Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Chili

This buffalo chicken chili for the crockpot is shredded chicken, white beans, corn, and fire-roasted tomatoes in a broth spiked with buffalo wing sauce and ranch seasoning, finished with a block of cream cheese so it eats like a bowl of buffalo chicken dip with a spoon.

Two things set it apart from most versions: the chicken is boneless thighs cooked whole in the liquid and shredded at the end, which stays moist across 7 hours where breast turns stringy, and the cream cheese goes in only for the last 15 minutes, so it melts into a creamy base without any flour or canned soup.

Plan on about 7 hours on low with 10 minutes of prep.

Why You’ll Love It

• Dump everything in, shred the chicken at the end
• 10 minutes of prep, 6 to 7 hours on low
• Thighs, so the shredded chicken stays moist
• Cream cheese finish with no flour and no canned soup
• Makes 8 bowls and freezes for 3 months
• Heat is adjustable at the end with more buffalo sauce

Ingredients

For the Chili

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 (15-ounce) cans great northern or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained, or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn

1 (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wings Sauce), plus more to taste

1 (1-ounce) packet ranch seasoning mix

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

8 ounces block cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes and left at room temperature for 30 minutes

Kosher salt, to taste at the end

For Serving

Crumbled blue cheese

Sliced green onions

Diced celery

Tortilla chips or corn chips (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Steps

1. Put the onion, bell pepper, garlic, beans, corn, tomatoes with their juice, broth, buffalo sauce, ranch packet, chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika in a 6-quart programmable slow cooker and stir until the ranch powder dissolves.

2. Nestle the whole chicken thighs down into the liquid so they are mostly submerged, which keeps the exposed tops from drying out over the long cook.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours, until a thigh pulls apart easily with a fork and an instant-read thermometer reads at least 165°F (74°C) in the thickest piece.

4. Lift the chicken onto a cutting board and shred it with two forks or a pair of meat shredder claws, pulling it into bite-size pieces rather than fine threads so it stays distinct in the bowl.

5. Return the shredded chicken to the pot, scatter the cream cheese cubes over the top, stir once, and cover on high for 15 minutes.

6. Stir until no white streaks remain, and if there are still lumps, it means the cream cheese went in cold, so keep stirring against the side of the pot for another minute and they will give way.

7. Taste, then add more buffalo sauce a tablespoon at a time for heat and a pinch of salt only if it needs it, since the ranch packet carries a lot of salt already.

8. Ladle into bowls with a stainless steel soup ladle and top with blue cheese, green onions, and celery.

Helpful Tips & Substitutions

Buffalo wing sauce and plain cayenne hot sauce are not the same bottle, because wing sauce has butter blended in and is milder, so if all you have is Frank’s Original, start with 1/4 cup and stir in 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

Chicken breasts work if that is what you have, but cook on low only, check at 5 hours, and pull them the moment they hit 165°F, because breast goes dry and stringy fast past that point.

Do not put frozen chicken straight into the slow cooker, since it spends too long between 40°F (4°C) and 140°F (60°C) while it thaws, so defrost it in the fridge the night before.

Cold cream cheese straight from the fridge is the usual cause of lumps, and if it happens anyway, an immersion blender pulsed for 5 seconds at one edge of the pot smooths it out without pureeing the beans.

For a thicker chili, leave the lid off on high for the last 20 minutes, or mash about 1/2 cup of the beans against the side with the back of a spoon.

For a thinner chili, stir in another 1/2 cup of broth at the end rather than at the start, because the slow cooker’s lid traps condensation and the chili loosens on its own as it cooks.

To cut the sodium, skip the ranch packet and use 1 teaspoon dried dill, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley, then salt to taste at the end.

Regular diced tomatoes work in place of fire-roasted, and you lose a little smokiness but nothing in texture.

As written, the heat is medium, about the level of a restaurant mild-to-medium wing, and it builds a bit as the bowl cools.

Serving Ideas

Celery and blue cheese on top are doing the same job they do on a wing platter, giving cold crunch and salt against the heat, so do not skip them.

A handful of tortilla chips crushed over the bowl, or a square of cornbread on the side, soaks up the creamy broth.

Leftovers go over a split baked potato with cheddar, or get folded into a tortilla with cheese and griddled for a quesadilla.

If you want a milder chicken chili in the rotation, Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili uses the same beans and cooker without the buffalo sauce.

For a beef option on a different night, Crockpot Ground Beef Taco Soup takes the same toppings.

A scoop over a bowl from Crockpot Mac and Cheese Dinners turns it into buffalo chicken mac.

Make-Ahead & Storage

The night before, dice the onion and pepper with an 8-inch chef’s knife, then combine everything except the chicken and cream cheese in the slow cooker insert and refrigerate it covered.

In the morning, add the chicken and start the cooker, and add about 30 minutes to the cook time because the insert and contents start cold.

Leftovers keep in the fridge for 4 days and thicken as they chill, so loosen each portion with a splash of broth or water when reheating.

Divide the chili into shallow containers to cool rather than leaving the full insert in the fridge, since a deep pot of hot chili can stay in the danger zone for hours before it chills through.

Get it into the fridge within 2 hours of turning the cooker off.

To freeze, portion it into 1-cup silicone freezer trays or flat freezer bags and keep for up to 3 months.

Cream cheese can turn slightly grainy after freezing, and it comes back together if you reheat gently and stir well, so do not judge it until it is fully hot.

Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low with a splash of broth, stirring, or in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes with a stir halfway.

The warm setting holds it safely for up to 2 hours after cooking, but past that the chicken starts to dry out.

The chili tastes sharper on day one and rounder on day two, because the vinegar in the buffalo sauce mellows into the cream cheese overnight.