Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
45 Comments Jan 01, 2022
Updated Nov 11, 2025
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Skip the wings and make a big batch of shredded Crockpot Buffalo chicken — perfect for sandwiches, wraps, or sliders. Perfect for parties, tailgates, or any time you’re craving bold, saucy flavor.
Featured Comment
So delicious, my family loves this recipe, even the kids love it! I have mine in lettuce cups with a few blue cheese crumbles. The others are theirs in a bowl and added a variety of toppings like cheddar cheese, ranch dressing, and my daughter added cream cheese and mixed it up like a dip and ate it with a few tortilla chips. Very versatile and a hit!
– Christina
This Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken is a staple in our house, and I’ve got the perfect version for you. You cook the chicken in the spicy sauce and simply shred it to serve when you get home. It has plenty of heat, but adding cool ranch dressing will mellow it out.
Key Ingredients
Chicken – Boneless chicken breasts shred up best for this dip.
Ranch Dressing Mix – Use either the salad dressing or dip packet — both work the same. This is not liquid ranch dressing.
Frank’s Red Hot Sauce -Look for the original sauce, not the premade Buffalo wing sauce, since we’re adding butter and seasonings ourselves. It’s about a medium heat level — around a 7 out of 10.
Butter – I use an entire stick of salted butter in this recipe. Why? Adding butter softens the spiciness of the hot sauce; this is what restaurants do when they make buffalo wings.
How to Make Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
- Add all the main ingredients to the crock.
- Cook low and slow until the chicken shreds easily. Shred and serve!
Variations
- Creamy: If you want creamy buffalo chicken, add one eight-ounce package of cream cheese at the beginning of the cooking time. The buffalo chicken is great as a dip if you add cream cheese.
- Different Cut: Any cut of chicken, such as boneless thighs, bone-in thighs, drumsticks, or breasts, can be used. Turkey can be used as well!
- Dairy Free: To make dairy free, use dairy-free butter and serve with dairy-free ranch dressing.
How to serve buffalo chicken:
- Classic: Serve this buffalo chicken on hamburger buns or slider rolls with a side of chips or crunchy carrot and celery sticks. Adding coleslaw to the sandwich gives it an extra layer of texture and flavor.
- Looking for a heartier option? Spoon it over baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, or even baked sweet potatoes for a delicious twist.
- Full Meal: Serve it over steamed white rice or toss it with cooked pasta.
- Low Carb: Enjoy it on its own with celery sticks and ranch, or pile it onto lettuce wraps or a low-carb tortilla.
How to Make into a Freezer Meal
You can make buffalo chicken into a meal-prep freezer meal! Before cooking, place the entire recipe in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to three months. When ready to cook, thaw and follow the recipe as written.
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Recipe
How to Video
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 12 oz. Frank's Red Hot original sauce, (look for the original sauce, not the one labeled wings)
- 1 oz. ranch dressing packet, dip mix works too!
- 1/2 cup salted butter, (1 stick)
For Serving:
- hamburger buns (or slider buns), toasted
- ranch or blue cheese dressing
Instructions
- Add the chicken breasts to the slow cooker.
- Sprinkle over the ranch dressing (or dip) mix.
- Pour over the Frank's Red Hot Sauce.
- Add the cube of butter on top.
- Place the lid of the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
- When the cooking time is up, take two forks and shred the chicken.
- Serve over buns and top with ranch or blue cheese dressing.
Sarah’s Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
More Buffalo Recipes Recipes
We love using Frank’s Red Hot Sauce in the crockpot for recipes like Buffalo 15 Bean Soup, Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Pasta, and our game day favorite Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip.
If you’re craving more heat, try my Slow Cooker Buffalo Wings, Hot Chicken, or Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches.
Ate this plain by itself a week or 2 ago and both my boyfriend and I didn’t care for it. When it was pretty much done, I taste tested it, and even though I knew better, I added more Frank’s Hot Sauce. Well, of course, then my boyfriend struggled to eat it. Breaking down into a sweat rolling down from his forehead. I, however, could literally eat something on fire and be perfectly fine. I didn’t like it being bland without the lesser amount of heat he liked, and he didn’t like it with the more amount of heat I liked. So just be careful I guess.
I really like this recipe, my only addition is that I tossed in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, I feel like it brings things together
You mention that the butter cuts down on the vinegar flavor, but I don’t see any vinegar in the recipe. Where does the vinegar flavor come from?
Buffalo sauce is mostly vinegar.
Can you use ranch dressing instead of the ranch seasoning packet?
You can, but with how long this recipe cooks it may separate a bit.
Unless I am missing it, I don’t see anywhere how many people this will feed? Only 2 chicken breasts has me concerned it will be a small amount (?)
2 pounds of chicken will feed about 8 (8 sandwiches).
Just made this in the crockpot. Is the sauce supposed to be liquidy or have some body to it? Should I thicken it up with corn starch?
It’s supposed to be liquidly, you can definitely thicken it up though.
I used this in a baked pasta dish – tossed with egg noodles and added blue cheese and mozzerella, baked in the oven for 20 minutes so the cheese got nice and melty. Delicious!