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:
Super good made it today 8 hr cream cheese at the start it melted and ‘incorated’ as the recipe suggest…give it time people
For some reason, none of the actual recipe appears today when I scroll through this post….any help?
So sorry about that. Should be fixed now. The hosting company was trying to fix something and shut down some functionality and it was not working correctly for a short period of time.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for this recipe. Just made it and my family enjoyed it. Definitely recommend the blue cheese crumbles — nice touch! I cut down on the cream cheese (6 oz instead of 8) and used only half of the ranch dressing packet. And I went with 3 cups of chicken broth instead of 4. Added sliced carrots. Came out great.
I made this for my church’s chili cook off on Wednesday and won!
I definitely agree that 4 cups of broth is too much. Halving it to 2 is better.
Otherwise, great, award-winning recipe!
Hooray!! Congrats on the win! And thanks for the feedback about the broth! 🙂
I saw this on pinterest and am super excited to make it this weekend for the super bowl party at my house, I would really like to omit the cream cheese if possible. I was hoping that I could use one can of the navy beans in the food processor and use that to help thicken the soup. Any ideas on what to substitute the cream cheese with, could I use Greek Yogurt?
I have only tested it out with cream cheese so I’m not sure how it would turn out with greek yogurt. I think it would change the flavor and maybe not be as thick? I’d be nervous to try it out that way at party time without giving it a test run first….
I thawed the small bowl of soup I had put in the freezer for about a week. It looked as though it had separated a bit but after heating it up and giving it a good stir it was perfect! Definitely freezing some for a quick easy meal in the future!
Awesome!
It’s been a cold, icy day in my city so I made this buffalo chicken chili to warm up. It was so good!! Took others advice and only used half the chicken broth. I used diced chicken breasts because that is what I had on hand and only used half the ranch mix, as I was afraid it may be too “ranchy”. I’ll definitely be making this again! Does anyone know if it freezes well? I put a small bowl in the freezer but figured I’d ask to see if anyone else has been successful freezing it.
So glad you loved it! I haven’t tried freezing it but maybe someone else has and will chime in. 🙂
This was super good. Even my 4 yr old and 9 yr old ate it! When the oldest came home from school he said, “What smells so good?”
I used shredded chicken and Neufchâtel cheese to lower the fat. It was still great! Thanks!
That’s great! Always a good thing when the kiddos love it to 🙂
I love anything with buffalo sauce and this was no exception! Like other people, it was a bit runny but less chicken broth next time should do the trick. I added a bit of normal ranch dressing which helped thicken it a bit. When I finally got to eat it, I put some celery and red onion on top, sooooo good!
Jennifer,
I’m super excited to give this recipe a try…however I’m not familiar with Buffalo wing sauce…can you enlighten me?
Thanks!
It’s basically hot sauce! With just a few things added. Are you in the US? It can be found right near the hot sauce at the grocery store. If you can’t find it there are a few recipes out there for what to add to plain hot sauce to use it for buffalo wings!