I love Buffalo sauce. I like it on chicken wings with a cold beer, I like it mixed with ranch dressing on my salads, and I love, love, love it in this Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta. When I saw this recipe, I knew it was going to be a winner. It boasts so many of my favorite things: cream cheese, linguine, chicken, cheddar cheese, ranch seasoning, and my beloved Buffalo sauce.
Here’s an important step in the directions that I missed, though. It’s crucial to plug the slow cooker in. I lovingly prepared my crockpot recipe one morning before work, but I didn’t plug the bad boy in, so I came home to raw chicken and disappointment. I wish I could say this is the first time I’ve forgotten to plug in my slow cooker or have neglected to turn it on.
Alas, no.
I dried my tears, ran to the store to get more cream cheese, and tried again.
This Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta is creamy, tangy, and delicious. You need to be around your slow cooker for the last hour or so of the cook time, since the noodles are added and cooked in the crockpot, but it’s worth it. It makes a good amount of pasta, so we enjoyed it for two nights, and I was able to have it for lunch twice. It’s no wonder my weight loss efforts seem to be stalled. This dish is not low calorie.
One of my kids liked it, the other thought it was too spicy. She’s kind of a wimp when it comes to any heat, though.
I used my 6 Quart Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker to make this Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta.
Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Pasta
This Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta is creamy, tangy, and delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce, divided (I used Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce)
- 1 tablespoon dried ranch dressing mix
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
- 16 oz linguine noodles
Instructions
- Place chicken, broth, ¼ cup buffalo sauce, and seasonings in slow cooker.
- Top with cream cheese and shredded cheese.
- Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- When chicken is done, shred with two forks in the slow cooker and add remaining ¼ cup Buffalo sauce to chicken and stir to combine.
- Use a whisk and stir until cheese and cream cheese is all combined and smooth
- Break noodles in half and add to slow cooker, and stir well.
- Turn heat up to high for 30 to 45 minutes until noodles are fully cooked, stirring a few times during cooking to make sure noodles don't stick together.
- If the dish looks too dry while noodles are cooking, you can add a 1/4 cup chicken broth to get it to the desired consistency. If things look too runny, mix a tablespoon of cornstarch with a tablespoon cold water and stir into the chicken and pasta.
- Garnish with parsley or cilantro, and enjoy!
Kim
The pasta was very good – if you’re a fan of Frank’s then you will like it. Mario Batali probably won’t approve, especially since we added a squirt of ranch on top! But we aren’t going for fancy here. It makes a lot, so it will be nice to have leftovers. Definitely not kid-friendly, so be sure to have some hot dogs on hand when you make this. Because I let it cook all day while at work, it probably verged on too long so that by the time we added the noodles, most of the remaining liquid was sucked right up. It ended up more like a thicker casserole style noodle than a traditional pasta with sauce but the flavor was still good. If you need to cook longer, I’d just add another 1/2-1 cup of broth.
Linda
The cheesy buffalo chicken pasta was great! I loved the buffalo chicken zing in the pasta. I used whole grain linguine, which gave it a very chewy and hearty flavor. I used fresh cut chives as a garnish, and that was a good complimenting flavor, and the leftovers were amazing!!
Me
I’m a huge fan of Buffalo chicken anything, so I dreamed about this recipe from the time Linda added it to our Crockpot Thursday calendar. It did not disappoint. I forgot to add the cream cheese at the beginning, so I tossed it in about an hour before the pasta, and it was plenty of time for it to melt nicely. My only complaint is that I’m counting my calories, and this delicious pasta does not help my weight loss efforts.
Modified from Crockpot Gourmet.
What a perfect meal… It is so easy to put together and tastes great too.