15-minute Buffalo Chicken Pasta

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Make this easy Buffalo Chicken Pasta in just 15 minutes! It's the perfect weeknight treat with all your favorite buffalo flavors - mixed with pasta.

Jump to:

• Why you will love this recipe
• What you need to make it
• How to make it
• Tips & tricks
• Recipe FAQ
• More 15-minute dinners
• Recipe
• Reviews

There are some recipes I'm more proud of than others. This Buffalo Chicken Pasta is one of them (my 5-minute blue cheese dressing is another).

Buffalo Chicken Pasta combines two of the world's best things - buffalo sauce and pasta - to make a weeknight dish that's easy to make in just 15 minutes, and so full of flavor you'll be coming back for seconds, and thirds...

Seriously, no dish has ever finished faster in my house than this one!

Why you will love this recipe

• It's easy to make with a few simple steps
• It's quick - when the pasta is done, so is the sauce
• All your favorite buffalo flavors - hot sauce, butter, blue cheese...
• Spicy, but not crazy spicy - so you can actually finish a bowl (or two)
• Green spring onion lightens it up - and adds a nice, fresh crunch
• Heats up really well if you somehow manage to have leftovers

What you need to make it

Ingredient notes & substitutions

• Chicken thigh filets have more flavor than chicken breast filets, but both work
• Crumbled blue cheese - I use the cheapest kind I can find
• Cream - I use heavy cream, but low fat, half n half and milk works as well
• Green spring onions can be excluded or switched for a smaller amount of chives
• Hot sauce - I always use Cholula hot sauce* or Franks Red Hot but any similar style hot sauce will work. You can also use a store bought buffalo wing sauce, but then use 50% more sauce and skip the second half of the butter.
• Salted butter can be switched for unsalted, with an added pinch of salt

How to make it

Start by getting the pasta cooking, and it will be done just in time to dump into the sauce.

1. Melt half the butter in a pan over medium-high heat
2. When the butter is melted and slightly browned, add chicken and season with garlic powder and onion powder. Mix well.
3. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until cooked on all sides and all the way through
4. Lower the heat to medium and add in hot sauce and the rest of the butter, then stir constantly while the butter is melting

5. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes
6. Pour in cream, mix well, and simmer for 1 minute
7. Mix in crumbled blue cheese
8. Mix in chopped green spring onion

9. Mix well
10. Drain the pasta, but make sure to reserve some of the pasta water. Then add the pasta to the sauce.
11. Pour over pasta water
12. Mix well, simmer for 1 minute, and serve!

Tips & tricks

• Cut the chicken really small to maximize flavor and minimize cook time
• Make it even faster with already cooked chicken - either leftover or rotisserie chicken. Then skip the first half of the butter, and add the chicken in pieces after the hot sauce and second half of the butter has been well combined. Allow to simmer with the sauce to maximize flavor.
• Season the chicken in the pan to save time & cleanup
• Add the second half of the butter after the hot sauce to avoid it browning
• Don't overcook the pasta - cook it 1 minute less than done, it will finish cooking in the sauce
• Want to make it in the oven instead? Check out my Buffalo Chicken Pasta Bake.
• Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days
• Store in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 3 months

Recipe FAQ

More 15-minute dinners

• Larb Gai - Spicy Thai Minced Chicken Salad
• Spicy Sausage Pasta
• Creme Fraiche Carbonara with Bacon
• Tortellini Carbonara
• Vegetable Pad Thai (almost Vegetarian!)
• One-pan Pork Chops and Mushrooms with Red Wine and Thyme
• Smoked Salmon Pasta with Spinach & Lemon

Did you love this recipe? Rate it five stars!
...and let me know what you loved about it in the comments.

Recipe