Chicken sliders made in the SLOW COOKER cooked in an awesome sweet and mildly spicy Buffalo sauce! Plus directions to make this on the stove or even in a pressure cooker, AND an optional blue cheese sauce. These Honey Buffalo Chicken Sliders are a great way to feed a crowd with minimal effort!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday this weekend. Just the biggest game day in America in the entire year.
To put this into perspective for Australians, it’s like our equivalent of the Melbourne Cup. You know how we call that the “race that stops the nation”? And it literally does – I was once on the M5 and traffic almost came to a standstill for the 3 minutes the race was on.
Well, on Super Bowl Sunday, basically the entire United States of America comes to a standstill for the annual championship of American football. All 300 million or so Americans can be accounted for doing one of 3 things:
Glued to the TV, chugging beers and nibbling on food that can be eaten with hands, without taking your eyes off the TV*;
Making food for the sports-obsessed, and socialising with the non-sports-obsessed; or
Just generally enjoying this unofficial holiday!
* The definition of Game Day Food as per RecipeTin Eats-pedia. The following meet the stringent requirements:
MY TOP GAME DAY PICKS
So this is a last minute Super Bowl Sunday recipe that I’m sharing for all of those who haven’t been planning Game Day Food for weeks and weeks and are pressed for time. 🙂
These Honey Buffalo Chicken Sliders take 5 minutes preparation. Maybe 7 – depends how organised your pantry is. Throw chicken and a handful of other ingredients into the slow cooker, including honey, butter and hot sauce which are the base of a traditional Buffalo Sauce. I add other flavourings in the sauce to jazz it up because I find the taste a bit plain to use for sliders.
Set the slow cooker, then 4 hours later, open it up to find perfectly cooked chicken sitting in a pool of delicious sauce, ready for shredding.
One thing to note about shredded chicken: I am not a fan of pulled / shredded meats that are cooked beyond tender so they are mushy. I actually have a bit of a hang up about mushy-pulled meats, especially on sliders.
So the cook time for this chicken is quite specific! It yields a tender chicken that shreds very easily with two forks with barely any effort, but the shredded pieces maintain their shape and texture nicely, rather than disintegrating which is what happens if you overcook chicken breast. 🙂
And now….the sauce. Let’s talk about the Honey Buffalo Sauce! Cooking the chicken in the sauce serves 2 purposes: infuses flavour into the chicken, and the chicken juices flavours the sauce. It’s too thin to use straight out the slow cooker so it needs just 5 minutes of cooking with the help of a little cornstarch / cornflour to thicken up while you shred the chicken. I love that my slow cooker has a sauté function so I can leave it in my slow cooker for this step!
And here it is. Tender, juicy shredded chicken tossed in a mildly spicy, honey-sweetened sauce. Oh my. Knees, weak.
Pile it onto rolls with a touch of token greens (because, you know…I’m all about well rounded meals here! 😉 )…..
And if you really want to go all out, make some Blue Cheese Sauce for the blue cheese fans! (That’d be me, but I’d say my friends are split pretty evenly in the pro and anti blue-cheese camps. So I always serve blue cheese on the side!)
Oh boy, happy days.
You know that 2 seconds after I took this shot, there was an enormous BITE taken out of this, don’t you??
But more important than whether you’re in the Blue Cheese camp, which camp are you in for SUPER BOWL SUNDAY 2016??
a) Denver BRONCOS!
b) Carolina PANTHERS!
c) Neither. I just get excited about the food!
For disclosure purposes, I am c). 😉 – Nagi x
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Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Chicken Sliders
Ingredients
Buffalo Chicken
- 2 lb / 1 kg chicken breast , boneless skinless (3 large or 4 small)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 3/4 cup hot sauce of choice (Note 2)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp tomato ketchup (or Australian tomato sauce)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or onion powder)
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves)
- 1 tsp salt
- Black pepper
Sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch / corn flour
To serve
- 7 rolls
- Lettuce of choice (optional)
- Blue Cheese Sauce (optional – see recipe below)
Instructions
Buffalo Chicken
- Place chicken in one layer in slow cooker and sprinkle with garlic powder, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper. Add remaining Buffalo Chicken ingredients, mostly around the chicken rather than on top. Cook on LOW for 4 hours. (Note 2)
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred roughly with too forks.
- Toss in Sauce and keep warm.
Sauce
- Mix cornstarch with 2 tbsp water and add to Sauce (after chicken is removed). Simmer on sauté setting in slow cooker for 5 minutes, or until thickened to a syrup consistency (or transfer to saucepan and do this over medium heat).
- Adjust salt & spiciness to taste per Note 1.
To serve
- Split rolls in half and toast (if desired). Butter (if desired), then place lettuce on bottom half and top with chicken. Serve warm, with Blue Cheese Sauce if you’re a fan of blue cheese!
Recipe Notes:
PRESSURE COOKER: 30 minutes on high.
STOVE: Add 1/2 cup of water and simmer for 50 minutes to 1 hour (with lid), or until chicken is fork tender. 3. Nutrition for Buffalo Chicken Sliders (excluding blue cheese sauce), per serving assuming 8 servings.
Nutrition Information:
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Blue Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese , softened (I use gorgonzola)
- 1/4 cup sour cream (I usually use low fat)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 small garlic clove , minced
- 2 – 4 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Place blue cheese and sour cream in a bowl and mush with a fork, to taste. I like mine a bit chunky.
- Add remaining ingredients, using milk to adjust the consistency to your taste. I like it thick so it doesn’t run everywhere.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Hi – wanting to know how this would freeze? Obviously just the chicken + sauce! Thanks…
This one is perfect to freeze Sheryl! N x
This recipe is really delicious. I used 3.5 lbs. of chicken and cooked for 4.5 hours on low.
Hi, just wondering if there’s an option to do no spicy sauce so toddler can also eat? Thanks
Hi Kailin, buffalo sauce is typically spicy – if you left it out of this recipe it won’t be quite the same. Why not try carnitas or this instead: https://salesdock.info/slow-cooker-bbq-pulled-pork-sandwich/%3C/a%3E N x
Hey Nagi,
I don’t have a slow cooker, but I have a dutch oven.
What is the recommended temp and cooking time for this recipe?
Thanks!
/Nora
This was awesome! I had some chicken tenderloins to cook and decided on this recipe. My boyfriend and I loved the flavors coming from the buffalo sauce and the sweetness from the honey. Very well balanced in regards to heat and sweetness. This will be on my rotation. Thanks!
I made these on the weekend and they were a hit !! All of your recipes have never let me done and make me look like a Masterchef !! Already found my next recipe I’m going to try (chicken burgers 🤤) I absolutely love your recipes, thank you for sharing your recipes x
Enjoy Kylie!! N x
Amazing! So quick and so delicious. Massive hit with me & my husband. We will definitely be making again when we a group of friend over.
Ate tonight for Super bowl supper and tasty it is! Thanks.
Hi Nagi! Thank you so much for bringing my confidence in cooking. Can you give options to freeze the meals similar to shredded beef recipe? I’m a single lady and I find it’s hard to eat the same old meal twice in a day but it’s hard to adjust the slower cooker with less meat. Thanks you!!
I’m making this for AFL grand final as was such a hit when I made it before. However we will have 20+ people. Kids and adults. Can I double this or should I make it in 2 batches & borrow a friends slow cooker? Thanks!!
PS you almost always reply to my messages & I always tick notify me via email yet never get an email. I always go back and check cos you almost always do but I don’t know why the tick doesn’t work for me on this form. Thanks!!!!!
Hi Rachel, sorry it’s not notifying you – is it going into your junk folder? You can definitely double this recipe! I hope everyone loves it!
Absolutely scrumptious! So great to make American style recipes with Australian ingredients I can get at Coles! My friends raved about it- serves it with Coles Kaleslaw & soft bread rolls. My fussy toddlers said it was too spicy- I replied I wasn’t making t for them 😉 but would love to know a way to make it less ‘spicy’ after I’ve cooked it for the toddle market. Would I wash the sauce off?
Hi Nagi, I’ve made these gorgeous sliders a couple of times but for Easter I would like to make the day before using – I’m worried the chicken may dry out or absorb all the sauce? What would be the best way to store overnight and reheat so they are still lovely and moist with loads of sauce? Thanks so much!
Hi Kate, this would be perfectly fine to make ahead. I’d just cook the day before and store the chicken separately after it has been shredded. Then on the day, thicken the sauce and pop the shredded chicken into the sauce.
These far exceeded my expectations, and your recipes are always winners for me so my expectations were high! I even halved the butter and though I am sure they would have been even better with 4 T, I didn’t miss the extra! Served in a wrap for dinner. Thank you for another keeper!
That’s terrific Janel! So pleased you enjoyed this, thanks for letting me know! N x
Yum! The taste and smell of the sauce is sensational. I used dark brown sugar. Next time I would cook breasts a little less, or use thighs. The blue cheese sauce is excellent too.
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this Melba! Thank you for letting me know! N x
I made these for the family today and they were an absolute winner!!!!! These will be on a regular basis I have no doubt…. sensational 👌
That’s great Cara! Thanks for letting me know! – N x ❤️
Hi Nagi – to halve the chicken would you still cook for the same time or less?
Could you halve all ingredients if you only wanted 4 servings?
You sure can, just use the recipe slider 🙂
Hi Nagi
I plan to do this but about 3 times the quantity. How should this affect the cook time?
Cheers
Paul
Just made these. Absolutely delicious. Definitely a keeper!
So great to hear Jo!! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
This recipe has become a staple in my home and is the recipe I get asked most often for. Delicious!
Love hearing that Rebecca! N x