It’s full-on sports season and while I’d normally make wings, I wanted to make something fun that has all the flavor of wings, but is a little more approachable and also easier to make a huge batch. Enter these Buffalo Chicken Tacos!
There are a few tricks to making these chicken tacos as good as possible. You want to make sure to shred your veggies so they make a great base on the tacos and don’t skip the homemade blue cheese sauce! It’s easy to make and takes these to another level.
Let’s dive in!
What chicken works best for these tacos?
You could use any leftover chicken for these tacos. You just need shredded chicken so even a rotiserie chicken would work just fine.
If you are starting from scratch though, use boneless skinless breasts or thighs. Poach them in some lightly salted water until the chicken is cooked through and then you can shred the chicken.
Add the cooked chicken (or leftover chicken) to a pot with butter. Start to shred the chicken over low heat and add the buffalo sauce and season with salt and pepper. I gave some rough amounts below in the official recipe, but you can add more or less sauce depending on how saucy you like your buffalo chicken.
Here was my finished shredded buffalo chicken!
If you are shopping for buffalo sauce, don’t overthink it. Go with Frank’s sauce. The classic!
Flour or corn tortillas?
You could use either for these tacos, but personally I prefer flour tortillas in this case. I normally am a corn guy, but the soft flour just goes really well with the fillings on this buffalo chicken taco.
Toppings for these Buffalo Chicken Tacos
I only made two toppings for these tacos. The first is a homemade blue cheese sauce (see below).
The second topping is the veggies that would normally be served with wings: celery in carrots. Of course, you want these for taco filling so I recommend grating the carrot and slicing the celery into fine half-rounds.
You can make that and the sauce while the chicken cooks!
How to make the blue cheese sauce
I like this homemade sauce which is just a mix of mayo, sour cream, blue cheese crumbles, and a little garlic powder. Stir it all together and adjust it to your liking. I’ve seen some versions with a splash of lemon juice so try that out if you want!
Substitutions and Ideas
Here are some ideas for substitutions here!
- If you want to make these vegetarian, add crumbled tofu to the pot and let it cook with the buffalo sauce.
- Instead of flour tortillas, serve these on crispy tostadas.
- Add some rice to this and roll it up to make a buffalo chicken burrito!
How to store leftover Buffalo Chicken Tacos
These fillings store great for a few days. Just make sure to store all the taco fillings separately in air-tight containers and make the tacos fresh when you crave one!
Buffalo Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds shredded chicken
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup buffalo hot sauce, plus extra for garnish
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 8 small flour tortillas
- Scallions, For garnish
Blue Cheese Sauce:
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
For sauce:
- Stir together sauce ingredients and set aside.
For chicken:
- If you are starting with raw chicken, poach chicken in lightly salted, simmering water, until it's cooked through, 10-12 minutes. Make sure it is 165˚F in the thickest part of the chicken.
- Add butter to a medium pot over medium-low heat. Shred chicken and add to pot. Add in buffalo chicken sauce and season with salt and pepper. Simmer on low for a minute or two to combine flavors.
To make tacos:
- Warm flour tortillas and add celery and carrot to the bottom of each tortilla. Top with shredded buffalo chicken. Add extra buffalo sauce if you would like. Drizzle with blue cheese sauce.
- Top with chopped scallions and serve while warm.
