Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
45 Comments Jan 01, 2022
Updated Feb 12, 2025
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Skip the wings and make a big batch of shredded crockpot buffalo chicken instead! Pile it onto hamburger buns for an easy dinner or the ultimate game-day feast. Perfect for parties, tailgates, or any time you’re craving bold, saucy flavor.
We LOVE using buffalo sauce (Frank’s Red Hot Sauce) in our crockpot for recipes such as our Buffalo 15 Bean Soup, Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Pasta, and our game day favorite slow cooker buffalo chicken dip.
What Kind of Hot Sauce to Use
- You will want to find a buffalo sauce; Frank’s Hot Sauce is the preferred choice for most.
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce is a cayenne pepper sauce that is used in
“buffalo” flavored recipes. This is the original sauce and is best for any things buffalo flavored. - This sauce does have a spicy kick, but adding butter to the sauce, and ranch or blue cheese dressing topped on the final dish can cool the heat.
What you need
- 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. This is not liquid ranch dressing.
- 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. Why? Adding butter softens the spiciness of the hot sauce, this is what restaurants do when they make buffalo wings.
- {The full recipe is in the recipe card below the photos}
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!
Variations
- 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.
- Any cut of chicken, such as boneless thighs, bone-in thighs, drumsticks, or breasts, can be used. Turkey can be used as well!
- To make dairy free, use dairy-free butter and serve with dairy-free ranch dressing.
How to serve buffalo chicken:
- 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.
- For a simple, satisfying meal, serve it over steamed white rice or toss it with cooked pasta.
- If you’re keeping it low-carb, enjoy it on its own with celery sticks and ranch, or pile it onto lettuce wraps or a low-carb tortilla.
Recipe FAQs
The butter adds flavor and helps tone down the vinegar flavor and the spiciness.
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.
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.
More Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes:
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Ranch Drumsticks
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Wings
- Slow Cooker Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Baby Back Ribs
- Slow Cooker Hot Chicken
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. (see my notes below for other serving ideas)
Sarah’s 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.
- 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.
- Any cut of chicken, such as boneless thighs, bone-in thighs, drumsticks, or breasts, can be used. Turkey can be used as well!
- To make dairy free, use dairy-free butter and serve with dairy-free ranch dressing.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
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!