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Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sliders are the perfect appetizers for game day or a quick and easy meal. Spicy buffalo chicken is cooked quickly in your pressure cooker and stuffed into mini sandwich rolls for a delicious game day or any day snack!
These mini buffalo chicken slider sandwiches are slightly spicy, cheesy, and so simple, you are going to love this easy recipe. They are a great addition to your appetizer table, next to some of our other favorites like Fried Ravioli, Cranberry Barbecue Meatballs, and Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls.
Table of Contents
- Easy Game Day Buffalo Chicken Sliders
- Ingredients & Substitutions
- How To Make Buffalo Chicken Sliders
- Slider Assembly and Serving
- More Buffalo Chicken Recipes
- Can You Make Shredded Buffalo Chicken in the Slow Cooker?
- Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing
- More Slider Recipes
- Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sliders Recipe
Easy Game Day Buffalo Chicken Sliders
With game day right around the corner, it’s time to pull out all your favorite tailgating recipes. These Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sliders are the perfect starting point for any party!
This Buffalo Chicken Slider recipe is:
- Great for entertaining: Of course, you can’t watch football without food, you absolutely must have appetizers and snacks! Sliders are hand held, flavorful and simple to make, plus you can instantly feed a crowd.
- Made fast in the pressure cooker: I used the Instant Pot to prepare my chicken because it results in tender, shreddable, super flavorful chicken. And it only takes 15 minutes – you can’t beat that!
- Spicy and flavorful: Spicy chicken is sandwiched into a Hawaiian roll and topped with shredded cheese, ranch and sliced green onion for the ultimate Shredded Chicken Slider!
- Easily customizable: These sandwiches taste like buffalo chicken but definitely aren’t too spicy. Feel free to add more or less hot sauce depending on your spice tolerance.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Chicken – A few boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
- Butter – Added for richness.
- Chicken broth – The Instant Pot must have liquid to work properly, otherwise the chicken will burn.
- Buffalo Sauce – A cayenne pepper sauce, like Frank’s Red Hot. You can use a buffalo wing sauce for something a little milder.
- Ranch dressing mix – About half of a packet is needed. Or if you have a large canister of the mix, you’ll need 1 tablespoon.
- Garlic
- Cheddar cheese – Freshly grated off the block. I do not endorse using pre-shredded cheese as it has a coating that interferes with the melting process.
- Hawaiian Rolls – These are the best rolls for making sliders. They’re soft, and the sweetness is the perfect compliment to the spicy buffalo. They’re like mini buns that are perfect for finger food!
- Optional Toppings – Thinly sliced green onions and Ranch or blue cheese dressing. You could also add things like tomato, lettuce or different kinds of cheese.
How To Make Buffalo Chicken Sliders
This easy recipe uses simple, easy-to-find ingredients that you probably already have on hand. So grab your pressure cooker and let’s make some Chicken Sliders!
- Buffalo chicken. Cut the chicken into chunks and toss that into your instant pot with some butter and a sprinkle of ranch seasoning. Mix together some chicken broth, buffalo sauce, and garlic and pour that over the chicken.
- Pressure cook. Secure the lid of your instant pot and set it to manual for 15 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally once it’s finished cooking.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks. The great thing about cooking your buffalo chicken this way is that you can shred and serve the chicken right from the pot. Shred it and stir it up with the sauce. If you prefer more heat, go ahead and add some more hot sauce.
Slider Assembly and Serving
These sliders aren’t like my Ham and Cheese Sliders that are assembled and then baked – they’re even easier! No baking is required and these sliders are super simple to put together.
Split open some dinner rolls or Hawaiian sweet rolls and scoop some of the saucy chicken on top. Add shredded cheddar cheese, green onions, and a drizzle of ranch dressing. If you like blue cheese, add some crumbles or a drizzle of blue cheese dressing.
Serve as a main meal with some carrot and celery sticks and ranch for dipping, or as a party appetizer.
More Buffalo
Chicken Recipes
Can You Make Shredded Buffalo Chicken in the Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can absolutely make the chicken in your slow cooker instead. I love the instant pot because I can whip these sliders up in less than 30 minutes.
But you can put all of the same ingredients into your slow cooker (omit the chicken broth) and cook on high for about 3 hours. Shred the slow cooker buffalo chicken and assemble the sliders.
Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing
Make Ahead – If you’re planning to serve these sliders for a party and want to get some prep out of the way, you can cook the buffalo chicken in advance and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. Just warm it up in the microwave or on the stovetop, assemble the sandwiches and serve.
Storage – Store the buffalo chicken mixture and the rolls separately. If you have leftover assembled sandwiches, they will probably get soggy so try to only make as many as you think will get eaten. Store leftover buffalo chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freezing – You can easily double the recipe and freeze some to have on hand for another time. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 6 months. To reheat, thaw completely then heat in the microwave or stovetop.
Pro Tips
If you don’t have an Instant Pot:
- Substitute any cooked chicken. Omit the chicken broth, and toss cooked and shredded chicken in the remaining sauce ingredients, warming it all together on the stovetop.
- Rotisserie chicken works too.
- I like to keep a few servings of my Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken in the freezer. It would be perfect for a shortcut in this recipe.
More Slider Recipes
- Baked Roast Beef Sliders
- Grilled Hamburger Sliders
- Easy Meatball Sliders
- Monte Cristo Sliders
- Hot Chicken Bacon Ranch Sliders
- Breakfast Sliders
- Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Sliders
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into large pieces (about 3 large chicken breasts)
- 4 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 3/4 cup Buffalo Sauce like Frank's Red Hot
- 1 tablespoon dry ranch dressing mix (half of a 2-ounce packet)
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 8 ounces cheddar cheese shredded
- 3 green onions sliced
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing
- 12 sweet Hawaiian rolls
Instructions
- Place chicken breast into the Instant Pot. Top with chunks of butter, then sprinkle ranch dry seasoning over the butter and chicken
- In a small bowl, stir together the chicken broth, hot sauce, and garlic cloves and pour over chicken.
- Secure the Instant Pot lid and turn to seal. Set manual or pressure cook button to 15 minutes. Let cook and then release pressure naturally.
- Once pressure is released, open the lid and shred the chicken using two forks. Let chicken soak in the sauce for a few minutes.
- Split rolls in half. To assemble sandwiches, layer each roll with buffalo chicken, cheese, ranch and green onions. Secure with toothpicks and serve warm.
This is my favorite pressure cooker recipe. I’ve made this recipe probably 15+ times at this point. It’s so incredibly easy and so flavorful.
The only personal tweak I make – I use an entire packet of dry ranch seasoning. I love the flavor and the more the merrier for me 🙂
Such a good meal and so easy to make. I usually pair it with some sort of grilled or baked sweet potato side dish, or omit the Hawaiian rolls when I’m not wanting them, and put this chicken directly on top of a baked sweet potato. So good!
Nice! Awesome feedback Holly, thanks for stopping by.
I’m new to pressure cooking. I followed the recipe exactly. It turned out to be a soup and lacked in flavor. I would leave out the chicken broth and add salt.
Fantastic! Great weeknight or tailgating meal!
Love the feedback Mo! Thanks for stopping by.
Another delicious recipe to try. You are my go to place for great recipes. Thank you for sharing.
You are so welcome Rebecca! Thanks for stopping by.
For chicken sliders is that thawed or frozen chicken?
You can use either, but frozen will take longer and releases more liquid.
I don’t have a instant pot. Can you make this in a crock pot?
Yes you can make it in a crockpot. Cook for approx 3-4 hours on high.
If I double this recipe, is it the same cooking time? If not, what should the cooking time be adjusted to?
When you say naturally release, how long does that take? I’m new at instapot and not very good!
If I double the meat do I have to double everything else?
Yes, you would need to double the whole recipe.
Do you have a substitute for Frank’s Buffalo Hot Sauce? Can’t find it.
If you can find another cayenne pepper sauce that would also work.
What kind of hot sauce? Franks? Or a buffalo sauce?
Yes Frank’s is perfect.
For the instant pot buffalo chicken sliders, I don’t see the 1/2 cup ranch dressing mentioned in the recipe. Is it for dipping?
It’s to spread on the sliders. I just updated the recipe. Thanks!
looks so yummy though, I wonder if this would taste good on a baguette..
It would be amazing on a baguette!