Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sliders

Let me just start by saying that these Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sliders are a family favorite. And if everyone in my house likes them, then they’re good! Really good.

They’re also great because they’re super easy to make & can be made a little ahead of time.

Let me walk you through it!

It starts with simple ingredients: a rotisserie chicken, coleslaw, buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, ranch dip seasoning packet, butter and King’s Hawaiian buns.

Side note: if you’re not a ranch person, that’s okay! Use bleu cheese dressing instead & omit the ranch dip seasoning packet. It’s all good. 🙂

You’ll mix your chicken and buffalo sauce together, your coleslaw and ranch dressing together, and then melt a few tablespoons of butter & then a little over a teaspoon of your ranch dip seasoning packet together.

It’s really that simple.

Let’s talk about the buffalo sauce.

If you have a tried & true buffalo sauce that you love, go with that. If you don’t have one, then I like Sweet Baby Ray’s. Depending on how much you use, depends on how much of a kick that it has. We’re complete wusses in my house & do NOT like spice at all so I always buy something mild. (I’ve used Texas Pete’s very mild before & it doesn’t have much of kick at all.)

This time around, I used 1/2 cup of buffalo sauce & we found that it has more of a kick than when I used about a 1/3 of a cup.

How much sauce you use also depends on how saucy you like it. We like it saucy so I used more than was necessary (1/2 cup) to cover the chicken & slaw. Just remember: the saucier it is, the messier it is. 🙂 If you don’t want it saucy, use around a 1/3 of a cup.

Let’s talk about the buns, hun.

(I couldn’t help myself.) I’ve discovered that there’s two ways to handle them so I’ll let you choose your preference:

• Slice the entire thing in half so you have two pieces: top & bottom. After you bake, you’ll cut them into individual pieces.
• Slice them in half & then pre-cut them into individual sliders before you make the sliders. This is the one that I recommend because when you bake them, the bottoms get brown (yum!) & so do the tops & it’s not the easiest to cut through nor do you want to smoosh your sliders. The chicken & coleslaw goes everywhere when you leave it in one piece & cut them after baking as well. So I cut them all up before I put them in the pan.

Let’s put it all together.

Once you’ve decided what to do with the bread portion you can make the sliders. You can either make each individual slider or just pile everything on across the entire bottom layer of buns. (If you choose to layer it across, be aware you might have to reconstruct them slightly once you cut the sliders and/or pull them apart. I prefer to “make” each one. I put all of the bottom pieces of the buns in the pan & lay the chicken on each piece of slider. It’s really not that difficult or time-consuming. Promise!

After the chicken comes the coleslaw. Then put the tops of the bread on top & pour over your melted butter & ranch dip seasoning packet mixture.

Bake at 350* for 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil, then remove the foil and bake for another 3-5 minutes depending on how brown you like them.

Use Measurements as a Guide

I should also note that the measurements are there to guide you but this recipe doesn’t really require measurements (besides the butter & seasoning mixture). I usually just eyeball it (I know no one wants to hear that so I took the time to actually measure it for you. You’re welcome. 😉 ). That being said, eyeball the amount of coleslaw based on how much you like. Want it piled high? Use more. Want a thin layer? Use less. Don’t really need to measure the chicken either. Just shred a decent sized rotisserie chicken & use it all. The measurements for the sauce below makes the dish saucy. I generally just pour the sauce & dressing in until it’s all covered & looks how I like it.

Make Ahead:

I said you can make this ahead of time & you can! I like to let it marinate together so it has as much flavor as possible. You can shred the chicken ahead of time & you can marinate it a few hours ahead & mix the dressing & coleslaw together a few hours beforehand. My only advice with making these two parts ahead of time (which I usually do) is this: take it out of the fridge early to take the chill off. I’ve found that when it goes directly from fridge to oven, the very center of the pan of sliders can still be cold even after 20-25 minutes in the oven.

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Comment below & let me know how you like them!

Love,

Looking for more recipes? Here’s another dinner & a dessert waiting for you! 🙂