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
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!
Amanda says
July 16, 2018 at 2:01 pmThis is one of my all time favorite things to make and you just made it so much simpler!! Thank you!
Dee says
July 17, 2018 at 10:02 amThanks, Amanda! I think we’ll be making this on a lot in the fall! 🙂
Jamielyn says
July 16, 2018 at 5:04 pmLooks delicious! One of my favorites!
Dee says
July 17, 2018 at 10:03 amThanks, Jamielyn. It’s one of our favorites, too! 🙂
Demeter says
July 16, 2018 at 7:42 pmThis sounds so flavorful! What a great way to spice things up!
Sabrina says
July 16, 2018 at 7:44 pmI need to add this to our menu for next week! Love that there are so many ways to use this!
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
July 17, 2018 at 10:42 amThis will be a sure hit in my house! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Dee says
July 17, 2018 at 2:38 pmThanks, Toni. I hope you like it as much as we do! 🙂
Krista says
July 17, 2018 at 12:14 pmWe love buffalo chicken anything! I have to make this!
Erin | Dinners,Dishes and Dessert says
July 17, 2018 at 11:54 pmLooks delicious and so easy to make! !
Dee says
July 18, 2018 at 11:01 amThanks, Erin! It’s super easy to make!
Lori says
November 9, 2018 at 6:32 pmHave you tried starting with frozen chicken breasts ?
Dee says
November 9, 2018 at 9:58 pmI haven’t personally used frozen chicken, but people do and say it turns out fine. It just takes longer to reach pressure.
Manish says
January 22, 2019 at 5:45 pmHi! 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!
Dee says
January 23, 2019 at 11:26 pmI’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.
Jeremy says
March 8, 2019 at 4:49 pmCan you sub buffalo sauce with like teriyaki or dry garlic and get the same affect minus taste obviously?
Dee says
March 9, 2019 at 12:25 pmYou can, but you might have to add a little more or less water depending on how thick or thin the teriyaki sauce is.
Clare says
March 13, 2019 at 1:37 pmLoved 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
Dee says
March 14, 2019 at 9:26 amThank you so much, Clare! So glad you enjoyed it. The rating is fine. 🙂
Robert Mallard says
April 11, 2019 at 6:03 amI 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.
Dee says
April 11, 2019 at 8:25 amThanks so much, Robert! I’m super glad you liked it!