Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken - Dump and Go Dinner
This Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken calls for a mere three ingredients, but packs a flavorful punch. Chicken breasts are pressure cooked in a ranch seasoned buffalo sauce and then shredded for an invitingly zesty sandwich filling or stand alone addition to your dinner plate.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds quarter Chicken, Boneless Breasts
- 6 fluid ounces Buffalo Wing Sauce
- ½ ounces Ranch Dressing Mix
Containers
Supplies
Cooking Instructions
Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions
These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).
Why would I want to freeze this?
- Divide chicken, sauce and dressing mix among indicated number of round freezer containers. Label and freeze.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions
These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.
- Prep from frozen
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Make It Now Cooking Directions
These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.
- **Due to the nature of pressure cooking there is always room for inconsistency. The times given here are based on 4 servings fresh. If you are using more servings you may need to increase your cooking time.**
- Place chicken, buffalo sauce and ranch dressing mix in instant pot.
- Lock cover into place and seal steam nozzle.
- Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes then quick release remaining pressure.
- Shred chicken with forks and serve with sauce.
Nutrition Facts
- Servings Per Recipe
- 4 Servings
- Serving Size
- about 6 ounces Amount Per Serving
- Calories
- 295
- Total Fat
- 5g
- Saturated Fat
- 1g
- Trans Fat
- 0g
- Cholesterol
- 125mg
- Sodium
- 1461mg
- Total Carbohydrates
- 3g
- Fiber
- 0g
- Sugar
- 0g
- Protein
- 39g
- WW Freestyle
- 3
46 Comments
Join the discussionDo you have to add liquid to this when frozen and before starting
Nope, that’s why we have you saute first – this will create enough liquid to come to pressure. Enjoy!
I don’t see where it says to sauce first…. 🙁
Hi! For this recipe, you mix all the ingredients together, there’s no extra sauce step. The two ingredients that make the sauce are the ranch dressing mix and buffalo sauce. I hope this helps. ~OAMM
Sorry… auto correct must have used sauce in place of saute.
No worries! If you’re cooking this from frozen, you would saute the frozen contents first (#2 in Make from Frozen) — Hope this helps! ~OAMM
Sauté directions from frozen. Please verify this is NOT needed from fresh? Seems like I would need more liquid so that it can come to pressure.
Saute is not needed unless explicitly stated in the ‘Make it Now’ instructions.
thoughts on doing this with drumsticks? I was thinking of doing buffalo ranch drumsticks in the IP…
It doesn’t hurt to try!! Just keep in mind due to the nature of pressure cooking there is always room for inconsistency. If you give it a whirl, please let us know how it turns out!
I think that the challenge of making this recipe with drumsticks is that there are bones in drumsticks (thin and sharp) in addition to the leg bone itself, In your attempt to fully cook the chicken, the drumsticks may start to fall apart and you’ll end up with some smaller bones soaked in sauce and it will be very messy to remove the bones.
We just bought our pressure cooker and this was the second thing we made. It was really good, but this and the curry chicken we made were both really watery. Any idea what we did wrong? Thanks!!
Lisa, did you cook these meals from frozen? If so, when you cook an item from frozen, it many times releases any frozen liquid it’s been holding (in the meat, vegetables, etc). A recommendation might be to put the meal on Saute again (after its finished cooking) to cook-out some of the excess water and thicken your sauce. Let us know if that helps!
You mention in the comments to saute first but it doesn’t mention it in the recipe (that I can tell anyway). So are you supposed to saute first? Just saute, then add other ingredients and set to pressure?
The third set of directions (Cook From Frozen) calls for sauteeing first.
No it doesn’t, actually. At least looking at it on my phone, the cook from frozen directions do not say to sauté first.
We have removed the saute for 5 minute instruction out of the recipe since that comment, after getting feedback from members, to prevent getting a burn notice on your Instant Pot.
I made this today and it was DELICIOUS! Instead of serving on buns I served as tacos on corn tortillas with diced celery, halved grape tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles. It was so fast too. Thanks!
Yum! So glad you enjoyed it!
Do i add water?
No. If cooking from frozen, you do want to make sure you don’t skip the saute step. Enjoy!
I’ve never tried freezer meals. If I want to make this for the freezer, do I cook it first or just assemble the raw ingredients into freezer bags to cook later?
For any of our recipes that you want to make for the freezer, you will want to follow the “Freeze for Later” instructions. For this recipe, those state: “Divide chicken, sauce and dressing mix among indicated number of round freezer containers. Label and freeze.”
I have Katherine’s same question, must we cook before freezing?
We apologize for any confusion, this recipe does not call for the chicken to be cooked prior to freezing. If you’re wanting to freeze this to make later, you’ll follow the Freeze For Later directions: “Divide chicken, sauce and dressing mix among indicated number of round freezer containers. Label and freeze.”
We hope this helps!
Not sure if this is been asked but if I’m doubling the recipe do I double the time?
Not necessarily, this post might be of help when you are making adjustments – https://onceamonthmeals.com/blog/series/instant-pot/instant-pot-tips-tricks-201/.
I tried this tonight and it was a hit! I was worried it was a bit too spicy for the teenagers who can be picky about their “heat”, but they really liked it. I more than doubled the amount of chicken-6 good sized pieces of chicken breast which I believed totaled a little over 4 lbs (remember I have teenage boys). I used 5 T of ranch seasoning and about 11 oz of Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce, which claims to be moderate on the “heat” scale. I was worried about it being too spicy, so I didn’t quite double the hot sauce, and went a little over-double on the ranch. I put the Instant Pot on “Poultry” setting as I just wasn’t sure how to adjust the time and hoped the IP would be smart enough to do the right thing, LOL! I was a little nervous, but the chicken done-ness was absolutely perfect. I allowed 5 minutes for natural steam release, like the recipe suggested, before releasing the steam manually. It does seem a bit liquid-y at first, like someone else commented…but once the chicken was all shredded and rested for a bit, I thought it was perfect. It was slightly messy eating on buns (think sloppy joe messy with the sauce) but my son that doesn’t like “hot” put his in a bowl and mixed more ranch dressing (from a bottle, not the seasoning) and he loved it. We are a low-carb family (or try to be) so we will definitely make this again. Super easy and yummy! Oh, and I was using the “Make it Now” version with fresh chicken, not frozen, so no water was added and I did NOT saute the chicken first. Just put it all in and put the IP on the poultry setting (which turned out to be 30 min). I also have the large 6 liter Instant Pot. I don’t think that should matter, but thought I’d mention…I’m still very new to this!
do you need to add water if you’re cooking it raw (not frozen)? if so, how much?
Hi Tracy, no water is needed for this recipe if you cook it from fresh or frozen. Hope this helps! ~OAMM
What is meant by “quarter chicken boneless breasts”?
This simply means to cut the breast into 4 roughly equal size pieces (we usually cut once length-wise and once cross-wise). This helps the chicken to cook faster and ensures it’s cooked through at the end.
I have done four meals, including this one, where i’ve used the instant pot to cook chicken breasts from frozen. Every time plop the contents out of the 64oz container and saute it and then pressure cook it on high for the recommended time, and every time I open it and the breasts are still all clumped together like they were frozen. The outside of the clump cooks but none of the chicken on the inside does. I have to break the clump apart and start it over again. Am I missing something? Should I be sauteing longer until the pieces break apart? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Great question, Jarrod, and we’re sorry you’ve had this issue! All of our IP recipes have been successfully tested by our test cooks, but unfortunately with Instant Pot cooking there are a number of variables (especially the thickness of your meat and the width of the container you freeze in) that can still change the outcome for you at home. A few tips – try freezing in a wider container (we like these 72 oz rounds from Dollar Tree: http://shrsl.com/?dp1f), placing the meal on a trivet to help the air circulate, or stopping the pot halfway through to break up the large frozen block. If you’d like to pop over to chat with our Customer Engagement team (orange icon on the bottom of your screen), we’d be happy to help you troubleshoot further!
I made tonight and I thought it was delicious. Can’t wait for my 19 year old to get home from work to give it a try too! I was wondering about the 1/2 oz of ranch dressing. Is that just the powder ranch dressing mix? I had an envelop for an oz and I put in half of it as the recipe called for 1/2 an oz. Hopefully that was accurate. I didn’t know whether I should mix it into a “dressing” first. What a great idea. I’m thinking that people could make this in a slow cooker as well. However, the taste is amazing in the pressure cooker!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe! To answer your question, yes it is the powdered ranch dressing mix.
I enjoy your writing style truly loving this site.
Aw thank you Bonnie for the kind words! Glad you are loving the site!
I’ve made this at least half a dozen times now, and it’s now a go-to, no-fail recipe for me. I’ve made it with both fresh and frozen chicken (no saute for frozen, as I don’t freeze the sauce), which makes this the perfect recipe for when I forget to pull meat from the freezer. I’ve also found myself with no ranch seasoning, and it’s still good without it. Tips: (1) I lightly grease the bottom of the pot to prevent the chicken from sticking, as cleanup requires a bit more elbow grease without it; (2) I shred the chicken in my Kitchenaid mixer with the paddle attachment–works great, and much faster than using forks. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks for the great tips and insight, Kelsey! We’re so happy to hear this recipe has been good to you!
I’ve never been a big buffalo sauce eater so when I smelled the sauce from the InstantPot, I found it very off-putting because I was not expecting the smell to be so strong (my son thought loud noises and gagging sounds were appropriate – but that’s an 8 year old boy for ya – LOL!!). I almost had myself convinced I was probably going to throw it out once it was cooked (along with the other one in the freezer), but my husband sampled first and said it was really good. I got over my aversion to the smell and tried it….. I LOVED IT! I will definitely make it again. I used the mild buffalo sauce. I’m pretty certain my kids are not going to want to eat it for ahile, so since I’ll be making it just for adults going forward, I will kick it up to medium or hot buffalo sauce. We ate ours on baked potatoes.
Two things to note: My recipe card did not say to saute it, so I didn’t. My pot came to pressure just fine. Also, the directions to make now and to make from frozen both say to cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. I cook chicken from frozen pretty frequently and I usually have to set it for 25 min and allow it to NPR for 15 min. No surprise, after the 15 min at high pressure and the 10 min NPR, the chicken was not done, so I had to cook it for another 10. I think that might be an error in the recipe timing for making from frozen…?? Thoughts?
Hi Kristi! Thanks so much for your feedback! We’re glad to hear you loved the flavor of this despite the smell!
Due to the nature of pressure cooking, there is always room for inconsistency. The times given here are based on 4 servings fresh, using a 6qt Instant Pot. If you are using less/more servings, a different size of IP, or other variables- you may need to decrease/increase your cooking time. However, we always try to encourage a time that may result in undercooking to allow you to add more time rather than end up with an overcooked meal. 🙂
I cannot get powdered ranch dressing mix where I live- what is a good substitute?
Hi Donna! We have some great recipes to make your own! You can try this one (If you were making your own dressing with it you could make it traditional by using cows milk instead of dairy free). This will work nicely in this recipe!
Hi! If I’m making this to freeze, I cook it first then freeze it correct? Or am I freezing raw chicken & ingredients to be cooked later? Also is that the same for all frozen recipes? This is all new to me, I mean I can cook but I’ve never prepared food to be frozen first
For this recipe you will want to freeze the chicken (since it doesn’t say that it is cooked) and the rest of the ingredients. Not all recipes are this way – it just depends on the recipe. That is the great thing about our membership – we walk you through the process and our recipe cards walk you step by step how to do everything.