Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili is delicious, simple and award winning! This is the go-to when you are tired of boring chili recipes!
You guys might tell me I’ve been living under a rock, and honestly that might not be far from the truth. But did you know that on Friday nights there is like a marathon of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network? I go to turn on the TV and my six year old gears up for one of her favorite cartoons and I have to crush her dreams. I can’t take even one more episode of kid TV. Despite this somehow, at some point during the evening, the whole family ends up curled up in front of the TV drooling over all the amazing (and sometimes weird!) food and trying to figure out if it would be at all possible to plan a trip to whatever location Guy Fieri is featuring. Yep. We know how to party. Now I’m going to share with you something that you should have while you are watching your marathon TV session…. Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili. Yum! A great meal to come home to on a Friday night after a busy week. Easy to make! Easy to love this spicy, creamy goodness!
Heartier than a soup but different than a traditional chili this would be fun to serve up at a party, to take along to a tailgate, or to take to a potluck. Ground chicken instead of beef and white beans instead of chili beans make the base of this chili.
Lots of flavor from chicken broth, ranch dressing mix and fire-roasted tomatoes and some heat from the buffalo sauce are balanced out with some sweet corn and cream cheese. Top it all of with some cilantro for some super fresh flavor. And I can’t forget the blue cheese crumbles on the top! I leave them out of the soup since not everyone is a fan but I can guarantee you I have my bowl topped of with some!
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So park yourself on the couch with a big ‘ol bowl and watch endless episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives until you are convinced you should open your own funky restaurant so you can be featured on the show too. Or wait…is that just me? Yeah, I’m weird like that :). But at least it helps me dream up recipes like Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili!
This recipe was originally published on April 7, 2014 and has been updated to reflect fresh photos and updates to the recipe based on reader feedback and re-testing.
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 15 oz canned white navy beans drained and rinsed
- 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes drained
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce start with 1/4 cup and add more at end if needed
- 1 package ranch dressing mix
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz cream cheese
- Blue cheese crumbles optional
Instructions
- Brown ground chicken until fully cooked, place in crock (or brown ahead of time and store in fridge until ready to assemble)
- Add remaining ingredients except for cream cheese and blue cheese and give it all a stir to combine
- Add block of cream cheese on the top and cover
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8
- Stir to incorporate cream cheese and add additional wing sauce as desired
- Top individual bowls with blue cheese crumbles if desired
Nutrition
Can’t get enough buffalo chicken?
Slow Cooker Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Tater Tot Casserole
Original photos:
I made this today and it was delish! I used 3 cups of broth- all I had- and it was not runny at all! I just whisked the cream cheese right before I served it and it was nice and creamy. No grainy issue. Somehow I forgot to add the corn- I will make sure I add it in next time! The hubs loved it!
Made this twice now. It is really quite delicious. My recommendations are double everything to completely fill the crock pot, except reduce the chicken broth to half. There are now 2 lbs of chicken, so there is plenty of natural broth, & I don’t drain the veggies completely. Plenty of liquid. Personally like a thick stew, like a main course. With the cream cheese, leave it out until it gets to room temperature. Then put the cream cheese in, push it down, it will break up easily. Then stir after it warms. Then stir again. The cream cheese will break down into a creamy beautiful dinner. There was no graininess. Looks great & tastes even better. Even better the next day, after spending some time in the frig.
Great suggestions!! Thanks!!
This sounds sooo yummy! I only have regular ranch dressing instead of the mix. Would this work and if so, how much should I use?
I haven’t tried it that way but it should work okay. Maybe start with about 1/2 cup then add more later if needed? Let me know if you give it a try!
I did end up using 1/2 cup of bottled ranch dressing, thank you for suggestion. I only added 1/2 bar of cream cheese thinking it may become too thick with an entire bar and I was right. It came out just creamy enough!!
Awesome!!!! Next time though I think I would use only 3 cups of the chicken broth and maybe low sodium. I used shredded chicken and browned it with a cup of chopped onions in some butter. I also topped mine with not only blue cheese crumbles, but my husband I are big fans of onions so those as well as some avocado and a dollop of sour cream. My cream cheese was fine once I stirred it. I might try lower fat cream cheese next time and see how that is. It was a great recipe with a salad and some garlic bread on the side. Will definitely be making this again…in fact for the holidays this would be great!
Made this for my family and everyone loved it, only change I made was I use shredded rotisserie chicken instead of ground chicken. Will be making again very soon for my husband and myself, need left overs, did not have any the first time I made it.
No leftovers is always a good sign! 😉
I need something to make mine a little thicker as it came out too runny and I wanted more of a chili consistency….do you think the cornstarch will change the taste of the chili if I add it to thicken up?
A few tablespoons of cornstarch should be fine.
Made this tonight I used 2.5 cups of broth and 3/4 cup of wing sauce since others said it could have more flavor. It had plenty for me, in fact it was pretty spicy. I also didn’t have celery salt and omitted that garlic and onion powder and used seasoned salt. Knew it would be too hot for the bf so I just added a half a can of cream of chicken soup hopefully this will balance out the hot factor. It is really good highly recommend.
The cream of chicken worked great and made it thicker too!
This was very tasty and easy to make. It goes into my list of things I’ll want to make again.
My recipe devaitions:
– about 2.5 lbs diced boneless, skinless chicken thighs (they were on-sale) instead of 1 lb ground chicken
– about half the cream cheese (all I had on hand)
– chopped tomatoes instead of fire roasted (it’s what I had on-hand)
– no cilantro (none on-hand)
– added one dried, seeded habanero with ribs removed
– served over rice and topped with some shredded cheddar
I tried making this in the crockpot last night and experienced the cream cheese issue as the others have previously mentioned. I let mine cook on high for over four hours,, and the cream cheese was still not melted. (My crockpot must not get as hot as others.) My husband and I didn’t end up having time to eat it last night due to time constraints, but we plan to reheat on the stove tonight for dinner. I am hoping that will help melt the rest of the floating pieces of cream cheese as I saw where someone else also simmered on the stove and it fixed the problem. On a side note, I tasted it last night, and the taste was great, especially if you like that traditional buffalo flavor! (We used Texas Pete Buffalo Sauce.) Hoping it turns out wonderful!
I made this tonight. I whisked it up about about 7 hours in. I also added more Franks Hot Sauce. I REALLY liked it!!! I added some shredded cheese to the top (since we do not like blue cheese) and some crackers. Yuuuuum!!!