Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta is a creamy, cheesy dinner made with tender shredded chicken, pasta, buffalo hot sauce, ranch dressing, and crispy bacon. Everything comes together in the pressure cooker for a hearty meal packed with buffalo chicken flavor.
This has been one of my favorite Instant Pot dinners for years. The combination of buffalo sauce, ranch, and melted cheese makes it a family favorite, especially when we’re craving something with a little kick.
Why I Love This Recipe
“I really enjoyed this recipe. My husband went back for seconds. only issue was that it made a lot of sauce but I saved it and will be reusing it to make no waste.”
About the Ingredients ⭐
- Chicken Breast: Boneless, skinless chicken breast cooks right in the Instant Pot.
- Ranch Dressing: Adds creamy, tangy flavor to the buffalo sauce.
- Pasta: Ziti works great, but other similar-sized pasta shapes can also be used.
- Hot Sauce: Gives the pasta its classic buffalo chicken flavor.
- Butter: Adds richness to the sauce.
- Cream Cheese & Cheddar: Make the pasta creamy and cheesy.
- Water: Provides the liquid needed for pressure cooking.
- Bacon: Cooked and crumbled for a crispy finishing touch.
Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below
How to Make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Cook the Chicken: Add the butter, hot sauce, 1 cup of water, and chicken breasts to the Instant Pot. Secure the lid and cook on High Pressure for 14 minutes, followed by a quick release.
Shred the Chicken: Remove the chicken and shred it using two forks. Leave all the cooking liquid in the Instant Pot.
Add the Pasta: Return the shredded chicken to the Instant Pot along with the dry pasta, cream cheese, and ranch dressing. Pour in the remaining 2 cups of water. Do not stir.
Pressure Cook: Secure the lid and cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes. Carefully perform a quick release.
Add the Cheese: Stir the pasta and chicken together, then mix in half the shredded cheddar cheese until creamy.
Finish with Bacon: Transfer the pasta to an oven-safe baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon. Broil for 1–2 minutes, just until the cheese melts.
Tips I Found Helpful 💙
- Use Similar Pasta Shapes: Ziti, penne, or rigatoni work well. Cooking times may vary with different pasta shapes.
- Keep the Cooking Liquid: Don’t drain the liquid after cooking the chicken. It helps cook the pasta and creates the creamy sauce.
- Adjust the Heat: Use less hot sauce for a milder buffalo flavor.
- Don’t Stir: Once you add the pasta, shredded chicken, and remaining water, leave everything layered before pressure cooking.
- Melt the Cheese: Broil the finished pasta for 1–2 minutes for a bubbly, cheesy topping.
Questions Readers Ask Most
Can I make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta less spicy?
Yes! Reduce the amount of hot sauce for a milder buffalo flavor. Keep the total liquid amount the same by replacing the reduced hot sauce with water.
Can I use a different pasta?
Yes! Penne or rigatoni are good substitutes for ziti. Cooking times may vary depending on the pasta shape.
Do I have to broil the pasta?
No. You can stir all the cheddar cheese directly into the hot pasta and skip the broiling step.
How do I store leftover Buffalo Chicken Pasta?
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days.
How do I reheat leftovers?
Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop until heated through. Add a splash of milk or water to loosen the creamy sauce if needed.
More Instant Pot Recipes I Love
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta is a creamy, cheesy one-pot dinner made with tender chicken, ziti, buffalo sauce, ranch, and crispy bacon.
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup ranch dressing
- 16 ounces ziti pasta, uncooked
- 1 cup hot sauce
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- 3 cups water, divided
- 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Instructions
- Add the butter, hot sauce, 1 cup of water, and chicken breasts to the Instant Pot.
- Secure the lid and cook on High Pressure for 14 minutes. Carefully perform a quick release.
- Remove the chicken and shred it with two forks. Leave all the cooking liquid in the Instant Pot.
- Add the uncooked pasta, cream cheese, and ranch dressing to the pot.
- Place the shredded chicken on top of the pasta and pour in the remaining 2 cups of water. Do not stir.
- Secure the lid and cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes. Carefully perform a quick release.
- Stir everything together, then mix in half the shredded cheddar cheese.
- Transfer the pasta to an oven-safe baking dish. Top with the remaining cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon.
- Broil for 1–2 minutes, just until the cheese melts. Serve warm.
Notes
- Do not drain the chicken cooking liquid.
- Use penne or rigatoni instead of ziti if desired.
- Stir in all the cheddar to skip broiling.
- Refrigerate leftovers for up to 4 days.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 522Total Fat: 40gSaturated Fat: 16gUnsaturated Fat: 23gCholesterol: 127mgSodium: 1618mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 28g
We don’t eat pasta. I wonder if diced potato or something else can be used in place of pasta? This looks yummy!
potatoes or cauliflower
Is that 40 ounces of cheese?
Just my opinion, but I see it as; 4 OZ OF 3 CHEESE BLEND… 40 OZ would be 2 & 1/2 pounds…. going to try it tonight..yum
OMG does that sound amazing! Cannot wait to try it!
This will only be my second insta pot recipe, but I have heard that for some recipes you put the chicken in frozen. Do you used thawed chicken or frozen chicken for this Recipe?
@Christina, I have used frozen chicken and partially thawed and it still works great !
Looks yummy can’t wait to try!
Looks yummy can’t wait to try my kids will love!
Sounds yummy, I’m not a huge fan of ranch, do you have a ranch replacement recommendation?
I’m going to try blue cheese dressing instead of ranch.
@Faith,
I use ranch and blue cheese,half cup of each
This was so good. We don’t are much for hot sauce so I used a bottled wing sauce frim our local wing restaurant.
How much is a serving? a cup ect??
Gluten Free: so I tried it with a corn pasta tonight. I substituted 16oz of corn pasta with 3 cups of water. Then piled everything else on top. We use pre cooked chicken to speed things up.
Made this today for lunch! It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you.
I’ve made this 3 times and I have yet to complete it in 22 minutes. It’s more like 45 to 50 minutes by the time it takes to shred the chicken. This is soooo delicious, and yes sometimes i yse blue cheese dresding and also tried it with bottled avocado ranch dressing.
Use a hand mixer to shred 🙂
Hand mixer or kitchen aid work amazing at shredding chicken!
I’m not a ranch fan but I 💘 blue cheese. Also used mozz in place of mex mix. Yummmmmmm
Kitchen aid works amazingly fast with the paddle. Just be sure not to mix too much or it’ll have tuna consistency (made that mistake once!)
I have a cuisinart pressure cooker but I was on the hunt for new recipes to try and found this one.
I was unsure about the water ratio, it seemed like it would water this down…but I held to the original recipe on this one. This dish was AMAZING. No lie, it’s 8:30 am and I’m having leftover pasta for breakfast!!
The ONLY thing I changed is this: After I shredded the chicken, I put my pot on the saute setting. I added the cream cheese, ranch and hot sauce and basically melded it all in the same cook pot. No point in having to wash a second pot IMO. I added the water and pasta…switched back to pressure and it was done in like 7 mins.
OMG does that sound amazing! Cannot wait to try it!
OMG does that sound amazing! This was so good. We don’t are much for hot sauce so i used a bottled wing sauce frim our local wing restaurant.Can i try it that recepi!
This was truly amazing! I used dry ranch mix with a little milk instead of dressing. I also saw it as 40 ozs of cheese. Even this Wisconsin girl said what?
Thankfully someone pointed out the missing space as I asked for opinions on using the dry mix. It was even weight loss eating friendly. Well, it’s so tasty it was really hard to stop, but I did. Can’t wait for leftover time!
How much milk did you add to the dry ranch mix? Thanks
This was absolutely delicious!
I made this as my first dish in my IP! I used Laughing Cow white cheddar cheese instead of cream cheese and it was delicious-thank you!
Do I precook the noodles?
no
IP newbie here…Just took it out of the box tonight! Do you put the pasta in uncooked?
yes, uncooked. the IP is amazing for making pasta dishes quickly
I made this tonight with some modifications, and it was so good! I wanted to speed up the process, so I put the pasta and water (I used chicken broth) in the instant pot then placed the trivet on top of the pasta. I put a small pan on top of the trivet and put the chicken, hot sauce, 1 cup broth, ranch seasoning instead of dressing (to save fat & calories) and a few pats of butter. I set the timer for 6 minutes and took the pan out to shred the chicken. Threw everything back together along with the cream cheese and shredded cheese. I forgot the bacon, but it was delicious still, and so fast and easy! I think I will make it for a work pot luck next week.
Thank you for this tip!! What pan do you use that you put inside the IP??
This was so delicious! Way better than crack chicken!
Made this tonight for dinner. Amazingly delicious. Definitely making this again and again.
In the directions it says “poultry button OR 14 minuets on manual high”. Is it 14 minuets for the poultry button too? If not how long for that button? I haven’t used the poultry button yet and have no reference of timing with it. This dish looks and sounds Fabulous!
you can use manual high pressure or the poultry button 🙂
My poultry button is 15 minutes. My chicken was almost all the way thawed and it cooked perfectly.
Does “2 large chicken breasts about 1 pound” mean each breast should weigh 1 pound, or collectively, they should be 2 pounds?
Literally make this at least once a week! Our favourite meal!!!
Do I empty the water after I cook the chicken? Or just leave what’s left and add the 2 cups water and pasta?
no need to empty 🙂
Thanks for answering i was wondering to..it said to take out only the chicken but didn’t say what to do with the fluid after.. making this for supper tonight..
OMG this is fanastic
I’m gonna make this tonight BUT, I’m just doing pasta part. No,chicken
Should I use 4cups of water for the pasta because I’m not doing the chicken with 1 cup of water? Thanks.
Can I double this recipe?
Quick, easy, and cheap dinner! This is my new go-to recipe!! I don’t change a thing.
This calls for 1/4 cup hot sauce. Do you use it to coat the chicken in the beginning? In Step 5 it says to combine the hot sauce with other ingredients, so I’m just wondering if you are to split the hot sauce or use extra to coat the chicken?
I followed most ingredients & many directions… ha! … and we loved it. What I changed: I did not return shredded chicken mixture to pot. (I heated the shredded chicken,Buffalo ranch mixture a little in microwave.) I left it separate from (penne) pasta & served both with more Buffalo sauce available. When pressure cooking the (penne) pasta I cooked it as directed. After quick release, I added 2-4 oz cream, 1/2 t dry mustard, and over 8 Oz shredded cheese (sharp cheddar and a Mexican blend). It melted to a smooth awesome sauce. Then everyone served themselves the homade Mac n cheese with Buffalo ranch chicken on top, mixed in, or on the side. It was a hit.
Made this last night. Only thing I did different was add and saute one small onion and approximately 1 tbsp of garlic to pan with 2 tbsp butter for about 3-4 minutes. Turned off saute then followed recipe. I did not have enough Ranch dressing, only 3/4 cup so added 1/4 cup of 1/2 and 1/2. Used 12 oz of pasta. This recipe is very good. Thank you.
Wasn’t sure to drain what water was already in pot I did and my noodles stuck even with 2 cups water ☹️
Do I place the chicken on the trivet? Or lay directly in the pot? Wasnt sure if it would burn. Newbie here. Will only be my 4th recipe!
Hiiii thanks so much for the recipe! It was delicious and soooo creamy! I was in a terrible hurry to make dinner and made a couple of changes so I could cook it all at once! At the bottom of the Instant Pot, I put in the pasta and just enough chicken broth to cover it.
On top of that, I put the chicken breast (chopped into cubes) and coated with Buffalo sauce. (Do not mix it into the pasta. On top of that, I placed dollops of cream cheese which I had mixed with a packet of dry ranch seasoning. (Again, don’t mix!) Then I just cooked it all for 6 minutes and then QPR and mixed it gently. Overall, I omitted the extra shredded cheese, the bacon and the ranch dressing and added a packet of ranch. Worked like a charm, thanks again for the creative recipe! 🙂
I made the chicken mixture in the morning, then refrigerated it until dinner time when I finished the recipe. SO good. This joins the family favorites
We make this weekly! Soooooo delicious!!!
I am new to IP. I have an 8 oz. IP duo. Do I need to increase the cups of water when cooking the chicken breast from 1 cup to 2 cups or does it not matter what size IP I have. I’m confused on this?
My husband LOVES this one! Even better than the fajita soup! This will be my fast go-to dinner! I used whole wheat pasta and a little less hot sauce (but he adds more on his). I’m really liking these recipes. Thank you SO much!
This recipe is one of my FAVORITES for the instant pot! Do you know if it would freeze well? I was thinking of making the whole dish and putting it in a pan and then freezing it. What are your thoughts?
Can you use a ranch powder mix instead of dressing?
@Caitlin, Was this question answered?
Made this twice. Both times salvaged it but got burn message due to pasta andy easy fix?
I’m confused about how much hot sauce to use. The ingredients say 1/4 cup. Step 1 Says to coat with hot sauce & step 5 also calls for hot sauce. How much do you coat with in step 1 & how much goes into step 5? Thanks for any help!
This is definitely an all time FAVORITE for my fiancé. I make it atleast twice a month, I’m sure he’d like it more though! It’s super yummy and leftovers are just as good. He’s even eaten it for breakfast leftover! Thanks for sharing 🥰
This has become a weekly staple in our home. My bf is a buffalo chicken expert, according to him, and he loves this recipe. The only thing I do differently is to add extra hot sauce. I don’t even mix the cream cheese and chicken. I dump it in a go. Thanks for a great recipe.
Too spicy for us, next time half the hot sauce, used frozen chicken breast, still not cooked thru after 19 minutes, just chopped it up and threw it in with the rest of the ingredients. Simply and tasty.
Now I know why it was so hot! Recipe says 1 Cup of hot sauce, NOT 1/4 cup of hot sauce!!! Next time, if there is one, 1/4 cup!
If I cut this recipe in half, do I still use the same cooking times?
Yes
Love this recipe, but it had been awhile since I made it. I noticed updates to the recipe that made it easier and quicker to make. I remember thinking 1 c of hot sauce seemed more than in the past and debated using less since my family doesn’t like a lot of spice. I didn’t adjust and boy did it have some kick! Next time I will adjust down to 1/4 c. I noticed a similar comment after the fact that it looks like that changed from before. So I would suggest to use an amount that matches your family’s tolerance for heat.
In the instructions they forgot to add the chicken back in. It does show it in the video.
I have made this several times, and it always comes out great! I tried the bow ties, and they got mushy and stuck to the bottom of my instapot. We often leave out the bacon. If you add more hot sauce, replace the water so the liquid level is the same.
Amazing the whole family loves it been cooking it for over a year. It is our go to cheat meal!
This recipe has become a staple in my house. My husband requests it every couple of weeks. I always make sure I have the ingredients on hand at any given time because of how often it gets made. My hopeless at the grocery store husband has even memorized what I need for it and will pick up extras when he is out just in case. Whenever we are feeling stuffed up we just add a bit more hot sauce. Perfect comfort food at our house.
So happy you like it
When do you add the chicken back in after shredding?
right after shredding
I love that this recipe combines ranch, bacon, and hot sauce—that flavor combo is always a winner in my book. I’m definitely going to try making this in my Instant Pot this week, especially since you mentioned the leftovers taste even better the next day. I’ll have to make a double batch just to make sure we actually have some left over for lunch!
The hot sauce + ranch + bacon combo sounds like exactly the kind of flavor punch I’m always chasing, so this is going on my meal plan ASAP. Also good to know the leftovers hold up—I’m a sucker for pasta that tastes even better the next day when the sauce has had time to settle in.