Easy Buffalo Chicken Meal Prep

This is by far the best variation of buffalo chicken I've made thus far. It's SO good and super versatile to use throughout the week in lots of different ways.

I use it to make:

• Sweet potato nachos (also known as PACHOS, pictured below)
• A big salad (similar to this one)
• Breakfast egg bake (like this one)
• Or simply serve it over white rice or cauliflower rice topped with green onions and ranch 

The possibilities are endless!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds (32 ounces) boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup (240 mL) buffalo sauce (I used Frank's RedHot sauce)
• 1/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
• 3 tablespoons ranch seasoning (I used Trader Joe's but any will work)
• 3 ounces cream cheese (you can use dairy-free, Greek-style, or reduced-fat if you'd like)

Directions For Instant Pot

1. Add all of the ingredients except the cream cheese to your instant pot.
2. Stir to combine. Close the lid and vent. Set on manual high pressure for 30 minutes.
3. Allow the steam to release naturally and then open the lid. Turn the instant pot to the "saute" setting and start shredding the chicken. You can use two forks, a hand mixer, or a meat masher (what I used - made it super easy!)
4. The chicken will absorb the excess liquid as you shred and the rest of the liquid should evaporate within the next 10 minutes while on the saute setting.
5. When most of the excess liquid has reduced, turn off the heat and mix in the cream cheese until well combined.
6. Let cool and then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for the week or freeze for later.

Directions For Slow Cooker

1. Add all of the ingredients except the cream cheese to your slower cooker.
2. Add an extra 1/4 cup chicken broth or water (so just double what the recipe calls for above)
3. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-6 hours, until the chicken is easy to shred.
4. Shred the chicken using two forks, a hand mixer, or a meat masher (what I used - made it super easy!)
5. Toss the chicken around in the juices to allow it to soak up as much as possible. Discard the excess liquid and stir in the cream cheese until well combined.
6. Let cool and then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for the week or freeze for later.

Notes

• To make this recipe even easier:
  • Use frozen diced onions and frozen garlic cubes
• You can double the recipe and freeze some for later. No need to adjust the cooking time.
• See below for how to enter this as a recipe in your tracking app.

Nutrition

If you're tracking macros and want to easily log this into your day, follow the steps below:

1. Enter the ingredients and quantities used for each into the recipe feature of your app (I use Cronometer)
2. Then, turn on your food scale, add the container you're storing the buffalo chicken in, press the "tare" button, and pour the buffalo chicken into the container
3. Then edit the "cooked recipe weight" to reflect the total amount (i.e., 2191 grams)
4. Now, when you go to serve a portion, you can measure out however many grams you'd like for your serving size (i.e., 200 grams) and you'll be able to easily log that amount.

Buffalo Chicken Sweet Potato Nachos (PACHOS)