Slow Cooker Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta
The most decadent, amazing and delicious meal to ever come out of your slow cooker! This Slow Cooker Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta continues to get rave reviews! See why for yourself!
Ohhhh, I’m going to be such a bad influence right now. I mean, if you are trying to eat super healthy or stick to light salads for dinner you might want to look away. Except don’t! Because we all need a little indulgence now and then, right? And this one is totally (and I mean TOTALLY) worth the splurge. Delicious, rich, cheesy, creamy and just the right amount of spicy…. Slow Cooker Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta. Yes. In the slow cooker. Like every step of this recipe completed in the slow cooker. Have I convinced you yet?
I don’t indulge in pasta any too often. And when I do I usually eat a small helping and have lots of veggies or a side salad. Not here. No. I stuffed myself full of this yummy, gooey, cheesy pasta. And then started getting super pumped about the idea of sharing it with all of you!
Can you cook pasta in a slow cooker?
- Yes! Make sure to use regular (not gluten free, etc.) pasta
- Keep an eye on it the first time you make it, it can quickly overcook
- If it’s not cooked enough, just add a little more liquid and let it cook a few minutes longer
I’m a huge fan of anything buffalo chicken. I’ve mentioned once or twice (or a bazillion times) that it’s only been in the last year or two that I discovered the wonderful spicy flavor and now I can’t seem to stop myself. I hope you don’t mind. I think I could eat it every day. I’ve found a couple of favorite sauces and still have lots of ideas for using them for dinners.
Tips for making this buffalo chicken pasta for your family:
- This recipe will make a bit ‘ole pot of pasta. Like enough to serve at least six people. Unless you invite me to dinner. In which case I’ll race you for seconds. I’m not feeding six people at my house and in fact I only fed three with this meal.
- My three year old is not a fan of buffalo sauce. Yet. She ate microwaved mac and cheese and I only felt a little guilty. I know what I’m having for lunch!
- If you want to heat some of this up for leftover just add a little splash of water or broth and it will be like the first time you ate it all over again.
Another tip on making pasta in the slow cooker:
Just a little note on how this will all go down. You will cook everything but the pasta. Then in the last 30-60 minutes you will add the noodles.
Try to be around at this point so you can walk by and give it a stir every now and then. Your noodles will cook evenly and you will be glad you gave your arm a little workout.
Every time I’ve made pasta this way in the crockpot my noodles were perfectly done in exactly 45 minutes.
I also feel it’s important to tell you that if you love things buffalo chicken you really need to try my slow cooker buffalo chicken chili!! Okay, now on the the recipe!
Slow Cooker Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (1/4 cup now, 1/4 cup later)
- 1 tablespoon ranch dressing mix ( packet kind)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch + 1 tablespoon water
- 16 ounces linguine noodles
- Chopped cilantro for garnish optional
Instructions
- Place chicken, broth, 1/4 cup buffalo sauce, and seasonings in crock
- Top with cream cheese and shredded cheese
- Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8
- When chicken is fully cooked remove to separate bowl and shred with two forks
- Add remaining 1/4 cup buffalo sauce to chicken and toss to coat
- Set aside chicken
- Whisk together corn starch and water and add to crock
- Use a whisk and stir until cheese and cream cheese (which were added in step 2 and should now be soft and melted) are all combined and smooth
- Break noodles in half and place in crock
- Top with chicken and cover
- Turn crock on high for 30-60 minutes until noodles are fully cooked, stir 3-4 times during cooking
- If noodles are not done you can add extra broth or water 1/4 cup at a time
- Garnish with cilantro if desired and serve immediately
Notes
Nutrition
My husband and I were excited to try something new but it was a fail 🙁 Followed the recipe and it came out like paste, wayyyy to thick, like a bowl of mush, even added a little water towards the end. (Noodles were not overcooked though) Would using more broth or less cream cheese make it better?
I’m so sorry it didn’t work for you!! I’m not sure what would cause the sauce to be thick, but I would think thinning out with additional broth should help!
Can we just make this in the stove ??
This recipe could be adapted for stove-top but would require modifications. I’ve only tested for the slow cooker so I can’t say with certainly what modifications you need to make. If you decide to do so, please let us know!!
Luv this but make it with vermicelli noodles their not as thick and I add extra hot wings sauce ?
Could the noodles be precooked and microwaved to warm them then added in the last few minutes cooking?
You can do this, however you would need to modify the amount of liquid in the recipe as it’s created to accommodate cooking the noodles. I haven’t tested it yet so I don’t have exact adjustments needed.
Delicious! My husband went back for thirds. The only thing I added was an extra cup of broth while the noodles were cooking.
Hooray! That’s the best news!
I made this recipe exactly according to the directions, except I only used 1/4 cup wing sauce (I’m not a fan of spicy things) and added 1/4 cup chicken broth instead of the second 1/4 cup of wing sauce. It looked nothing like the photos. It ended up looking like a giant pile of mush. The flavour was OK, but the texture was really weird, like eating a bowl of dip with noodles mixed in. If I try this recipe again, I think I will cook the noodles separately and pour the sauce on top after.
Hi Tanya, so sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. The important thing to remember is to check your noodles often for that last 30 minutes or so. That way you can monitor to make sure they don’t get mushy.
I have made this recipe a few times and love it! I want to try to make it in my smaller 2 qt crock pot, do you think doing half of the ingredients will work? How would I change cooking time?
It may be too small to be able to do the mixing, but I’m not sure. Cooking time should be about the same.
I love this recipe! I’ve made it many times and my family always enjoys it. 🙂 I like really spicy food, so I usually add some extra buffalo sauce to my own serving, but my husband loves it as is. It’s one of our crockpot favorites. Thanks for the recipe!
So glad you love it!
Followed directions to a T. No one in my family would eat this after a few bites. I couldn’t either. We ended up ordering pizza. 4 unhappy kids. Total fail for me.
Hi Amy ~ can you be more specific on why this was a fail for you? Did something in the recipe not turn out that merits the one star or was it just that your family didn’t enjoy the flavors? This recipe is pretty well tested by me as well as many others without issue, so if you ran into a problems I’d sure love to be able to trouble shoot it. One star ratings hurt all of the hard work I’ve done to make this recipe just right 🙁
This was wonderful, the taste was right on! I reduced the wing sauce added at the end to 3Tablespoons which was perfect for us. Be sure you have a strong spoon to stir the pasta and stir it real well every 10 mins, otherwise it’ll clump. I ended up adding 1/3c of half n half at the end for a better consistency. Will definitely make it again. And maybe add some diced tomatoes, just ’cause.