Buffalo Chicken Chili
There’s a chill in the air, the leaves are falling and football is in full swing (Go Bills). You know what that means? It’s chili season! I’ve been searching for a perfect chili recipe and this one spoke to me right away. I can never seem to find breast-only ground chicken at the supermarket, so I almost never use it. When I saw this Buffalo Chicken Chili recipe created its own by tossing some chicken breasts in the food processor I couldn’t believe how simple and genius that was. How did that never occur to me before? It worked perfectly and I loved knowing exactly what was in my ground chicken. Thank you to Biz at My Bizzy Kitchen for introducing me to this easy trick!
Since I’m a Buffalo girl, I’m sure none of you are surprised to see I chose a chili recipe that uses Frank’s Red Hot. I’m so glad I did. The chili doesn’t have an overt “Buffalo Chicken” taste, but I could definitely pick out the Frank’s flavor. I brought some chili to my parents and they both loved it. My mom loved that it was plenty “zippy” but not over-the-top spicy. My dad liked that it’s thick and chunky. We don’t do watery chili in this family.
This was a hearty, filling, comforting, spicy, warm bowl of deliciousness. It’s quick to throw together and perfect for those cold days when you just want something that warms you from the inside out. It might be your new favorite chili recipe. Cook it to find out! To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Buffalo Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or ground chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 large carrots
- 3 large celery stalks
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- ½ cup Frank’s Red Hot
- 2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) can chili beans in sauce, (I used Bush’s brand which comes in mild, medium or hot. I chose medium. Do NOT drain)
- Salt & black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the chicken breasts in a food processor and run to grind chicken. Heat oil in a large pot to medium-high and add ground chicken breast. Break up chicken with a spoon while cooking. Cook until no longer pink (about 10 minutes).
- While chicken is cooking, rinse out food processor and add carrots, celery, bell pepper and garlic. Process vegetables until finely minced. When the chicken is done cooking, add the vegetables to the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 5 minutes until vegetables soften.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, paprika, hot sauce, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, black beans, chili beans, salt and pepper to the pot and stir to combine. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for one hour.
Notes
6 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) Source: My Bizzy Kitchen
Yippee!! So glad you liked the chili! Ground chicken in the store always grosses me out too – I think that there are other “pieces” thrown in the mix – ew!
Enjoy your Saturday night! 😀
Thanks for the great recipe Biz – my parents & I loved it! I will definitely make my own ground chicken like that from now on. Genius!
Can you tell me how the directions would change if I cooked this using a slow cooker?
Just made this tonight – SO good!
Glad you liked it, Samantha!
@anonymous – I haven’t tried it in a slow cooker but when my mom makes slow cooker chili she just puts it on low all day, so I would suggest that.
Made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious! Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Emily! I’m a fellow Buffalo-area gal and stumbled on your blog recently. My family and I are also trying to eat healthier, so I’ve been appreciating your recipes! This one is definitely a must-try!
Thanks!
Stephanie
Hi Emily, I just found your blog via a link of Katie’s site. How could I not have found your blog before??? I love it, and can’t wait to sift through your older posts and bookmark some wonderful recipes. Thanks so much!!!!
Glad you loved the chili, Christine!
Stephanie – I’m so glad you stumbled upon my blog! Always good to know someone out there will know what I’m talking about when I talk about getting ingredients at Wegmans or Tops or never eating wings with ranch *shudder*. 🙂
Roz – so glad to hear you’re excited about my site! Definitely let me know what recipes you end up trying. 🙂
Ok, so I found your blog through Twitter, not sure how really. Someone posted a link to a recipe. But now I see you are a Bills fan? Awesome. Stuck here in Kansas and have been a life long Bills fan. Go Bills!
Yes!! Huge Bills fan. You clearly have great taste, Justin. Hope you have NFL Sunday Ticket or know of a Bills bar out there so you can watch! Glad you found my blog 🙂
How do you think the WW+ points would vary if you omit the chicken (and consequently the oil?)
I’m vegetarian so I was thinking of adding faux beef crumbles to the soup instead. Throw them in for like the last 10-15 minutes as faux anything cooks very quickly 🙂
Hoping to make this for dinner tonight – yum!!
Ha ha – Yes, I agree, Emily, about the ranch dressing!! I still remember my shock when I went into a Subway (in Buffalo, no less) shortly after they came out with the Buffalo Chicken sub and they put ranch dressing on it! I was like, hello? This is Buffalo? Where’s the blue cheese?
Hey! Made this recipe using a crock pot and all I changed was the way you did the chicken! I put the whole breast in the crock pot with all the rest of the ingredients on low for 10 hrs. Shredded the chicken and served! Yummy!!
Great idea! I was thinking of using ground turkey breast and browning the ground turkey, then dumping everything in the crockpot…but whole chicken breasts sound like a much better idea! Can’t wait to try this!
Chelsea – you’d have to run it through the recipe builder. I’m not sure what replacing the chicken with vegetarian crumbles would do. I hope you like it!
Stephanie – it makes me cringe just thinking about it!
Anonymous – So glad it worked out well in the crock pot!
This looks so yummy! I just discovered your blog, and I am excited to try some of your delicious recipes! Thank you!
Thanks Catherine! Let me know what you make!
My Husband and I made this on Saturday. He used real buffalo sauce instead of the hot sauce and it was SO good! Very spicy, but still edible.
Happy to hear it was a hit!
I’ve just found your blog via Pinterest and now I’ve found myself browsing through all your fabulous recipes. This one looks great as we love spicy food! 🙂
Then this should be right up your alley! Let me know what you think when you make it! 🙂
Silly question but doesT stand for tablespoon?
Yes, T is for tablespoon and t is for teaspoon.
Thanks. It sounded like a lot of chili powder. It’s in our crock pot now.
Hope you like it!
Not a silly question at all I wondered the same. I am in the middle of the stove top recipe now and thank goodness after reading the comments I found my quick answer. Thanks the great feedback area after the recipe – excellent idea and really helped me out.
I hope you loved it!
Emily, could you use ground turkey breast?
Sure!
Well it is on the stove with the ground turkey right now. My first sampling is delicous. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Happy to hear it’s tasty!
I tried this recipe and it’s great! I have been making something similar with ground beef for awhile but this was a nice change. I posted the link on my post workout nutrition page of my website. Thanks!
Jim
Thanks, Jim, glad you liked this! Thanks for sharing the link 🙂
this was AMAZING!!!!! i posted this on facebook and on myfitnesspal so all of my friends can try it too!!!!
I’m so happy you loved it so much! Thanks for spreading the word! 🙂
Cooked this tonight and it was fantastic! The family loved it too! Thanks so much for your blog!
We don’t have Chili Beans in Canada, can you offer a substitution? Thanks! Melissa
I just stumbled upon your site and cannot wait to try this with the ground turkey. I am also from Buffalo and have a giant size Franks in my cupboard right now! I really like the ingredients in your recipes because they don’t call for crazy things I would never have in my pantry! Off to Wegman’s I go!
I also stumbled on to this sight!! My husband and I are both on weight watchers so I’m excited to try this chili. We are both born and raised in buffalo and moved to Hilton Head, SC about 6 years ago. I do miss my buffalo roots and YES wish we had a wegmans or tops. I do get my sahlen hot dogs brought to me ever year and i have a stash of bocce’s pizza sauce in my freezer. Thank you for posting this and I look forward to many more of your recipes!!
Just made this and it is quite delicious! For anyone curious out there, I was a little skeptic because Im not always in love with buffalo, but it doesnt taste overwhelmingly of buffalo sauce. In fact if I hadnt made it myself I wouldnt even know it was in there.
Emily – thoughts on topping this with some crumbly bleu cheese?
I am doing weight watchers is the serving size 1 cup ?
Thank you
The serving info is located directly under the recipe title in the recipe section of the post! 🙂
This is my favorite chili recipe! I have made this many times and my family loves it. Thank you Emily. You have the best recipes!
This by far the best chili I ever made. Thank’s to your recipe, I’m known as the Chili Queen. I’m making a batch this weekend for a friend of mine. She just went nut over it 🙂
Thank you Emily
I have been making this chili for years it’s a cold weather favorite! This weekend I entered it in a chili cook off and it won first place! I just had to share! Thank you!
The spices in this recipe seem off. There is def too much paprika and possibly too much chili powder. I even double checked the recipe and followed it exactly. Very disappointing.