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This easy-to-make Buffalo Chicken Chili is perfect for a game day gathering, for a make-ahead freezer meal, or for meal prep! With chicken breasts, hot sauce, veggies, and beans, it taste just like buffalo wings…but in soup form! It’s made easily on the stove or the Instant Pot and it’s gluten-free, with options for dairy-free and Paleo and Whole30 friendly.
Buffalo Chicken Chili (Instant Pot or Stove Top)
Bring on all the buffalo recipes, because I can never get enough. Between my Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, Crispy Buffalo Chicken Bites, Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, and so many more, it’s no surprise we’re big fans of buffalo anything. And this Buffalo Chicken Chili is a unique way to take all the flavor of your favorite buffalo wings, but in chili form and with added nutrients thanks to the veggies!
This chili is so easy to make too, with options for making it on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot! Who’s ready to make this for game day?!
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken Breasts
- Hot Sauce (I use Frank’s Red Hot)
- Diced Tomatoes
- Tomato Sauce
- Chicken Broth
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion + Garlic
- Green Pepper
- Jalepeño Pepper
- Olive Oil + Salt + Pepper
- Spices
- Cannellini Beans
Common Substitution Questions
Chicken: The recipe calls for chicken breasts, but you can easily substitute in boneless chicken thighs. You could also make it with ground chicken or turkey, too!
Beans: Omit the beans to make this compliant for Whole30 and Paleo diets.
Hot Sauce: Feel free to dial back on the hot sauce, or intensify it by adjusting the amount of hot sauce and jalapeño pepper you add in! To make it really spicy, include the jalepeño pepper seeds.
How to Serve It
Serve this chili with some optional toppings if you want such as scallions, cheddar cheese, bleu cheese or ranch sauce, or a dollop of sour cream.
The chili will keep well for 3-5 days in the refrigerator, or frozen for 3-6 months.
Watch the video here:
Looking for more chili recipes? We’ve got you covered:
Looking for more soup recipes? Check out these:
- Creamy Green Chile Soup
- Vegan Cauliflower Soup with Ginger and Turmeric
- Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup (Lightened-Up!)
- Potato Leek Soup
Buffalo Chicken Chili (Instant Pot or Stove Top)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1-1/2 pound boneless chicken breast diced (see note)
- 1 onion diced
- 4 celery ribs diced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 4 large carrots diced
- 1/2 poblano or jalapeno pepper diced (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 - 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 - 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup hot sauce I use Frank’s Red Hot
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 - 15 ounce can cannellini beans (optional)
Instructions
To Make on the Stove:
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken and cook, until no longer pink. Remove from the pot and set aside.
- Add onion, celery, bell pepper, carrots, poblano and garlic to the pot and cook, until beginning to soften, stirring often, about 7-10 minutes.
- Add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, hot sauce, chicken broth, salt, pepper, spices, beans and reserved chicken and stir well.
- Bring up to a boil, and then reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes.
- Taste and adjust spices as desired. Garnish and serve hot.
To Make in the Instant Pot:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot. Set the pressure valve to sealing. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes with a natural release of at least 10 minutes (see note).
- Taste and adjust spices as desired. Garnish and serve hot.
This is delicious & easy! We love it! You can really customize the flavors you want, I use jalapeños & bell peppers, I use whatever beans I have on hand, sometimes I use Texas Pete Wing Sauce, sometimes just hot sauce. I put it all in my Instapot and I use fresh boneless chicken breast, whole, pressure cook 20 minutes, natural release, then shred right in the pot.
I was so excited to make this soup, especially since we love Frank’s Hot Sauce and so many left positive reviews but this was terrible. This was way too salty and everything tasted like frank’s, no other flavors came through, Very disappointed.
Kimberly, did you follow the recipe exactly? It shouldn’t be overwhelmingly Frank’s!
Hi Lexi,
First, I appreciate all of the delicious recipes you share with us each week, so thank you. Secondly, I absolutely LOVE this chili, and I am wondering if it can be frozen. Since we’re all trying to avoid the grocery stores as much as possible at this point, I have stocked up on produce that I don’t want to let go bad. With that said, can this be cooked and then frozen and just heated up when ready to use it, or would you suggest putting everything in a freezer bag raw?
Thank you so much! I hope you’re doing well in these strange and challenging times.
Danielle
This could definitely be frozen. I think it could go either way, in terms of raw vs. frozen. But to me it makes more sense to cook a big batch at once, and then let half of it cool down completely and then freeze. To reheat let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then heat up to the point of boiling.
Made it and it was incredible! Am entering it into a chili competition this weekend. 🙂
YAY!!!
What is the serving size and calories per serving for this recipe?
Just bought myself a pressure cooker and this was the first recipe I tried. Was so amazingly good!! I used organic frozen corn and added a can of black beans. Hearty and delicious!
I made this recipe for dinner tonight and it was such a hit! My husband and I loved it and thought it was such a different, yet delicious, take on chili! A perfect way to get in veggies while watching football.
If using the instant pot, can the chicken be raw? Also, can this be made in the slow cooker?
Yes raw in the IP. Sure, for slow cooker: put everything in on high for 4 hours.
Could this be done in an instant pot? And if so, how?
I would probably add everything and place it on high pressure for 20 minutes. Let us know how it goes!
Can I throw this all in a crock pot?
Yes!
I made this yesterday – and it turned out AWESOME. I found it from a link on FitFoodieFinds. I’m sharing this recipe with all of my friends & family. Thank you!
About how many servings does this recipe make? Looking forward to trying it!
This was amazing! Thanks for the awesome recipe 🙂
Awesome! I’m a wimp with spicy food. Reduced the hot sauce to 1/4 cup and no poblano – I also doubled the beans. This recipe is a keeper.
This was delicious! I just made it today and it was great, lots of veggies and a very healthy chili. I used Valentina Hot Sauce (a Mexican hot sauce known for its flavour) which is also 0 calories and quite yummy. I’ll be making this again!
So happy you liked!
This looks absolutely amazing. Will be trying it soon!!!!
This looks yummy! If the chicken is cooked in the crock pot, following your directions, do we need to then add the ingredients again when making the chili? Eg – crock pot chicken with 1/2 onion and then 1 onion when doing the chili?
Yes, I would!