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This Buffalo Chicken Casserole is an outrageously flavorful, yet simple casserole, made with chicken, potatoes, bacon, and cheese. Served with bleu cheese or ranch dressing, this Buffalo Chicken Potato Casserole is an all-time family-favorite dinner recipe.
Not many things beat the flavor of buffalo chicken.
From Buffalo Chicken Pizza to Buffalo Chicken Tacos to Buffalo Chicken Salad, to this Buffalo Chicken Potato Casserole, I LOVE the flavor that buffalo sauce imparts to chicken.
Tender potatoes, juicy chicken, sharp cheese, and salty bacon are tossed in a combination of seasonings and hot sauce to flavor each bite with the classic notes of Buffalo sauce. This chicken and potato casserole is hearty, flavorful, and delicious!
Not to mention it is extremely easy to make and budget-friendly to boot.
Notes on Ingredients
- Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thighs, or tenders.
- Potatoes: Any variety of starchy potatoes work well, such as red potatoes, russet potatoes, or Yukon Gold potatoes.
- Hot Sauce: This recipe is flavorful enough, so there is no need to use or make buffalo sauce. You only need a cayenne hot sauce, such as Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.
- Cheese: Sharp cheddar is my preferred cheese in this easy Buffalo Chicken Bake, but mozzarella, Colby, or provolone all work. Remember freshly shredded cheese will melt best.
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Casserole
The following tips are provided to help you achieve perfect results. You will find the ingredient quantities and detailed instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Mix the potatoes with oil and seasonings in a large bowl.
- Pour potatoes into a large casserole dish and spread them out into an even layer so that potatoes can get crispy, and not steam while they bake. Set mixing bowl aside to use for the chicken.
- Bake the potatoes until just fork-tender at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This allows these potatoes to get crispy, like roasted red potatoes.
- While the potatoes are baking, add the cubed chicken to the same dish you mixed the potatoes with the seasonings. Add additional spices and hot sauce and toss to coat, incorporating any leftover spices from the potatoes into the chicken.
- Remove the partially baked potatoes from the oven and layer the chicken onto the potatoes.
- Sprinkle the dish evenly with bacon and cheese.
- Return to the oven for 15 minutes to cook the chicken and bacon and melt the cheese.
- Serve with blue cheese or homemade ranch dressing.
Speed It Up
While this casserole is not difficult to prepare from start to finish, it is also a great way to use up leftovers AND speed up the process of cooking dinner.
- Using Leftover Red Potatoes: If you have leftover roasted red potatoes on hand, you can simply toss them with hot sauce, garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, and a pinch of salt. Skip the step of pre-roasting them. The leftover potatoes should heat up in the time it takes for the chicken to cook.
- Use Leftover Baked Potatoes: Dice cold leftover Instant Pot Baked Potatoes or Air Fryer Baked Potatoes into cubes. Toss them with hot sauce, garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, and a pinch of salt. Skip the step of pre-roasting them. The leftover potatoes should heat up in the time it takes for the chicken to cook.
- Using Leftover Cooked Bacon: If you happen to have leftover baked bacon, simply crumble it up and sprinkle it over the chicken when you add the cheese. It will get super crispy and be perfect!
- Using Leftover Rotisserie Chicken: In place of using raw, cubed chicken, you can toss cooked shredded chicken with the seasonings as directed. Decrease the baking time from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.
Storage Instructions
Allow the leftover Buffalo Chicken Casserole to cool to room temperature and then transfer it into an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for 3 days. To reheat, place leftovers onto a sheet pan and broil until warm or microwave individual servings for 45 seconds to 1 minute. I don’t recommend freezing leftovers, as the texture of the potatoes will change.
Recipe FAQs
I would classify this dish as mild-medium spice level. To keep the spice level lower, cut the amount of hot sauce in half. Alternatively, omit the hot sauce and use BBQ sauce instead for a delicious, mild BBQ chicken and potato casserole.
The bacon will cook through, and the fat from the bacon will render into the chicken, adding flavor and keeping the chicken super moist. But the bacon does not get super crispy. If you like crispy bacon, par-bake the bacon until just cooked before adding the casserole (I recommend doing this while the potatoes bake). Then chop up the bacon and add it to the casserole as directed. The result will be crispy bacon.
No! While the bacon adds flavor to this dish, feel free to omit it.
More Family Favorite Casseroles
- Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- Tater Tot Casserole
- Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
- Homemade Turkey Tetrazzini
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole
If you enjoyed this Buffalo Chicken Bake, I would love for you to leave a comment and review below.
Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Video
Ingredients
- 6 medium/large russet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 2 tablespoon Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 slices bacon, cut into thin strips
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- ¼ cup chives, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 ℉.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the potatoes together with oil, 1 tablespoon hot sauce, garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, and salt.
- Scoop the potatoes from the bowl, leaving behind excess seasoning in the bowl, and spread the potatoes out evenly in a 9×13 pan. Bake for 45 minutes, flipping the potatoes once half-way through cooking.
- In the meantime, place the cubed chicken into the mixing bowl with the remaining seasoning from the potatoes. Add in the remaining tablespoon of hot sauce and toss to coat.
- Once the potatoes have baked, remove them from the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 400 degrees. Top the potatoes with chicken, cheese, and bacon, and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
- Serve with ranch dressing and chopped chives if desired.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was originally published in 2015 but was updated in 2021 with new pictures and a new video.
Great dinner — made it for the first time. Thanks for sending weekly meal plans.
I liked bacon drippings (is it allowed to say bacon fat?) in this, but I detest eating bacon that is not crispy. My solution was to put uncooked bacon on the cheese, remove it when dinner was done, air-fry the bacon into crispy-dom, and add it back to the cheese just before serving. Problem solved 🙂
I am so happy you enjoyed Dave! And thank you for sharing how you ensured the bacon was super crispy!
This is now one of our favorites! We regularly crave this one. Thanks! Also, if there happen to be leftovers, they’re SO good. 😉
Oh, and I do half as the recipe states and the other half dairy-free with daiya shredded cheese and homemade vegan ranch because of dietary restrictions. YUM.
I love that this is a staple at your house Becky–and that you make it work for dietary restrictions!
Made it today. Loved it. Simple recipe. There wasn’t much sauce left after the potatoes were in the oven so I made a little more for the chicken and added juice of a lime and garlic and ginger paste. It was so tasty. Thanks for this recipe
I am glad you enjoyed Nailla 🙂 The addition of lime juice and ginger are intriguing to me–I never would have put those flavors with buffalo sauce 🙂
This casserole was delicious! My family loved it!
This recipe did well at my house full of picky eaters. I am happy to report that it’s going into our regular rotation!! Thank you so much for coming up with and taking the time to share this recipe and so many others! ❤❤
You are so welcome Jody! It brings me great joy to share with others recipes they can enjoy and I love hearing you enjoyed this meal!
I will have to leave the bacon out. Will it make a big difference 🤔?
Stupid question coming up. I didn’t understand but how do you cook the chicken? Separately?
😊
I have made this many times without the bacon and we still love it! So for this recipe, cook the potatoes for 45 minutes and then once partially baked, add the chicken. Does that make sense?
We are huge buffalo anything fans at our house and the entire family loved it! Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh my goodness!! This was so yummy !!! My teenage boys LOVED it ! I will be making this a lot !
I wasn’t just curious if anyone had tried substituting the dried seasonings with ranch dressing seasoning? I think I’m going to give it a try.
Oh that is a fabulous idea Samantha and would give this casserole a whole new twist. Let us all know how it goes. And here is my recipe for DIY Ranch Seasoning if needed.
I made it with the ranch seasoning mix and even my kids loved it! It took away some of the spice but I used extra hot sauce to compensate. It was delicious.
Yay!! I am so glad you all enjoyed! Thanks for taking the time to let us know.