Forget the wings and make a big batch of shredded crockpot buffalo chicken. Pile on hamburger buns for an easy dinner or game day feast.
We LOVE using buffalo sauce (Frank’s Red Hot Sauce) in our crockpot for recipes such as our Buffalo 15 Bean Soup, Buffalo Chicken Pasta, and our game day favorite buffalo chicken dip.
What Kind of Hot Sauce to Use
- You will want to find a buffalo sauce, Frank’s Hot Sauce is the preffered choice for most.
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce is a cayenne pepper sauce that is used in
“buffalo” flavored recipes. - This sauce does have a spicy kick to it, adding butter in the mix and ranch or blue cheese dressing topped on the final dish can cool the heat.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken – Boneless chicken breasts or thighs work the best for shredded chicken though bone-in breasts, thighs or drumsticks will work in this recipe.
- Ranch Dressing Mix – You can use the salad dressing mix or the dip packet, both work the same in this type of recipe.
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce – Look for the original sauce NOT the premade buffalo wing sauce, for we are adding the butter and seasonings ourselves.
- Butter – I use an entire stick of salted butter in this recipe
Step-by-Step Directions
Step One: Add the chicken to the slow cooker. Sprinkle over the ranch seasoning. Pour over the buffalo sauce. Place the stick of butter on top.
Step Two: Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.
Step Three: Shred the chicken with two forks and serve!
How to serve buffalo chicken:
Shred the chicken with two forks then serve one of these ways:
- Serve on hamburger buns or slider buns with chips or carrot and celery sticks on the side.
- Over baked or mashed potatoes.
- Great over Sweet Baked Potatoes
- Over steamed rice.
- Toss with cooked pasta.
Recipe FAQs and Substitutions
The butter not only adds flavor it helps tone down the vinegar flavor and the spiciness.
Serve alone with celery sticks and ranch. Pile on lettuce wraps or low-carb tortilla wraps.
You can make buffalo chicken into a meal prep freezer meal! Place the entire recipe before cooking into a freezer bag. Freeze for up to three months. When ready to cook, thaw and follow the recipe as written.
If you want a creamy buffalo chicken, you can add one eight ounce package of cream cheese at the beginning of the cooking time. If you add cream cheese the buffalo chicken is great as a dip.
Yes, any cut of chicken can be used such as boneless chicken thighs, or bone-in thighs, drumsticks or breasts.
On a scale of one to ten, buffalo chicken is about a 7. Serving with ranch cools it down a bit.
Place in airtight containers or ziplock bags. It will last in the fridge for five days or in the freezer for three months.
I recommend thawing your chicken before adding it to the slow cooker. Some studies suggest that frozen meat will stay in the danger zone too long.
Want to make more magic in your crockpot? Stay up to date and subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Recipe
Equipment Needed:
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. (see my notes below for other serving ideas)
How to Video:
Recipe Notes:
- Serve on rice, mashed potatoes or on a baked potato.
- Toss with pasta.
- To make this lower in carbs serve with celery and ranch on the side or serve in lettuce or low carb tortillas.
Nutrition Information:
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
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!
We made this but used low fat kefir instead of buttermilk powder. I put it on last night and slow cooked it for 8 hours- it was absolutely delicious!
I haven’t used the recipe yet but, but I plan to soon.
QUESTION:
Do I have to add Ranch Dressing to it? Does the Ranch play a critical role in the Buffalo Chicken flavoring?
Thank you.
~ Jeremy ~
Yes, it’s pretty good component. And helps liquidfy the recipe.
i am a bit of a spicy food weenie, so i use equal parts red hot or buffalo wing sauce and already made ranch dressing. that cools it down enuf so u dont need butter. i put about 3 tablespoons butter in anyway.
(i always sear the chicken first on high heat in a frying pan for a few minutes on each side before putting it in the slow cooker. adds a nice flavor)
Nice sandwich for a group of young men!!!
This was delicious, myself husband devoured it! thank you!
Hi,
My question is if I half half of a roasted chicken can I use that instead of raw chicken? Just trying to get two meals out of one chicken lol and if I can how long should I put it in the crockpot and still same recipe you think?
You would only need an hour and a half on high most likely.
How well does it freeze after you cook it?
Buffalo chicken freezes and thaws well.
Excellent! Very easy to make, no prep work. I doubled all the ingredients, except for the Franks sauce, used ~1.5 12oz bottles, still very juicy. Served mine on a leaf of lettuce with shredded carrots & bleu cheese crumbles. Served my husband’s on a toasted brioche roll w/ shredded cheese on top. Both were excellent. Will place in our regular rotation. Looking forward to left overs tomorrow, know they’ll be even better!