A delicious and budget-friendly recipe for a crowd, these buffalo chicken sliders are perfect party food! They’re a must for your game day menu!
Sliders made with Hawaiian rolls are probably one of the best party foods. Pull apart rolls are one of the easiest ways to make sandwiches for a crowd, and they’re perfect as part of a spread.
Besides, you just have to love how easy the recipe comes together! Easy assembly, simple ingredients, a guaranteed delicious result? I’m in!
Buffalo Chicken Sliders – Ingredients:
The ingredient list is simple, and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand already.
You’ll need:
- Dinner rolls – The pull-apart kind that come in a sheet work really well. I usually use Hawaiian rolls, but there are a few other types on the market that work just as well.
- Cheese! – I use two kinds of cheese in this recipe. First, crumbled blue cheese to really amp up the “buffalo chicken” flavor. Second, a melty shredded cheese to help hold the sliders together and make them extra decadent and delicious. Just look at those drips of melted cheese!!! So satisfying to look at and eat.
- Chicken – Naturally we need chicken since it’s in the recipe title. This is a great recipe to use leftover cooked chicken. If you don’t have leftover cooked chicken, buy a rotisserie chicken to cut up, or use canned chicken. Either option works well in this recipe because it’s really about the sauce here.
- Sauces – Again, we use two kinds of sauces here. You’ll need to get buffalo hot sauce and prepared ranch dressing.
- Butter and garlic powder – for topping the rolls before baking
How to assemble sliders
This might seem a little silly if you’ve made sliders before. But since I was an adult the first time I saw someone make sliders like this, I feel like at least one other person reading might be new too.
Before then the only kind of party sandwiches I’d seen were pre-made deli trays, or long sandwiches like a Cuban sandwich, cut for serving.
You can use any kind of dinner roll or slider bun to make these. But as I mentioned before, I like to use the pull-apart buns like Hawaiian rolls. The reason being that you assemble all the sandwiches at once.
How? Because you use a bread knife or serrated blade to cut the rolls in half horizontally. Remove the top half of the bread, pile on your fillings, replace the bread, cover, and bake!
You want to cover during baking to keep the bread soft. The covered baking sheet acts like a mini steamer so that the rolls don’t overbake before the cheese has a chance to melt. Remove the foil in the last few minutes of baking for a nice brown topping and lightly crispy edges. So good!
What can I make in advance?
So what I really love about these Hawaiian roll sliders is that you can assemble them in no time. This is especially true if you’re using canned chicken or already diced/shredded leftover chicken. You just mix, layer, and bake!
It’s about 30 minutes start to finish.
BUT, life is funny and sometimes shaving off even 5 minutes can feel like a big deal. So let’s talk about shortcuts.
The only real shortcut here is to make your chicken mixture in advance. You can combine the chicken, hot sauce, ranch, and blue cheese up to a day or so before assembling your sliders.
You don’t want to actually assemble the sliders more than maybe 2 hours before baking so the bottom of the bread doesn’t get soggy. It’s not going to be “tomatoes on bread” dramatic, but I err on the side of caution here. Leave the melted butter and garlic powder until just before baking.
Final Buffalo Chicken Sliders recipe notes…
So when I started the “buffalo chicken everything” stage that resulted in this recipe, one of my big concerns was heat level. I *love* spicy food, as does the Godfather, but our kids are a maybe and hard-pass, respectively.
These sliders, using classic Frank’s buffalo hot sauce have a little kick, but aren’t too spicy. They’re mild enough that my elementary-school child ate one.
If you’re particularly sensitive to spice, grab the mild version of Franks, or stretch whatever buffalo sauce you have on hand with extra butter to cut the heat. These are a treat recipe, after all!
And if you’re a garlic lover like we are, don’t skip the garlic powder in the butter. I made these once without garlic powder, and never again. The garlic amps up the satisfaction level so much.
Of course, the satisfaction of biting into a warm sandwich loaded with cheese and a meaty buffalo chicken filling is already pretty up there. And I’d better leave you with the recipe now before I start checking the cabinets to whip up another batch!
Enjoy, darlings!
Buffalo Chicken Sliders
A delicious and budget-friendly recipe for a crowd, these buffalo chicken Hawaiian roll sliders are perfect party food! They're a must for your game day menu!
Ingredients
- 1 package of 12 dinner rolls (Hawaiian rolls work great)
- 3 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken (see notes)
- 1 cup mild shredded cheese (see notes)
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing
Topping:
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F and spray a 9x13" casserole dish with nonstick spray *or* line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the chicken, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, and ranch dressing.
- Using a serrated knife, carefully cut the sheet of rolls in half horizontally. Remove the top half and place the bottom half on your prepared baking sheet.
- Evenly spread the chicken mixture over the bottom half of the rolls. Top with the shredded cheese. Place the top of the rolls over the slider filling.
- In a small bowl, melt your butter and stir in the garlic powder. Use a brush to spread the butter over the sliders. If you don't have a brush, drizzle it over the sliders as best you can.
- Cover the sandwiches loosely with foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes until the chicken mixture is heated through and the cheese has completely melted.
- If you'd like a golden top crust as seen in the photos, remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking.
- Allow the sliders to stand 5 minutes before cutting the rolls apart. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
- If you don't have any cooked chicken on hand and don't feel like cooking any, shred a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli, or grab a few cans of chicken. The texture is different for both, either will work great in this recipe.
- Shredded cheeses that melt the best are mozzarella and Monterey jack. If you want an extra kick, try a pepper jack!
- You can choose to either bake this in a 9x13-inch casserole dish or a rimmed baking sheet. You will cover either with foil for most of the baking. Spray the casserole dish with nonstick spray, or line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
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