With the weather cooling down, soup season has definitely arrived. And…we’re going to take full advantage of that! During the warmer summer days, making a hot soup is one of the last things that you may want to do, but we have glimpses of the delightful stuff every now and again. This one has been on my list for quite some time now!
The whole idea of this was to bring the flavor of a buffalo chicken wing into a soup. Don’t get me wrong – this doesn’t taste like liquefied buffalo chicken wings; the flavors really bring out a unique flavor that you probably haven’t had in a soup before. So, instead of polishing off a plate of protein-heavy buffalo wings, you can grab a bowl of this and be happy.
Instead of using a real mirepoix, we use powders and seeds to help keep the carbs down. We use cream and cream cheese to really bring the thickness of the soup out. Instead of the traditional flours, we use just a tiny bit of xanthan gum to pull everything together and give the rich and hearty soup something to stand on its own with.
Of course you all know, buffalo wings usually come with a healthy serving of bleu cheese – so you can do the same with the soup! Serve with bleu cheese, goats cheese, or a little bit of feta cheese. Anything that gives a tangy taste with a melty texture. Throw some spring onions on top and now you have dinner!
Yields 5 servings of Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Soup
The Preparation
- 24 ounces bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, deboned
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup hot sauce
- 3 cups beef broth
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- salt and pepper, to taste
The Execution
1. De-bone the chicken thighs (I find scissors are the easiest to do this with). Cut or slice the chicken into chunks and drop them in the crockpot.
2. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot except for cream, cheese, and xanthan gum. Set crockpot on low for 6 hours (or high for 3 hours) and let cook completely.
3. Once everything is cooked, remove the chicken from the crockpot and shred using a fork.
4. Add cream, cheese, and xanthan gum to the crockpot. Using an immersion blender, emulsify all of the liquids together. This will help the soup from separating while you are eating.
5. Place the chicken back into the crockpot and stir together. Taste and season with extra salt, pepper, and hot sauce if you’d like.
6. Serve up and enjoy!
This makes a total of 5 servings of Crock-Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup. Each serving comes out to be 654 calories, 61.5g fats, 2.9g net carbs, and 23.4g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 24 ounce bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs | 1701 | 151.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 85.1 |
| 1 teaspoon onion powder | 8 | 0 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| 1 teaspoon garlic powder | 10 | 0 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 2 | 0.5 |
| 1/2 teaspoon celery seed | 4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| 1/4 cup butter | 407 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
| 1/2 cup hot sauce | 13 | 0.4 | 2 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 0.6 |
| 3 cup beef broth | 121 | 3.8 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 19.7 |
| 1 cup heavy whipping cream | 809 | 85.9 | 6.5 | 0 | 6.5 | 6.8 |
| 2 ounce cream cheese | 194 | 19.3 | 2.3 | 0 | 2.3 | 3.5 |
| 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum | 4 | 0 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 3271 | 307.6 | 16.4 | 2 | 14.4 | 117 |
| Per Serving (/5) | 654 | 61.5 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 23.4 |
Crock-Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 24 ounce bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs deboned
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup hot sauce
- 3 cup beef broth
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 ounce cream cheese
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Debone the chicken thighs (I find it easiest to do this with scissors). Cut or slice the chicken into chunks and drop them in the slow cooker.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot except for the cream, cheese, and xanthan gum. Set the slow cooker on low for 6 hours (or high for 3 hours) and let cook completely.
- Once everything is cooked, remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred using a fork.
- Add the cream, cheese, and xanthan gum to the slow cooker. Using an immersion blender, mix the ingredients together until emulsified. This will help keep the soup from separating.
- Place the chicken back into the slow cooker and stir everything together. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve and enjoy!
I’ve made this recipe twice. Delicious!
Awesome to hear Tonya – glad you like it!
I’ve made this recipe twice. Delicious!
Awesome to hear Tonya – glad you like it!
Hi Craig – quick question! Why doesn’t the Frank Red Hot have any nutritional information? I looked up Frank’s Red Hot in UK (Tesco) and the carb count seems quite high at 31g per 100g of the sauce? Am I looking at the wrong product?? Would really like to make this though!
Seraphina, the Frank’s here is mainly made from vinegar and spices. There might be trace carbs, but nowhere near 31g.
Thanks Craig, it’s very odd. The ingredients list here in UK say aged cayenne red peppers (35%), vinegar, water, salt, with nutritional information listed in 100ml. I checked the US version of the site and it’s listed in 5ml servings with no carb count. I trust you though!
This has become one of my staples.. I just finished a batch and now I have another one in the crock pot. It was kinda strange at first but now I love the flavor. Almost spot in to buffalo chicken wings! Great recipe
Glad to hear it Samantha! Hope it continues being a staple in your foods.
I just loved this dish. Just made slight changes based on my personal preference and that was to use whole bone-in thighs and Melinda’s ghost pepper sauce (I like it really hot). Yummy.
what is the serving size for this dish?
Do you think this would fit in a 3 qt crockpot?
Yep – should definitely fit in there.
The total recipe has a total of 17 g Carbs, but no fiber. How can there be net carbs to subtract if there is no fiber listed in the above? Thank you
The total recipe is 17g carbs, 0g fiber. To get net carbs you subtract the fiber from the carbs. So 17 – 0 is 17. Therefore the recipe will have 17g net carbs per the entire thing. There’s quite a lot, so per serving it comes out to be 3.4g carbs (and net carbs).
Just found this recipe going back into Keto, but accidentally blended in the chicken before the end. Still tastes amazing though.
Woops – it still sounds amazing. Almost like a spreadable dip once it’s out of the fridge!
My wife and I made this for dinner tonight and it was very good. We paired it with your cheesy bread stick recipe and dinner was complete.
Yum!!
What is the zanthan gum used for? What could I sub?
It helps to keep to soup from separating. If you don’t mind that happening then you could just leave it out.
This is very good. I changed out the hot sauce for some garlic chili paste and it worked well. Also cooked and added some spinach to up the fiber content, which made it even more delicious.
Yum – the chili paste sounds great!
First of all, great recipe. I’ve made this probably more than any other meal since starting keto 4+ months ago, and it’s so simple and great. Your site and recipes are great in general, but this one is tops for simplicity and taste, for my money.
One question I’ve always wondered but never bothered to ask so far: in step 2, when you say “Add all the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot except for cream, cheese, and xanthan gum” – for the “cheese” that we don’t add at that step, are you referring to the cream cheese? Or the optional shredded cheese topping? I’ve always assumed cream cheese and just added that with the cream towards the end, but is that indeed what you mean? Or do you mean an optional cheese topping? Thanks!
Hi Andrew, it means the cream cheese. 🙂
Craig, could you tell me the serving size? I want to be able to measure out one serving as close as I can to stick with the macros that you mentioned for each serving.
Hi Sean. I think it should be a bit over 1 cup per serving. The most accurate way would be to take your finished batch and measure it with a liquid measuring cup and then divide your results by five.
Thank you so much! Absolutely giving this a try! Looks too good to pass up.
Made this today. SO GOOD!
What’s the white garnish?
I don’t keep a crockpot but this looks yummy, Can I cook it on the stove?
Sure! I would just simmer over low heat for several hours until the meat becomes really tender.
Thank you!
Hi, we wound up doubling the recipe so my partner and I could do this diet at the same time. We made the recipe from the Accelerated Weight Loss program which was originally for 4 servings, we made it for 8 in our case, however, what exactly constitutes a serving size for this soup, it’s tricky to evenly divvy up this soup when you have 8-servings worth of it. Please help! Thank you very much 🙂
I’m going to measure/update this when I make it again but if I remember correctly it comes out to about 3/4 to 1 cup of soup per serving. If you have a liquid measuring cup at home then you can always measure your full batch out and divide by the number of servings.
Thanx so much 🙂 It is sooooooo yummy! Had it yesterday and virtually inhaled it. Loving the recipes so far!
I’m making this right now, but just made a boo boo. In reading the directions, I didn’t notice that I was supposed to leave out the CREAM, cheese & xanthum gum. (I thought I was just supposed to omit the cream cheese.) So, The cream is in there. 🙁 What effect do you think this is going to have? Is it completely ruined?
It could potentially curdle…you might want to cook this on low instead of the high setting. Hopefully it turns out OK!
Curious – is there a reason for the beef broth instead of chicken for a chicken soup recipe?
It’s probably just what I had on hand at the time of making the recipe. You could definitely use chicken broth instead 🙂
Has anyone made in an instant pot?
I haven’t tried it in an instant pot but I can’t imagine it would take very long – 25 minutes at the most.
I did, came out great.
Glad to hear it! 😁
I like the ease of using chicken breast instead of the thighs. Do you know how much chicken breast meat I would use to be comparable to 3 chicken thighs? Have you made this with chicken breast before?
About 12 oz. of chicken breast would be around the same amount of protein. Keep in mind you’d lose 40-50g of fat in that, though, so you may need to accommodate the fat elsewhere. Adding some sliced avocado or something similar would help. I haven’t made it with chicken breast personally but have read comments from people that have and it turned out fine 🙂
Do I add the heavy cream while cooking and just hold the cream cheese?
No, you add the cream, cream cheese, and cheese in after cooking (this is stated in step 4). I hope you enjoy it!