This Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip is just as creamy, cheesy, and delicious as my reader-favorite baked buffalo chicken dip. Made with juicy shredded chicken, creamy ranch dressing, hot sauce, and loads of cheese, enjoy this easy-to-make and easily transportable recipe at your next potluck or party!
Buffalo Chicken Dip in the Slow Cooker
Buffalo chicken dip is by far the best party food that ever existed – and this Crock Pot version is so easy to make! Filled with simple ingredients like chicken, shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese, cream cheese, hot sauce, and ranch dressing, this amazing chicken dip is the less messy equivalent of cheese-covered hot wings dipped in ranch dressing.
Some simple prep work followed by a little dumping and stirring and waiting is all it takes to make this delicious, creamy, spicy recipe. Guaranteed to disappear at your next party, you’ll be lucky to bring home any leftovers.
If you don’t have a Crock-Pot, check out my favorite baked version of buffalo chicken dip.
Ingredients in Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Chicken – This recipe was made using shredded poached chicken breasts. Feel free to use leftover chicken, cooked chicken thighs, rotisserie chicken, or canned chicken (as a last resort).
- Cream cheese – Full-fat block cream cheese will give the best results.
- Ranch dressing – I try not to cook with Dry Ranch Dressing Mix and use the real deal instead. Fortunately, I’ve been making this homemade ranch dressing nonstop lately so the swap was no problem. If you don’t have any homemade on hand, use your favorite store-bought variety in its place.
- Hot sauce – Specifically, Frank’s RedHot Sauce. The original kind, not the wing sauce.
- Garlic powder and Onion powder – In this case, it’s better to use the concentrated powdered version rather than fresh.
- Cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) – For best results, purchase blocks of the cheese and shred them yourself. Pre-shredded cheese that comes in a bag can sometimes clump together.
How to make Crock-Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe
First, cook the chicken. Here, we’re poaching chicken breasts, but feel free to use your favorite cooking method or save time by using leftover chicken, cooked chicken thighs, rotisserie chicken, or canned chicken.
How to poach chicken: Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, fully submerge all of the chicken pieces in the boiling water. Return to a boil, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and remove from heat. Allow chicken to poach in the water for 25-30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F. Remove from the pot.
Next, shred the chicken. If you are cooking your own chicken, wait until it has cooled slightly then shred using two forks or your hands.
Third, dump the chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing, cream cheese, shredded cheese, salt and pepper, and green onions into the bowl of a large Crock-Pot. Mix well.
Last, cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 3 hours. Mix well before serving.
Is Buffalo Chicken Dip Keto?
Yes! Packed full of yummy poached shredded chicken breasts, mixed cheese, cream cheese, ranch dressing, and hot sauce, this recipe is both low-carb and keto-approved.
Tips and Tricks
- Grate your own cheese. This is a somewhat minor tip, but freshly shredded cheese always comes together better when compared to pre-shredded cheese. This is due to the anti-caking agent that is added to cheese when it is packaged.
- For best results, serve it in the bowl of the slow cooker with the slow cooker set on warm. Cheesy dips cool quickly and this will help prevent the cheese from hardening.
- Feel free to swap the ranch dressing for blue cheese dressing. Or, go in half and half. Top your buffalo chicken dip with big chunks of blue cheese crumbles or, leave it out and add extra cream cheese instead.
- If you do use canned chicken, take extra care when mixing as the chicken is crumbly and will break apart.
- To help make it easier to stir everything together, bring the cream cheese to room temperature before mixing everything together.
Can you Freeze Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip?
I do not personally recommend freezing leftover buffalo chicken dip. The cheese mixture becomes somewhat chalky, lacking that luxurious, creamy texture we love so much. However, you can. It will still taste good. To freeze, transfer leftover dip to freezer-friendly containers, removing as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
How to Serve
There are so many fun ways to serve buffalo chicken dip. For game days or as an appetizer recipe I like to serve it with warm pita bread, celery sticks, carrots, and other crunchy raw veggies. As leftovers, I’ll fry it up with eggs and wrap it in a tortilla, mix it with spaghetti squash, or scoop it into a fluffy baked potato.
Have you tried making this Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe?
Tell me about it in the comments below! I always love to hear your thoughts. And tag me #theforkedspoon on Instagram if you’ve made any of my recipes, I always love to see what you’re cooking in the kitchen.
Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - cooked and shredded
- 12 ounces cream cheese - cubed
- ½ cup ranch dressing - homemade or store-bought
- 1 cup hot sauce - (I used Frank’s RedHot) plus more for serving
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 cup green onion - chopped (plus more for serving)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese - shredded
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese - shredded
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Carefully add the chicken breasts to the pot, making sure they are fully submerged with water. Return to a boil and cover pot with a tight-fitting lid. Remove from heat and allow the chicken to poach for approximately 30 minutes, or until fully cooked. Remove from the pot and set aside until cool enough to shred.
- As the chicken cooks, prepare the remaining ingredients.
- Shred or chop the chicken into small bite-sized cubes and transfer to the bowl of a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. Mix in the remaining ingredients (cream cheese, ranch dressing, hot sauce, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, green onion, cheeses).
- Cover and cook on LOW for 2-3 hours or on HIGH for 1-2 hours, until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with fresh chopped green onion, hot sauce, and additional shredded cheese, if desired. Serve hot with tortilla chips, veggie sticks, or leftover in wraps the next day!
Jessica’s Notes
- For best results, shred the cheese from a block rather than using pre-shredded cheese that comes in a bag.
- Chicken thighs may be used in place of the chicken breasts, however, the resulting dip will be greasier due to the higher fat content in thigh meat versus breast meat.
- Keep leftovers stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. You may reheat it in the microwave or back in the slow cooker.
- To freeze, transfer leftover dip to freezer-friendly containers, removing as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Nutritional Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)
I’m definitely going to try this but I am not going to use ranch dressing. Being from the buffalo area we use blue cheese, never ranch. Thank you so much for sharing.
It was good I used mild sauce since we can’t tolerate hot sauce and I used a rotisserie chicken I think it would have been better with the breasts only but it was pretty good. I made it for the Super Bowl party my husband and his friend did not like it but me and my friend did still got a bowl left.
So if I’m trying to use leftover chicken, how much chicken is used? The only measurement is in breasts.
1 breast is about 1 cup of shredded chicken, so about 4 cups 🙂
I’m wondering how much longer I need to cook this for if I double the recipe??
On LOW for 3 hours or on HIGH for 2 hours, until hot and bubbly 🙂
So tasty!! My husband and I really enjoy it with crackers!
I combine all the ingredients in the crock pot the day before and heat it up a couple of hours before it’s needed.
This us always a potluck favourite!
Thanks for the great feedback and rating, Willa 😀
I always make your oven version and it’s delicious! I’m thinking of doing the crockpot one, but nervous! Is there a reason the ranch amount is so much less for the crockpot recipe? Do both recipes taste the same?
Thanks!
Hi Amy,
They are slightly different.
If you love the original oven version and want to make that in a crockpot, it will turn out fine 🙂 . Just make sure you are using a large enough slow cooker, or scale down the oven version to fit in your crockpot accordingly.