This buffalo chicken sandwich is your quick fix for a busy weeknight dinner. It’s loaded with simple ingredients like juicy buffalo chicken, blue cheese dressing, and fresh vegetables. Perfect with any unbreaded air fryer chicken like my buffalo chicken breasts, thighs, or tenders. Pair this with any of these chicken sandwich sides to make a meal.
Why Make This?
This recipe has become a family favorite at my home! That said, here’s why you should make this dish as an easy weeknight meal, and add it to your list of easy recipes:
- Uses air fryer chicken: It uses unbreaded air fryer chicken, saving you the extra carbs and oil in deep-fried chicken.
- Inexpensive: Cooking this recipe will save you time, money, and gas, compared to traveling to fast food restaurants to purchase a chicken sandwich.
- Quick and easy with simple ingredients: My buffalo chicken sandwich recipe is easy to follow and requires simple pantry ingredients. That makes it perfect for game day – whether for football season or whatever your favorite sport may be. That said, add this to your list of easy recipes. It will help you make some of the most delicious buffalo chicken sandwiches that you’ll ever have!
Ingredients Needed
Buffalo Chicken Thighs
- Chicken thighs: Boneless and skinless
- Natural ancient sea salt: Optional
- Black pepper
- Smoked paprika
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Avocado oil
Easy Homemade Buffalo Sauce
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce: or your favorite buffalo wing sauce from the grocery store
- Butter: Unsalted
Burger Toppings
- Brioche buns: Brioche buns have a soft bite
- Butter lettuce
- Tomato
- Red onions
- Creamy blue cheese dressing: I’m using my personal recipe, but any dressing or blue cheese sauce will work.
- More Hot Sauce
- Optional: Dill pickles
How To Make an Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
- Air fry the chicken: Add the chicken thighs to a large bowl with the spices and oil. Air fry at 400 for 20-22 minutes (no need to flip). Once ready, your piece of chicken should have a golden brown color.
- Add buffalo sauce: Mix the sauce ingredients. Add the chicken to the sauce and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
- Toast the sandwich buns: Melt about 1 tsp of butter in a skillet or griddle pan over medium-low heat. Open the brioche buns and toast them open face down on top of the butter for about 1 minute.
- Assemble the sandwiches: Add the toasted brioche buns to a plate and add about one spoonful of blue cheese dressing per bun half. Layer the cooked chicken and other toppings.
Recipe Tips & FAQs
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel: Patting the chicken dry before applying the spices will help get an even coating and keep the spices in place.
- Mix the spices in a small bowl: Mixing the spices before you coat the chicken helps apply evenly.
- Optional: If you want, you can replace the crispy lettuce, tomatoes, and red onion with a coleslaw mix. This will make your saucy sandwich a little creamier.
Variations
You can also use any of these buffalo chicken recipes for the sandwich:
How to Store Leftover Buffalo Chicken
- If you have any leftovers from this buffalo chicken recipe for your sandwich, an easy way to store them is in an airtight container for next time (up to 4 days).
FAQs
This spicy chicken sandwich is made of boneless chicken marinated in buffalo sauce and topped with blue cheese dressing, buns, and vegetables. While I’m using chicken thighs because they have more flavor, feel free to use boneless chicken breast, if you prefer.
Some chicken sandwich sides to serve with buffalo chicken include blue cheese stuffed mushrooms, coleslaw, grilled vegetables, celery & carrot sticks, and others.
I use blue cheese for my air fryer buffalo chicken sandwich. Cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella are great options too.
It’s chicken coated in buffalo sauce.
More Buffalo Chicken Meals
Below are other easy buffalo chicken meals you can make besides this buffalo chicken sandwich:
Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
Buffalo Chicken Thighs
- 1.25 lbs Chicken thighs boneless and skinless
- 1/4 tsp Natural Ancient Sea Salt optional
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
Homemade Buffalo Sauce
- 1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
- 1 tbsp Butter unsalted
Burger Toppings
- 4 Brioche Buns
- 4 leaves Butter Lettuce
- 4 slices Tomato
- 4 slices Red Onions
- 1/4 cup Blue Cheese Dressing click for my recipe
Instructions
Make the Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Thighs
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. Add the chicken thighs to a large mixing bowl with the spices and oil. Be sure to unravel the chicken if needed.
- Toss to coat the chicken evenly.
- Place the chicken thighs in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Be sure to get as much of the oil and spices from the bowl as possible
- Air fry 400 for 20-22 min. No need to flip
- Mix the sauce ingredients together. Add the chicken to the sauce and allow it to rest for 5 minutes in the sauce.
Toast the Buns
- Melt about 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet or griddle pan on medium-low heat.
- Open the brioche buns and toast them open face down on top of the butter for about 1 minute.
Assemble the sandwiches
- Add the toasted brioche buns to a plate and add about 1 spoonful of blue cheese dressing per bun half (you can feel free to add as much as necessary for photos)
- Layer the chicken and other toppings