Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
45 Comments Jan 01, 2022
Updated Feb 12, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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.
What type of sandwich bun do you recommend? Do you recommend toasting the bun?
You can use any bun, some times we will use Kaiser buns. And yes, toasting them is a good idea.
We use pretzel rolls, put crumbled blue cheese on top of the chicken, then wrap the sandwich in foil and put in the oven for about 5 minutes. DELICIOUS.
Greats ideas John!
I made this yesterday! It will now be on our rotation. It is excellent! I put a few cilantro leaves on top. YUMMMMM!
I just made this! It’s good but the liquid really went away. I cooked on high for 4 hours. The video shows way more liquid even though I followed it exactly, how do I make it more liquidy?? (at least for next time)
If you don’t add more sauce, chicken stock always helps or chicken broth as it tends to be lighter.
Can this be made in an instapot?
I don’t see why not.
Hey Sarah! I made this recipe and put the chicken in quesadillas and we dipped them in homemade ranch. SO GOOD! I found that we wanted the chicken to be a bit juicier so I added an extra half cup of Franks and it was perfect!
Yum! Thanks for the tip.
Can you leave out the ranch packet if you want more of a blue cheese flavor by adding crumbles or dressing afterwards?
You can but the ranch packer really adds flavor. I would add blue cheese crumbles or dressing for serving.
I I like your reciepes
What if my husband doesn’t like hot spicy foods? How can I tame it down?
Hi! I read this on Frank’s website: For a milder wing sauce recipe, vary the ratio of Frank’s RedHot® to butter. For example, in our standard traditional Buffalo Wings recipe using 2 1/2 lbs. chicken wings use: 3 parts butter, 2 parts RedHot® (1/2 cup butter: 1/3 cup RedHot)
I suggest adding less of the hot sauce than I used. Still will be plenty of sauce. And make sure to have ranch to help tone down the heat too.
Hi Sarah,
I made your buffalo drum stix earlier this week…and was planning on making those for the Super Bowl and told everybody about it. They are excited.
My question is that recipe called for 4 lbs of chicken and this one calls for two. I will definitely need 4 lbs of chicken. I would like to try this recipe so should I double it??
I have a 5 quart slow cooker. When I made the buffalo drum sticks there was still quite a bit of sauce left in the end so am a bit concerned about doubling it…but thought I would ask.
BTW, when I first tried the sauce I thought what a great base for a soup. I’m glad you have a soup recipe to try, too!
Thank you for your time.
-Mark
Merci bonne recette