Slow Cooker Chicken with Buffalo Celery Sauce

What pairs best with buffalo sauce? Celery and blue cheese, of course. My Slow Cooker Chicken with Buffalo Celery Sauce brings this classic trio together, along with a drizzle of homemade blue cheese dressing to cool the heat.

Just a few simple ingredients in the crock pot, pair it with your favorite side dish, and an easy dinner’s done!

Slow cooker buffalo chicken recipe ingredients

• Celery
• Butter
• Buffalo hot sauce
• Chicken breast
• Blue cheese
• Blue cheese dressing

Cooking Raw Chicken in a Slow Cooker with Sauce

You can put raw chicken straight into a slow cooker with sauce. In fact, that’s one of the easiest slow cooker methods. The chicken cooks gently in the sauce, staying moist while soaking up the flavor.

Just make sure to:

• Cook on low for 3–4 hours or on high for 2–3 hours, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C). The exact time will vary depending on the thickness of your chicken pieces and whether they’re bone-in. Remember, time is just a guide—temperature is the most important factor for food safety. More on this in the recipe.
• Avoid lifting the lid too often—this slows down cooking.
• If the sauce is too thin at the end, remove the lid for the last 20–30 minutes or thicken it with a cornstarch slurry.

Best chicken for slow cooker buffalo chicken

This comes down to personal preference. Just note that boneless chicken breasts cook much faster than bone-in pieces or chicken thighs. I prefer thinner, skinless chicken breasts since they cook more quickly.

More buffalo chicken recipes

Good old American buffalo sauce—with its milder, less spicy flavor compared to other hot sauces—is most famously served with Buffalo wings. It’s also a favorite drizzled over pizza or stirred into buffalo chicken dip. In the slow cooker, it doubles as the easiest cooking sauce, marinating the chicken as it cooks and infusing it with that distinct tangy flavor and just the right amount of heat.

If you’re a fan of buffalo sauce, you know what I’m talking about. I love using it as a marinade for my Rosemary Chicken Skewers, mixing it into and topping Buffalo Burgers with Celery Slaw, and—what inspired this recipe—my Warm Buffalo Chicken Salad. All pictured above.

Serving slow cooker buffalo chicken

My Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe is a classic pairing—it’s creamy, tangy, tastes amazing, plus, it mellows the heat of the buffalo sauce. Not a blue cheese fan? Ranch dressing works just as well. Sometimes I even mix the two together for an irresistible dip.

Shredded buffalo chicken

I often let the chicken cook a little longer in the slow cooker until it you can easily pull apart with a fork. You can shred chicken right in the sauce. It’s delicious tucked into quesadillas or rolled up in taquitos. You can also pile it onto sandwiches, stuff it into baked potatoes, spoon it over nachos, wrap it in lettuce cups, or serve it in tacos with a crunchy slaw on top.

Leftover buffalo chicken

Storage of leftovers should be placed in a well sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. To reheat, you can warm slowly in the slow cooker. Pour over leftover celery buffalo sauce, or in a pan over medium heat. Microwave could make the chicken tough.

Give your leftovers new life by turning them into sandwiches topped with caramelized onions on a toasted bun, sliders for game day, shredded over rice bowls, wrapped in a flour tortilla, or for a low-carb option, tucked into crisp lettuce wraps.

Try the leftovers in sandwiches topped with Caramelized Onions on a toasted bun, sliders, rice bowls, wrapped in a flour tortilla, or for a low-carb option, lettuce wraps.

If you’ve made my Slow Cooker Chicken with Buffalo Celery Sauce, please leave a star rating in the recipe card. You can also leave a comment or ask a question below.