Your new favorite chili recipe is here! Try our incredible Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Chili topped with a delicious Greek Yogurt blue cheese dressing.
Buffalo Chicken Chili – It’s a thing!
We know there are a lot of buffalo chicken lovers out there! Some of our most popular recipes are our healthy buffalo chicken and our buffalo chicken wrap.
So? We took it upon ourselves to turn chili season into buffalo chicken chili season! This recipe has all of your favorite buffalo chicken flavors including:
- hot sauce
- chicken
- carrots
- celery
Top your bowl with some ranch or blue cheese and it’s a true dream in a bowl.
Is this buffalo chicken chili spicy?
Buffalo chicken is naturally spicy, so yes, this chili is spicy. BUT, don’t worry, we’d call it more of a 6/10 spice-wise.
How can you make this chili less spicy?
Simply use less hot sauce. You’ll see that this recipe calls for 1/2 cup of Frank’s hot sauce. Start with 3 tablespoons and go from there! Another option is adding more Greek yogurt. This helps combat the spice.
Ingredients You Need
This buffalo chicken chili recipe is rather simple. It mixes classic chili flavors with buffalo chicken flavors. Here are the main ingredients you need:
- onion
- carrots
- celery
- garlic
- crushed tomatoes
- buffalo sauce
- spices
- chicken breast
- beans
- corn
- maple syrup
- chicken broth
- Greek yogurt
Add-In Ideas
Feel like your buffalo chicken chili is missing some of your favorite ingredients! Take it upon yourself to add whatever you please! Here are some ideas:
- green chiles
- salsa
- jalapeños
- sweet potatoes
- rice
How to Make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Chili
Step 1: Saute Veggies
First things first, we must saute the veggies. Add olive oil to your Instant Pot and turn on the saute feature. Then, add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.
Saute veggies for a couple of minutes and then remove them from the Instant Pot
Step 2: Add, sauces, spices, and chicken
While the Instant Pot is still hot, add crushed tomatoes, buffalo sauce, and spices and mix.
Then, submerge chicken breasts in the sauce and close your Instant Pot.
did you know…
If you use the saute feature before closing your Instant Pot and setting the timer, it actually helps preheat your Instant Pot FASTER! So, work quickly on this step and don’t let your Instant Pot cool off too much.
Step 3: Pressure Cook
Put the lid on your Instant Pot and turn the valve to seal. Then, turn it to manual >> high >> and set the timer for 8 minutes.
Your Instant Pot will likely take 10-15 minutes to build pressure, but eventually it will count down from 8 minutes!
Step 4: Add Ingredients & Shred Chicken
Once the timer goes off, quick release the Instant Pot. Then, remove the lid and place the cooked chicken breast on a large plate or cutting board.
Use 2 forks to carefully shred the chicken breast. Be careful though, because they’re going to be hot! Then, place the shredded chicken back into the Instant Pot and add the rest of the ingredients.
Step 5: Mix and add Greek yogurt
Mix everything together inside of your Instant Pot. Then, last but not least, add in about 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt.
What does the Greek do? The Greek yogurt is going to help cut the spice while keeping the buffalo flavor. So, if it’s still too spicy for you, add more Greek!
Step 6: Serve
Serve your Buffalo Chicken Chili with green onions and fresh parsley. Then, top it with your favorite buffalo chicken dipping sauce. Try our homemade sauces:
Storage
Store Buffalo Chicken Chili in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days.
Freezer Instructions
To freeze, let buffalo chicken chili cool completely. Then, transfer into a freezer-safe container or gallon-size bag.
Remove as much air as possible and then seal. Freeze for up to 3 months. Check our our How to Freeze Soup and Chili tutorial HERE.
More Chili Recipes
- Green Chili
- Crockpot Chicken Chili
- Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili
- Lazy Girl Turkey Chili
- ALL Chili Recipes
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion finely diced
- 2 medium carrots finely diced
- 2 medium celery stalks finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce we used Frank's Red Hot Sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth*
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 15-oz. can pinto beans rinsed and drained
- 1 15-oz. can white navy beans rinsed and drained
- 1 15-oz. can sweet corn
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Turn on your Instant Pot's saute feature and then add olive oil. Once olive oil is fragrant, add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and salt. Saute veggies for 2 minutes then remove from the Instant Pot.
- Turn off the saute feature and then add crushed tomatoes, buffalo sauce, chicken broth, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder and mix. Then, submerge chicken breasts in the sauce and close your Instant Pot.
- Seal the valve and turn Instant Pot to manual > high pressure and set the timer to 8 minutes. It will take around 10 minutes for your Instant Pot to build enough pressure to start counting down from 8.
- Once the timer goes off, quick release your Instant Pot by opening the valve. Take the top off and then remove the chicken and set aside.
- Add sauteed veggies, pinto beans, navy beans, sweet corn, and maple syrup, and turn on the saute feature.
- Meanwhile, use 2 forks to shred the chicken breast into small pieces and then add the chicken back into the Instant Pot and mix to combine.
- Let the chili simmer for 5 minutes. Finally, stir in Greek yogurt and mix to combine.
- Serve with green onion, fresh parsley, and our Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dressing.
Tips & Notes
- chicken broth - feel free to add more chicken broth at the end to thin out as needed.
- The recipe updated on 1/4/2021 to prevent the burn notice from happening.
I made this recipe pretty much as written and it was really delicious. The only different thing in my batch was that I accidentally left the sautéed veggies in the instant pot while pressure cooking but it didn’t impact the final product at all. I also left out the maple syrup simply because I didn’t have any but I didnt feel the chili was lacking sweetness in the end. t I’ll definitely make this again!
Made this today, it was yum! I added a shredded zucchini and a chopped bell pepper with all the sautéed veggies, just so there were more veggies, we loved it.
Forgot to mention, I don’t have an instant pot so I made this on the stove stop.
Added 1 TBS Ancho Chili, 2 tsp cumin and 1 1/4 cups Frank Sauce. A bit more heat but lacks a bit of depth of other white Chilis. I do like that I can have comfort food like chili that is healthier than most.
Like the other comment here, I also followed all of the instructions and the Instant Pot kept saying “food burn” for the chicken step! The crushed tomatoes were very charred on the bottom. I moved everything over to a pot on the stove and just cooked the chicken with some water in the Instant Pot. It turned out great! The recipe itself is AMAZING – packed with flavor! Just wondering why it was burning, because I even used the trivet. Any tips would be awesome!
I too was concerned about crushed tomatoes on the bottom. I made sure to scrape the bottom of the pot well after sautéing the vegetables and before adding the tomatoes. There wasn’t much to scrape, but that way I could judge the recipe as written. I had plump breasts so I cooked for 10 minutes and 5 minutes of natural release so I knew they’d be cooked through. Stirred some bleu cheese crumbles into the yogurt at the end and was very pleased with my dinner! I’ll add rice next time. This is a great recipe, thanks for posting it.
Couldn’t get the instant pot to not burn
That is very odd as the chicken is submerged in liquid. We’ve made this a handful of times and never had that problem! You can always try adding the trivet to see if that helps.