These Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowls are healthy, flavorful and loaded with delicious eats like crunchy greens, sweet strawberries, creamy avocado, and slow cooker buffalo chicken. Perfect for lunch, dinner, or served at your next party, these easy bowls will have everyone raving!
Buffalo Chicken practically qualifies as a food group in my house as it remains one of my very favorite easy dinners. Additional Buffalo Chicken recipes include my Buffalo Chicken Recipe, Baked Buffalo Cauliflower, and Buffalo Chicken Dip.
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken
If you’re new here you may not know about my obsession with Buffalo Sauce everything. I love Buffalo sauce, you guys. Hot and spicy, or mildly mellow, all Buffalo sauce tastes good in my book.
If you’re new to the world of buffalo sauce, you may be curious where you can pick up a bottle of your very own super sauce?
- You can purchase ready-made buffalo sauce (this is my favorite),
- Make your own!
Making your own Buffalo sauce is actually super easy and requires just a few simple ingredients.
How to make Buffalo Sauce
The main ingredients in buffalo sauce are,
- hot sauce
- butter
First, you’ll need hot sauce. The most well known hot sauce for buffalo wings also happens to be my favorite- Frank’s RedHot Sauce. Hands down, Frank’s has the best tang to spice ratio and is probably the hot sauce that has been used to make your favorite restaurant buffalo sauce.
With hot sauce, there must be butter. After all, that’s what makes buffalo sauce so finger-licking good!
Typically, the hot sauce to butter ratio is 2 to 1. So, if you have 1 cup of hot sauce, you want to add 1/2 cup melted butter. Easy, right?
To this recipe, I added a little olive oil, Tobasco sauce (for some heat), garlic, and honey, but the main ingredients stay the same.
And, if you’re wondering how you can make your buffalo sauce creamier, that’s super simple, too! Cream cheese… or yogurt. Magic makers, I tell ya. I could literally drink Buffalo sauce from a straw.
Just kidding. That’s gross. Please don’t do that.
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowl Ingredients
Aside from the Buffalo chicken, what else goes into these awesome grain bowls?
- Quinoa. Loaded with fiber and protein, quinoa is also gluten-free! You can trade quinoa for brown rice or other preferred grain, but quinoa is a fav in my house.
- Greens. I added Romaine but any fresh green would taste great including spinach or arugula.
- Cucumber. Cucumbers, being made of mostly water, add a refreshing balance to the spicy chicken.
- Strawberries. Some of you may love this idea, while others of you may be skeptical. I am a big fan of adding fresh fruit to salads but feel free to leave them out if it’s not your thing.
- Carrots. Because carrots are made for salads AND Buffalo chicken.
- Cherry tomatoes. Similar to the cucumber, cherry tomatoes add a refreshing contrast to the spicy chicken and warm quinoa.
- Avocado. Unless you hate avocado, I highly recommend that you add this creamy and delicious fruit to your bowl.
- Ranch Dressing. Of course, you may add whichever salad dressing you prefer, but if you’ve ever had Buffalo wings, then you know how delicious it is when Ranch and Buffalo get together.
How to make these Easy Buffalo Chicken Bowls
- First, prepare the Chicken– Add the chicken breasts, butter, olive oil, Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, minced garlic, honey, and a pinch of salt and pepper to the bowl of an Instant Pot.
- Cook the Chicken. Set Instant Pot on manual high for 6 minutes. Allow to release naturally for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release if needed. Remove chicken to a clean plate and allow to cool for 5 minutes then shred the chicken carefully with two forks and return to the pot.
- Prepare the Quinoa. Add the quinoa and water to a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring water to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Allow quinoa to simmer for 15 minutes before removing from heat. Allow quinoa to sit, undisturbed, for 5 minutes, then remove cover and fluff with a fork. Set aside.
- As the quinoa and buffalo chicken cooks, chop and prepare the remaining ingredients.
- Assemble. When ready to serve, add a scoop of quinoa to each bowl followed by the Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken, greens, strawberries, and a generous drizzle of Ranch Dressing, if desired.
WHY BUFFALO CHICKEN QUINOA BOWLS ARE THE BEST DINNER EVER
- 30 minutes and dinner is done.
- Quinoa, as we allllll know, is super healthy. Quinoa is also gluten-free and loaded with protein.
- Each buffalo chicken quinoa bowl has a little bit of everything- veggies, fruit, protein, healthy fats…you know, the good stuff.
- You can MEAL PREP this baby! No, I mean it. Make extra of everything on a Sunday afternoon and you’re set for the week.
- It’s dinner in a bowl. Which means easy couch eating.
- One more excuse to bust out that Instant Pot.
I could go on, but if you’re not running to the store yet then clearly I’ve failed here.
If you try making this Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowls, please leave me a comment and let me know! I always love to read your thoughts and feedback!
For more buffalo chicken recipes check out,
- Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash Recipe
- Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
- Buffalo Chicken Soup
- Buffalo Chicken and Cauliflower Taquitos
- Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
- Buffalo Turkey Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip
- The Best Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe
DON’T FORGET TO PIN AND SHARE THIS INSTANT POT BUFFALO CHICKEN RECIPE AND MAKE IT FOR THE NEXT TIME YOU WANT A FRESH AND HEALTHY SALAD!
RECIPE CARD
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Bowls
Ingredients
For the Buffalo Chicken
- 2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Tabasco Sauce
- 4 cloves garlic - minced
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 cup chopped green onions
For the Quinoa Bowls
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 2 heads Romaine lettuce - chopped
- 1 English cucumber - sliced
- 1 cup carrots - shredded
- 2 cups strawberries - chopped
- 10 ounces cherry tomatoes - halved
- 1 large avocado - sliced
- Ranch Dressing - to serve
Instructions
For the Buffalo Chicken
- Add the chicken breasts, butter, olive oil, Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, minced garlic, honey, and a pinch of salt and pepper to the bowl of an Instant Pot.
- Set Instant Pot on manual high for 6 minutes. Allow to release naturally for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release if needed. Remove chicken to a clean plate and allow to cool for 5 minutes then shred the chicken carefully with two forks and return to the pot.
For the Quinoa Bowls
- Add the quinoa and water to a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring water to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Allow quinoa to simmer for 15 minutes before removing from heat. Allow quinoa to sit, undisturbed, for 5 minutes, then remove cover and fluff with a fork. Set aside.
- As the quinoa and buffalo chicken cooks, chop and prepare the remaining ingredients.
- When ready to serve, add a scoop of quinoa to each bowl followed by the Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken, greens, strawberries, and a generous drizzle of Ranch Dressing, if desired.
Nutritional Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)
I cant wait to pull out my pressure cooker for this – it looks so tasty!