This easy Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Recipe is made with just 5 ingredients and is perfect for sliders, wraps and dip — An quick dinner for busy days!
If you’re looking for easy Instant Pot recipes with hardly any prep work and few ingredients, this shredded Buffalo chicken recipe is for you. Just dump everything into the Instant Pot, press start, and go!
I’m always looking for easy Instant Pot dinner recipes, and this one is one of the easiest dinner recipes ever! I’ve been meaning to make Buffalo chicken in the pressure cooker for longest time, and I finally got the chance when we were on vacation last week.
Yes, I admit it. I am one of those people who cook on vacation. But in my defense, we were gone for a week, and eating out every day gets pretty darn pricey! Anyway, this easy chicken dinner is perfect for busy days or when you’re too tired to cook anything too complicated or when you’re on vacation!I
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make Buffalo chicken in the Crock-Pot. It’s one of our favorite game day dinners, but honestly, it’s so much faster in the Instant Pot!
How to make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken
You only need 5 ingredients to make this Instant Pot Buffalo chicken recipe, and one of them is water! Just throw the chicken in the pot, and add the Buffalo sauce, butter and water.
You can even experiment with leaving the water out, but I like to thin the sauce just a tad. You don’t need much since the chicken releases its own juices, making plenty of thin liquid for the pot to come to pressure.
10 minutes at high pressure and 10 minutes of natural release are all you need to cook the chicken breasts in the Instant Pot. But here’s the thing — If you happen to live at a higher elevation, you’ll have to add a few more minutes.
Normally, I cook recipes at about 1000 feet, but our vacation cabin in Flagstaff was at about 8000 feet, and 15 minutes of high pressure was perfect.
You can shred the chicken with a hand mixer, which makes it super quick and easy. The kids love helping out twith this part!
If you don’t have a mixer, just use two forks to shred the chicken. Toss in a little bit of ranch dressing, and you’re good to go!
I like to add the ranch for a creamier texture and because it cuts down the heat level a little. The Hubs isn’t a fan of hot sauce, so the ranch dressing makes the Buffalo chicken edible for him! It’s totally optional, though.
You can use the shredded Buffalo chicken in sliders, wraps, pizza, dip or eat it straight up. We had it on slider buns one night and straight out of the fridge over some lettuce the next day. Yum!
Looking for more easy Instant Pot chicken recipes?
- Instant Pot salsa verde chicken
- Instant Pot whole chicken
- Instant Pot chicken soup
- Instant Pot honey mustard curry chicken
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Recipe
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 large boneless chicken breasts (2 pounds)
- 1 12-ounce bottle Buffalo Sauce (about 2 cups)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons ranch dressing
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in the inner liner of Instant Pot
- Pour Buffalo wing sauce over chicken, and add water and butter
- Cover, turn valve to Sealing position, and hit PRESSURE COOK (or manual) for 10 minutes.
- When pot beeps, allow 10 minute natural release, then turn valve to Venting to release remaining pressure.
- When pin drops, open lid, and stir in ranch dressing. Shred chicken using hand mixer or shred chicken using 2 forks.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I hope you love this easy Instant Pot Buffalo chicken recipe as much as we do!
Hi I just got an instant pot and am sort of intimidated so looking for easy recipes and this fits the bill! I am wondering if I could use dark meat—like chicken thighs. And what I would need to do differently cooking wise? Thanks in advance!
You can use chicken thighs without changing anything. 🙂
Can I cube the chicken before putting it into the pressure cooker and then skip shredding? I prefer cubed chicken rather than shredded.
You can cube it and brown it on the sauté setting first, and pressure cook it for only 4 minutes, if that’s what you mean. You can also cut the chicken after pressure cooking if you don’t want to shred it.
I didn’t feel like cooking, but I had some chicken that i had to use up, so I made mini sliders with this. And let me tell you-they were absolutely delicious! This is by far my favorite chicken recipe! I will definitely be making this again.
Thank you so much, Lena! I’m super glad you enjoyed the chicken!
I made this a couple weeks ago and absolutely loved it, so I made it again and again! It’s absolutely perfect for meal prep and leftovers!
So happy to hear this, Emily. Thanks!
Just curious: What is the reason for the water in this recipe? I’ve made the same thing in the crockpot without water and always have to let it cook a little longer, uncovered, in order to let some of the liquid cook off and soak into the chicken. I haven’t tried it in the instant pot yet, but the pic looks like it’s very liquidy and that’s not what I’m going for so I’m thinking of maybe leaving out the water. Any knowledge on whether the water is necessary?
The water is just to thin the sauce slightly since Buffalo sauce is on the thick side. You can leave it out, especially if you’re using the regular hot sauce. If you want to shredded chicken to be less saucy, you can remove some of the liquid after cooking.
can this recipe be doubled in a 6 quart pressure cooker?
I haven’t tried it, but you should be able to double it as long as the ingredients don’t go over the fill line.
Can also thicken sauce with Corn Starch.
This is the first thing I am attempting in my new instant pot. In the past I have made this in the crockpot and it has taken all day so I am really excited to give this a shot. Thank you!
This is one of our favorites! I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
I used my insta pot for the first time last night and this was the first meal I made with it. It came out great even though I forgot to add the butter. Big time recommendation.
Thanks so much, Robert! I’m super glad you liked it!
Loved this recipe! Other recipes that I’ve tried haven’t been as saucy. Great for leftovers! And so easy. The whole family loved it. I don’t care for blue cheese so threw in some Mexican cheese, was delish!
This pregnant mama will be making this a lot in the next few months!
Ps having trouble leaving a start rating but definitely 5 stars
Thank you so much, Clare! So glad you enjoyed it. The rating is fine. 🙂
Can you sub buffalo sauce with like teriyaki or dry garlic and get the same affect minus taste obviously?
You can, but you might have to add a little more or less water depending on how thick or thin the teriyaki sauce is.
Hi! I made this recipe (but with four chicken breasts, just adding in a little extra of the ingredients). II find it very tasty, but too liquidy. I think when I eat the leftovers, I’ll use tongs, as seen in one of the pics, to pour some chicken out . Aside from that, very tasty and easy. Such a nice kick!
I’m glad you liked the flavor! There is a lot of sauce, and there will be more if you add more chicken or liquid. We use tongs for serving since it does allow extra sauce to drip off.
Have you tried starting with frozen chicken breasts ?
I haven’t personally used frozen chicken, but people do and say it turns out fine. It just takes longer to reach pressure.
Looks delicious and so easy to make! !
Thanks, Erin! It’s super easy to make!
We love buffalo chicken anything! I have to make this!
This will be a sure hit in my house! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Thanks, Toni. I hope you like it as much as we do! 🙂
I need to add this to our menu for next week! Love that there are so many ways to use this!
This sounds so flavorful! What a great way to spice things up!
Looks delicious! One of my favorites!
Thanks, Jamielyn. It’s one of our favorites, too! 🙂
This is one of my all time favorite things to make and you just made it so much simpler!! Thank you!
Thanks, Amanda! I think we’ll be making this on a lot in the fall! 🙂