Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta: This is the ultimate comfort food – ready in under 20 minutes and full of delicious cheese, this creamy one pot meal is an easy weeknight meal that’ll wow your taste buds!
Quick Overview: To make this cheesy pasta in the Instant Pot, warm up your olive oil in the Instant Pot on sauté mode and cook your chicken breast pieces. (Or make slow cooker chicken in advance!)
Layer in the rest of the ingredients in the order mentioned, cook on high pressure 5 minutes. Quick release, stir in the cheddar cheese, top with blue cheese crumbles and green onions, and enjoy!
Why you’ll love this recipe
There’s nothing quite like a creamy, cheesy bowl of pasta to warm you up from the inside out, am I right? I have a confession though…I’m a bit of a pasta snob. There’s a time and a place for pasta from a box with a sauce packet, but my favorite pasta dishes have real cream and cheese and all that yummy goodness (even better if they have a bit of a slight kick of spice)! BUT, I don’t want to spend hours making it.
Am I asking for too much? Maybe. Does this recipe deliver all I’m looking for and more? YES! (This is exactly why I love cooking pasta in the instant pot.) This one pot buffalo chicken pasta dish is creamy, cheesy, uses real ingredients, AND is so quick and easy to make. That’s a yes, for me.
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Ingredients
With one pot and a few simple ingredients easily find next time you’re at the grocery store, you can quickly make this delicious Instant Pot pasta recipe the whole family will love!
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- ⅓ cup buffalo sauce
- 8 ounces rotini pasta (uncooked)
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- blue cheese crumbles (optional)
- chopped green onion (optional)
See the printable recipe card below for quantities and step-by-step instructions on how to make this easy Instant Pot pasta dish!
Instructions
Wondering how to make this easy buffalo chicken pasta recipe? Let me show you!
- Add olive oil to the insert of your Instant Pot.
- Plug in your Instant Pot and set it to sauté mode.
- Once the Instant Pot is hot, add the chicken and sauté until cooked through.
- In this order, add the chicken broth, milk, buffalo sauce, pasta and cream cheese. DO NOT STIR.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, close the pressure valve. Set your Instant Pot to manual for 5 minutes with the pressure on high.
- When the 5 minute cook time has finished, do a quick release (carefully open the pressure valve and let the pressure release).
- When the pressure is fully released, take the lid off and stir the ingredients together.
- Add the shredded cheese and stir until it is melted and combined with the other ingredients.
- Serve your pasta with blue cheese crumbles and chopped green onions on top of the pasta (or a drizzle or ranch dressing if you like), and enjoy!
Substitutions
If you need to make some substitutions in this Instant Pot buffalo chicken mac and cheese, here are a few suggestions!
- Gluten Free – There are some great gluten free pasta alternatives out there now! If you need, you can swap the rotini for your favorite gluten free style of pasta and it should work just as well.
- Olive Oil – You can use your favorite oil in place of olive oil if you like. Canola, coconut, grapeseed…any of those would work (although coconut will alter the flavor of the finished dish a tiny bit).
- Milk – You can substitute cream for the milk if you’d like your sauce to be a bit thicker.
Variations
Pasta dishes are so fun because there are so many ways you can change them up! Here are a few of my favorite ideas for variations on this Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta dish.
- Swap Cheese – Instead of using 4 ounces of cream cheese, try 4 ounces of feta! The sharp taste of feta will add some zing to the recipe!
- More Spicy – Add a splash of your favorite hot sauce (like Frank’s red hot sauce) along with the buffalo sauce to really kick up the heat. You can even throw in a few sliced jalapeño peppers if you want!
- Less Spicy – Buffalo might just be my favorite flavor, but I know it’s not for everyone. If everything in this recipe sounds great to you other than the buffalo sauce, you can omit it! Instead, try adding some Italian seasonings (garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil). You can choose to still top the pasta with blue cheese crumbles or you could switch to parmesan cheese in keeping with the Italian theme! You could also swap out the cheddar cheese for mozzarella cheese – yum!
Equipment
We used an Instant Pot for this recipe, but you could make it with other brands of electric pressure cooker as well. Always be sure to check meat to ensure it is cooked to the minimum internal temperature of 165 F, regardless of which cooker you use.
Storage
Your Buffalo Chicken Pasta should keep for 2-3 days in the fridge as long as it is in an airtight container.
I haven’t tried freezing this yet, but I think it would work. Put your Buffalo Chicken Pasta in an airtight, freezer-safe container and it should keep for up to a month!
Expert tips and FAQs
Absolutely! This is a great way to use leftover chicken. If you have pre-shredded chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken, simply cook the step of cooking the chicken and go straight to layering your ingredients in the warm Instant Pot (starting with the chicken).
You sure can, but the cooking time will be longer (that’s the beauty of the Instant Pot, it makes everything faster). To modify this for stove top, cook your chicken pieces in oil in a medium pot. Add in the ingredients just like the recipe states, cover and cook until your noodles are soft (follow the cook times on the package). You may need to stir the noodles a few times while cooking on the stove to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When the noodles are done cooking, add the cheddar cheese and stir until everything is melted and well combined.
Related Recipes
If you like the flavor of buffalo sauce and you enjoy easy pasta dishes, then you absolutely have to try this buffalo chicken lasagna next! It’s one of those dishes people will rave about when you serve it to them (and it’s surprisingly easy to put together). Go check it out!
Looking for more easy meals? Try this easy buffalo chicken soup recipe! This is a yummy soup version of a buffalo chicken dip, and I know you’re going to love it. And if it’s easy instant pot recipes you’re looking for, I have tons over on the blog. Check them out!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a review below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- 1 instant pot or similar pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- ⅓ cup buffalo sauce
- 8 ounces rotini pasta uncooked
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- blue cheese crumbles optional
- chopped green onion optional
Instructions
- Add olive oil to the insert of your Instant Pot.
- Plug in your Instant Pot and set it to sauté mode.
- Once the Instant Pot is hot, add the chicken and sauté until cooked through.
- In this order, add the chicken broth, milk, buffalo sauce, pasta and cream cheese. DO NOT STIR.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, close the pressure valve. Set your Instant Pot to manual for 5 minutes with the pressure on high.
- When the 5 minute cook time has finished, do a quick release (carefully open the pressure valve and let the pressure release).
- When the pressure is fully released, take the lid off and stir the ingredients together.
- Add the shredded cheese and stir until it is melted and combined with the other ingredients.
- Serve your pasta with blue cheese crumbles and chopped green onions on top of the pasta (or a drizzle or ranch dressing if you like), and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Kristyn says
This meal comes together so fast & is so delicious!! It’s not too spicy, so the kids will love it too!
Agnes says
I’m a huge fan of Buffalo chicken so this pasta recipe was a great find. Yum!
jess says
This pasta recipe has so much flavor, it is going on my monthly routine of recipes! thank you for sharing!