Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
50 CommentsUpdated Mar 21, 2026
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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.
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