told you about my friend Melissa’s amazing book and then talked about how I hardly ever promote books? But then I turned around and told you how great THIS one was, too? LOL to me. It’s just dumb luck that both of these came out when they did.

We’re not paid for any cookbook promotions – I just like to show you the ones that we like and give you a sneak at their best recipes.

And this one is one that I like. And this might be one of its best recipes. Tied with the cilantro vinaigrette, which I couldn’t not use again for this salad. I know Gaby says to use the champagne vinaigrette with this salad, but GABY COME ON YOU CAN’T TEASE US LIKE THAT. One good lick of that cilantro dressing and you’re done. Goodbye. This is your life now.

Okay, salad ingredients. As mentioned, there is a lot of fresh summery goodness going on here, and it looks like so:

The more “involved” part of the recipe (if you can even call it that) is just plopping your chicken in some spices and a few chipotle peppers and letting it marinate for a while before grilled.

WORTH IT, you guys! So worth it.

Also probably more normal to take a picture of the grilled chicken rather than the raw marinated stuff, but who said anything about normal.

Bjork and I ate this salad on the deck on a random Tuesday night and we both mega-loved every lip-lickin juicy bite.

It’s a little spicy, a lot crunchy, and those bites of sweetness in between are so super rewarding.

Thank you, Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad, for making all our dreams come true.

Description

This juicy salad tastes like summer! With chipotle chicken, sweet corn, avocado, cilantro vinaigrette, bacon crumbles, and fresh strawberries for a pop of sweetness. Recipe republished from the What’s Gaby Cookin’ cookbook!

For the Chipotle Chicken:

For the Summer Cobb Salad:

Prep the chicken: Combine the oil, chipotles, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Place the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat the chicken in the marinade. Place in the fridge and let it marinate while you prep your other ingredients.
Prep salad: Prep all your salad ingredients (cook the bacon, slice the strawberries, cut the corn off the cob, etc.).
Grill the chicken: Heat an outdoor grill (or grill pan) to about 400 degrees. Place chicken on the grill and grill for 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the grill and let rest for ten minutes. Slice against the grain.
Salad: Arrange the greens on a large platter and top with the bacon, strawberries, corn, avocado, and grilled chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Toss with the cilantro vinaigrette and serve!

Notes

Greens: We used spring greens in the pictures on this post, but we love this with just spinach too depending on what you have on hand!

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 mins
Category: Dinner
Cuisine: American

Keywords: chipote chicken, chipotle chicken cobb salad, cobb salad

Nutrition label does not include the Cilantro Vinaigrette – head to the recipe to find its nutritional information!

One More Thing!

This recipe is part of our best sugar free recipe page. Check it out!

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