Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken is an incredibly easy way to make the perfect buffalo-style shredded chicken for pizza, lettuce wraps, tacos, burgers, salads and more! WIth just 4 ingredients, this easy slow cooker chicken comes out tender, juicy, and flavorful.
Slow cooker buffalo chicken is one of my favorite easy crockpot dinner recipes! It's perfect for making big batches and using throughout the week or freezing for use later one, on really busy days! Flavorful shredded chicken is so versatile- there are so many ways to use it that it never gets boring! Check out my list below for 10 ways to use your delicious slow cooker buffalo chicken.
In addition to this slow cooker buffalo chicken, I make big batches of quick shredded barbecue chicken in the Instant Pot and a delicious ranch chicken in my crockpot. I make a few simple dinners out of them, then freeze the leftovers. I use the leftovers over the course of a few months when I need to get dinner made fast- or just don't want to spend the time cooking!
The slow cooker is great for these types of make ahead no-fuss recipes in large batches!
How To Use Shredded Buffalo Chicken
Here is a list of some great ways to use this slow cooker buffalo chicken:
- Burgers: use inside a hamburger bun or sweet Hawaiian roll. They are delicious with some cheese, tomato, and avocado added in there too!
- Buffalo-style nachos: top chips with Mexican cheese, blue cheese, the chicken, sliced sweet peppers, red onion, and cilantro, then drizzle with some ranch dressing.
- Tacos: use the chicken in these delicious buffalo tacos.
- Quesadillas: spice up your traditional quesadilla recipe by using the shredded chicken, blue cheese crumbles, mozzarella, red onion, and sweet bell peppers.
- Pizza: make a spicy buffalo chicken pizza with mozzarella cheese, buffalo sauce, peppers and onions. This is one of my favorite ways to use it!
- Dip: turn it into a dip by adding cream cheese and mozzarella cheese.
- Lettuce wraps: stuff a leaf of romaine lettuce with the chicken, onions, peppers, and cheese!
- Buffalo chicken salad: with romaine lettuce, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and onions for a healthy way to use this recipe.
- Taquitos and burritos: replace your traditional stuffing with this buffalo chicken and some cheese.
- Stuffed sweet potatoes: stuff a sweet potato (or russet potato) with the chicken and top with some blue cheese, cilantro and ranch dressing for a creative lunch idea.
Helpful Tips and Facts For Making Buffalo Chicken
Buffalo sauce is a combination of cayenne pepper sauce, more commonly referred to as "hot sauce", and butter. It's known to be spicy but comes in a variety of heats. You can usually find mild, medium, hot, and extra hot varieties.
Yes! Homemade buffalo sauce is really easy to make. Mix 1 cup of hot cayenne pepper sauce with ½ cup of melted butter. For this recipe, you will need 2 cups of hot sauce mixed with 1 cup of melted butter. You don't have to mix them separately. Just put the chicken into the slow cooker, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour in the hot sauce and arrange butter slices on top.
There are many great additions if you'd like to add a little something extra to this simple buffalo chicken recipe. A packet of dry ranch seasoning, chives, scallions, a little creamy ranch or blue cheese dressing, blue cheese crumbles, or a bit of cheddar and mozzarella cheese are delicious with buffalo chicken.
It is not recommended to use frozen chicken in a slow cooker. Always use thawed chicken to prevent the chance that bacteria can grow while the frozen chicken is thawing in the cooker.
Because chicken can dry out easily, it's better to cook it slowly on the low setting. Cooking on high for a shorter amount of time is fine if you're crunched for time, but if you can cook it longer at low there will be less of a chance for the chicken to overcook and dry out.
Ingredients
All you need is:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Salt & pepper
- Buffalo sauce: depending on your preference for spiciness, use your favorite brand of mild, medium, hot, or extra hot buffalo sauce. My favorite is Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wings Sauce.
How To Make It
Making this 3 step recipe is so easy!
STEP 1: Place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Pour the buffalo sauce on top.
STEP 2: Cover and set to HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 6 hours (low is my preferred setting). When done, remove the chicken breasts and shred with a fork. Put back into the slow cooker, stir well, and cover. Set back to LOW for 1 hour.
STEP 3: Stir the chicken and sauce well. Serve warm on pizza, in sandwiches, as a filling for tacos, or one of the suggestions from above.
Enjoy!
How To Store and Freeze Buffalo Chicken
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer sealed in a freezer safe bag for up to 6 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge before reheating.
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Recipe
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups buffalo sauce mild, medium, or hot
Instructions
- Place the boneless chicken breasts in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Pour the buffalo sauce on top.
- Cover and set to HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 6 hours. When done, remove the chicken breasts and shred with a fork. Put back into the slow cooker, stir well, and cover. Set back to LOW for 1 hour.
- Stir the chicken and sauce well. Serve warm on pizza, in sandwiches, as a filling for tacos (see notes for more suggestions).
Michelle
I followed the recipe and this dish came out incredibly salty. I would not make again. My family loves Buffalo chicken dishes, but this was way too salty.
Andrea
Really like how easy this buffalo chicken is to make and how versatile it is. Will be making this ASAP.
Holley
I love how this is so easy to make and soooo flavorful!! A new family favorite for sure!
Nathan
Buffalo chicken is one of my favorites and I love how easy it is to make it in the slow cooker. Such great ideas for how to eat it too, I think I'll use it as a topping for pizza next week! Thanks for the recipe!
Vicky
This is such a versatile recipe. The fact that you can use it in so many ways is awesome. One night I can make buffalo chicken sandwiches and the next night I can use the leftovers for tacos. Love it!
Carrie Robinson
I just love how easy this is to make! 🙂 Looks delicious.