Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup
This delicious Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup is topped with crumbled blue cheese, and this soup will warm up your tastebuds! And I’m guessing anyone who likes spicy Buffalo Chicken is also going to enjoy the this tasty soup!
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Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup is one of my favorite soup recipes, and this is warm and comforting if it’s cold where you are! This is a soup for people who love the strong flavors of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and crumbled blue cheese!
If you like hot spicy Buffalo Wings dipped into blue cheese, or any other variation of those Buffalo Chicken flavors, you’re probably going to love this creamy Buffalo Chicken Soup. It did take me a couple of tries testing variations with Jake and Kara to come up with a version of this soup we thought was a total winner. But we loved the final version!
And then after I uploaded the photos, I wished we had ground up the thyme when we added it to the soup. But I decided the flecks of thyme add character to the soup (and the thyme does add wonderful flavor!) So for all the fellow Buffalo Chicken fans, hope you enjoy this soup!
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What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- onion
- celery
- olive oil
- dried thyme, or use a smaller amount of Ground Thyme (affiliate link)
- Garlic Powder (affiliate link)
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (affiliate link)
- canned chicken broth (affiliate link) or homemade chicken stock
- cream cheese
- crumbled blue cheese
How spicy is this Buffalo Chicken Soup?
I would say this soup is moderately spicy. But here is my advice: You can always add more Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to the finished soup, but you can’t take it out. The amount we ended up with for the recipe made a tasty soup that we thought was just spicy enough, but feel free to use less Frank’s Red Hot Sauce if you’re not sure how much heat you’ll want.
What if you’re not a fan of blue cheese?
If you enjoy Buffalo Chicken flavors but aren’t so big on blue cheese, just top the soup with Parmesan or any grated or crumbled white cheese that you prefer.
What size Instant Pot did I use for this recipe?
I use a 6 Quart Instant Pot (affiliate link) for all my Instant Pot Recipes. Check out my growing collection of Instant Pot Recipes!
How low in carbs is the Buffalo Chicken Soup?
This slightly spicy tasty soup has only 4 net carbs per serving, with 33 grams of protein!
How to Make Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Heat olive oil in the Instant Pot on the Saute/Medium setting, add onions and celery and cook until they’re starting to soften.
- Add thyme (preferably ground thyme) and Garlic Powder and cook a minute or two longer. (If you have ground thyme, use a slightly smaller amount.)
- While veggies cook, trim the chicken and cut into lengthwise strips.
- Add chicken, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (affiliate link), and chicken broth to Instant Pot.
- Lock the lid and set Instant Pot to MANUAL/HIGH PRESSURE for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, use NATURAL PRESSURE RELEASE for 10 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure.
- While the soup cooks, cut cream cheese into chunks and crumble the blue cheese.
- Use a slotted spoon (affiliate link) to remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred apart (or cut if you prefer chunks.)
- After you remove the chicken from the Instant Pot, add the two types of cheese to the hot soup and let it melt while you’re shredding the chicken.
- When cheeses have melted, whisk soup together, then add the shredded chicken back into the soup.
- Serve the Buffalo Chicken Soup soup hot with plenty of crumbled blue cheese and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to add at the table!
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
This creamy spicy chicken soup would be delicious with any of these low-carb breads or muffins:
Want more Buffalo Chicken flavor in your life?
I have a great round-up of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce Recipes that will appeal to people who love the flavor of that spicy Buffalo Sauce that has zero carbs!
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep where you’ll find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup
If you like the strong flavors of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and blue cheese, you'll enjoy this delicious low-carb Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup!
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion chopped small
- 2 cups chopped celery, chopped small
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. garlic powder (see notes)
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into lengthwise strips
- 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (Use more or less to taste, but remember you can always add more at the table.)
- 4 cups chicken broth or homemade chicken stock
- 4 oz. cream cheese, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, plus more for serving
Instructions
- Chop the onion and celery. Heat the oil in the Instant Pot, using the Saute setting with medium heat.
- Add the chopped onion and celery and cook until they're starting to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the thyme and garlic powder and cook a minute or two longer.
- While the veggies cook, trim the chicken and cut into lengthwise strips.
- Add the chicken strips, Frank's Red Hot Sauce (affiliate link), and chicken stock to the Instant Pot.
- Lock the lid and set Instant Pot to MANUAL/HIGH PRESSURE for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, use NATURAL PRESSURE RELEASE for 10 minutes, then quick release the rest of the pressure.
- While the soup cooks, crumble the blue cheese and cut the cream cheese into small cubes.
- Use a slotted spoon (affiliate link) to remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred apart (or cut if you prefer chunks.)
- After the pressure has released and you've removed the chicken to a cutting board, add the two cheeses to the Instant Pot and let them melt while you shred the chicken apart.
- When cheeses have melted, whisk soup together, then add the shredded chicken back into the soup. (You can heat it for a minute or two using the Saute setting if needed, but it will probably still be pretty hot.)
- Serve the Buffalo Chicken Soup hot, with extra crumbled blue cheese and Frank's Red Hot Sauce to add at the table if desired.
Notes
If you have Ground Thyme (affiliate link) you can use a slightly smaller amount of that to replace the dried thyme and avoid seeing specks of thyme in the finished soup.
I use a 6 Quart Instant Pot (affiliate link) for all my Instant Pot Recipes.
This recipe created by Kalyn, with help testing a few different versions from Jake and Kara!
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 335Total Fat 17gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 100mgSodium 774mgCarbohydrates 5gFiber 1gSugar 5gProtein 33g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Buffalo Chicken Soup is a good choice for any low-carb or Keto diet. It’s too high in fat to be officially approved for the original South Beach Diet, but if you used reduced fat cream cheese and go easy on the blue cheese it wouldn’t be bad for a treat.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Instant Pot Recipes to find more recipes like this one! Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe for a creamy soup with Buffalo Chicken flavors was first posted in 2018. It was last updated with more information in 2026.
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49 Comments on “Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup”
Chicken breasts can be different sizes. I think a weight amount would be more helpful 🤷🏻♀️
This is soup. If I felt it was essential to have exactly a certain amount of chicken I would have specified it. If the chicken breasts are larger the soup will be slightly thicker, no problem.
Could this be made in a slow cooker? I don’t have an IP.
It probably *can* be made in a slow cooker, but I haven’t ever made it that way so I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly how to do it. I think it would be easier to just make it in a pan on the stove. Replace the time of cooking under pressure with a longer amount of time simmering on the stove. You might need a cup or two more chicken broth to cook on the stove because some will evaporate.
Today I was freezing and just couldn’t get warm. I found your recipe and I had everything in my house except the thyme. I just finished my second bowl and I am completely warmed up and happy. This is a great and very easy recipe. Since I didn’t have thyme, I just doubled the garlic powder. I also like spicy, so I doubled the hot sauce and then ended up putting even more when I served it. I will definitely make this again. Thanks for a great recipe!
Sorry I missed this comment. I moved my site to a new web host, and the site was up but I just realized today that no comments were coming to my e-mail for NINE DAYS, yikes.
So glad you enjoyed the soup and that it warmed you up! I absolutely hate being cold.
I made this a few days ago. Hubby doesn’t like cooked celery so added mushrooms instead and it worked out great. Thank you!
Oh I like the sound of that! So glad you enjoyed it!
Do you know if I could use Chicken Broth instead of Stock?
That would be completely fine, hope you enjoy!
This recipe was a hit in my house. Even with the picky eaters lol. I am a household of 4 that includes two teenagers who kept going back for more, so I would to have more leftovers especially for the kids after school. Has anyone tried doubling this?
So glad to hear it was a hit! I don’t know about doubling it in a 6 Quart Instant Pot; I haven’t tried that. But for sure it could be doubled in a 8 quart Instant Pot.
Where did you get those soup bowls 😍
Aren’t they great! Unfortunately I bought then in an antique store in Palm
Springs so I’m guessing they’re a one-of-a-kind item.
Have you tried this without the blue cheese? I’m not a fan of blue cheese and was wondering if it would be okay to just double the cream cheese.
I haven’t tried that but I bet it will still be good!
For your reference Blue Cheese is not a gluten free food.
According to this article and some others I’ve seen much of the blue cheese sold now is gluten-free. But of course you should check the label if you need to avoid gluten.
The YUM button is a round orange button at the top directly under the recipe title. It’s in a row of round buttons.
Yummly is not always 100% correct with recipes that have an ingredient that may not be in their database (like Frank’s Red Hot Sauce) so you may want to calculate it yourself. I am hoping to start adding nutritional info to the recipes in about another month or two (after nearly two years of editing.) Hope you enjoy the soup!
If cooking in a 6qt, was there enough room to double the recipe? I need to make this for my office and really don’t want to bring in a second IP 🙂
I made this over a year ago so I really can’t remember well enough to say for sure, but I doubt it. The only thing I can suggest is to put the doubled ingredients in and see if they’re above the maximum fill line. Sorry I don’t have more help!
Can I use boneless thighs instead? Will it change the time? Thank you!!
The thighs have more fat, so I would trim them unless you don’t mind having a more high-fat soup, and I’d use 8 thighs to get the same amount of meat. Otherwise I am guessing it will work just fine!
I’m wondering how this would be if you substituted dry ranch with the cream cheese and cut out the blue cheese. I really dislike the taste of blue cheese to much!!
I’m sure that would be good, even without the ranch powder. I might add some grated cheese on top of another kind you enjoy.
My kids and I love this soup. If I double the recipe…does that affect the cook time you think? Thank you!
I wish I could answer but I haven’t ever tried doubling a recipe in the Instant Pot. Maybe try googling it. My guess is that it won’t matter but I can’t say for sure. Be sure you don’t fill it too full though, because that will definitely matter!
Did you use the original red hot sauce or the red hot wing buffalo sauce?
I used original but both will work.
I substituted sharp cheddar for the bleu cheese. It was fantastic! This soup is delcious!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Have you tried doing this with frozen chicken?
I haven’t used frozen chicken but I definitely think it will work. I might add 2-3 minutes more time cooking at high pressure (or google how long to cook frozen chicken in the Instant Pot; I haven’t really done it at all.)
About how many pounds of chicken? 4 breasts can really vary. Thanks!
I don’t think the chicken measurement needs to be exact. I didn’t weigh the chicken but I buy the chicken breasts from Costco that come 2 in a package and they tend to be on the large size. If I had to guess I’d say about 8 ounces for each breast, although as I said, a little more or less chicken isn’t going to matter much.
Is there anyway to substitute ranch for the blue cheese?
The blue cheese in this soup is crumbled blue cheese, so I’m not sure what ranch product would substitute for that? You could try mixing in some ranch but I’m not sure how that would taste. Maybe just leave out the blue cheese if you’re not a fan.
Looks delish! I’m loving those soup bowls, where did you get them?
I got them in an antique store in Palm Springs, so I don’t have any idea where else you could find them. I couldn’t pass them up!
How well does this reheat? I wanted to make it earlier in the week.
I haven’t reheated any, but I’d wonder if the cheese would separate once it’s cooled down and reheated. Not sure though, love to hear how it works.
I made this today and certainly did not have to worry about reheating… It’s GONE!! It was great.. Didi not look like yours but it was delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it Jodi!
It reheats well. The reheated soup was just as delicious as the day I made it.
Oh good! Thanks so much for sharing that info!
Do you have a Crock Pot version of this recipe? Think looks delicious, however I don’t have an Instant Pot.
I haven’t ever made it in a slow cooker. I think you could adapt it, although this is only a guess since I haven’t tried it. I’d saute onions and celery in a pan and add to the slow cooker with the strips of chicken, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, and chicken stock (maybe use 1/2 cup less for slow cooker.) Cook 3-4 hours on high. Then remove chicken, add the cheese to melt, shred chicken and add back into the slow cooker. I’d love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
Pass the extra hot sauce, please! This soup looks delicious, and I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks Lydia, hope you enjoy! The creaminess lets you make it extra spicy if you’d like!