Shredded Buffalo chicken is such a versatile recipe. You can put shredded Buffalo chicken into tacos, burritos, rice bowl, sandwiches, salads, and more! Quick and easy, here’s how you can make shredded Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken.
This buffalo chicken does not take a lot of effort to make. All you need are chicken breasts, buffalo sauce, salt, and pepper. That’s it! I use a homemade version but you can use store-bought sauce for ease.
It’s shockingly easy to make. Even if you are making the buffalo sauce from scratch like I am, it doesn’t take longer than 20 minutes to make this recipe! You can also adjust this recipe however you’d like. Buffalo chicken can be on the spicier side and you can easily make it less spicy with the addition of brown sugar.
What You’ll Need
- chicken breasts — I use boneless skinless breasts.
- buffalo sauce — I recommend my homemade buffalo sauce! However, store-bought is perfectly fine.
- salt and pepper
- water — or chicken stock.
How to Make Shredded Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken
- Add 1/3 cup of buffalo sauce to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Add in the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle a couple more tablespoons of sauce on top of the chicken breasts and add 1/4 cup of water or chicken broth.
- Pressure cook for 10 minutes and then quick release when done.
- Remove the cooked chicken breasts and shred them.
- At the same time, press the sauté button on the Instant Pot and let the liquid inside simmer and cook down as you shred the chicken breasts.
- Add the shredded chicken back into the Instant Pot and add in the rest of the buffalo sauce.
- Toss to coat and then enjoy!
Tips and Notes
- This shredded chicken recipe was only tested in the Instant Pot DUO Plus 60, 6 Qt 9-in-1.
- The general rule of thumb is 6 minutes per pound for chicken breasts. You’ll have to adjust the timing if you have larger chicken breasts than I do.
- If you have time you can Natural Pressure Release for 10 minutes. I’ve walked away from the IP before and forgot about my chicken breasts and I didn’t find there to be much of a difference.
- Don’t wait too long between the chicken breasts being cooked and shredding – chicken breasts shred easiest when they’re warm.
- You can use a KitchenAid mixer to shred your breasts quickly and easily.
Make Ahead Tips
- Meal prep: store the cooked shredded chicken in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge.
- Freezer: allow the chicken to cool before transferring it into an airtight container before storing them in the freezer.
Buffalo sauce is made by whisking together hot sauce with melted unsalted butter.
It really depends on your buffalo sauce. You can add some brown sugar to the Instant Pot while the liquid is simmering to make the shredded buffalo chicken less spicy.
You can shred your chicken with two forks, pulling the breasts apart. You can also use these shredding claws, or the whisk attachment in a mixer.
If you want the buffalo sauce coating the chicken to be thicker, you can add a cornstarch slurry to the liner when you simmer the liquid. To make the slurry, combine 1 tbsp cornstarch to 1 tbsp cold water, mix until combined, add to the simmering liner.
Add the buffalo chicken to tacos, burritos, rice bowl, sandwiches, salads, a baked potato, or just as is! This goes with everything.
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
- 1 cup buffalo sauce, or more
- salt and pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup water, or chicken stock
Equipment
Instructions
- Add 1/3 cup of buffalo sauce to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Add in the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle a couple more tablespoons of sauce on top of the chicken breasts and add 1/4 cup of water or chicken broth.
- Pressure cook for 10 minutes and then quick release when done.
- Remove the cooked chicken breasts and shred them.
- At the same time, press the sauté button on the Instant Pot and let the liquid inside simmer and cook down as you shred the chicken breasts.
- Add the shredded chicken back into the Instant Pot and add in the rest of the buffalo sauce.
- Toss to coat and then enjoy!
Nutrition Per Serving
More Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love
- Instant Pot Whole Chicken
- Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Tacos
- Instant Pot Goulash
- Instant Pot Chicken and Broccoli
- Instant Pot Sesame Chicken
- Instant Pot Meatballs
- Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli
- Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta
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Meg says
Was the chicken frozen or thawed for 10 min cook time?
Carmy says
The chicken is thawed. However, if you use frozen chicken, the cooking time you input does not change as the IP will naturally take longer to build up pressure.
Emily says
Thank you for adding nutrition to the recipes. How is it calculated? For the Buffalo chicken, it seems the figures are just for plain chicken until you get to the high sodium level, and your homemade Buffalo sauce is extremely high in fat & sodium but not reflected in the chicken recipe.
Love the variety of recipes you post.
Carmy says
Hi Emily! The nutrition at the bottom of each recipe card is calculated using this software used by WPRM, the recipe card’s plugin. I believe they pulled the info of a generic buffalo sauce. Sorry for any confusion.
Margot says
Delicious recipe! I made my own buffalo sauce this time (as suggested) and it really is better than store bought. Also, at the end I whisked in about 3 Tbsp of cream cream to the sauce as it reduced (while shredding the chicken) to thicken it and soften the spice a bit. YUMM!
Carmy says
So glad you enjoyed this instant pot buffalo chicken recipe! Love the addition of cream cheese!
Gabi says
I don’t see the carbs in the nutritional info how many carbs are in this?
Carmy says
Chicken = 0g
Salt & pepper = 0g
Water = 0g
Buffalo sauce = depends on the sauce you are using. The one I link in the post has 3g but there are buffalo sauces you’ll find in stores with 0g carbs, always check the label to be sure.
Tiffany says
This was a total hit with the family (grown ups)! I added a TBSP of butter and tsp tapioca flour to the sauce while I shredded the chicken just to make the sauce a bit thicker/stickier. I was amazed at how easy it was to make an amazing weeknight dinner! Added pickles, lettuce and mayo to the bread. They kept saying, “Dinner was really good!” Thx!
Carmy says
I’m so happy to hear this, Tiffany! I love the tip with the tapioca flour to thicken the sauce. That sounds so good with the pickles, lettuce, and mayo! Thank you for leaving a review!