After just one bite of this creamy Buffalo Chicken Soup, you'll fall in love! This easy recipe is filled with juicy, tender buffalo chicken meatballs, in a creamy, seasoned broth, with pasta, cream cheese and spinach. It's the ultimate comfort food recipe for those who love buffalo sauce!
If you don’t already have cooked meatballs, you’ll want to start by making the meatballs. Use this recipe for buffalo chicken meatballs. It only takes 30 minutes to make, and you can cook the meatballs in the oven while you start preparing the soup on the stove. If you prefer, you can use shredded chicken instead of meatballs, refer to the notes below for how to do this.
Make the soup.
Add the olive oil to a large pot, or dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat.
Add the onions, carrots and celery, cook for 5-6 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.
Add the chicken broth, buffalo sauce and chicken wing seasoning to the pot, and bring it to a boil.
Add the pasta and fully cooked buffalo chicken meatballs (from the oven, fridge or freezer) to the pot.
Keep at a rapid simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the fresh spinach leaves and cream cheese. Stir for 3-4 minutes, or until the cheese melts into the soup, then serve.
Optional: garnish with diced green onions, blue cheese crumbles or shredded cheddar cheese.
Notes
To make the soup with shredded chicken, instead of meatballs: use this Instant Pot Shredded Chicken recipe to pressure cook 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or chicken thighs. Shred the chicken, then add it to the soup with the spinach. You can also pull 3 cups of cooked chicken off of a rotisserie chicken and add it to the soup with the spinach.
Frozen meatballs can also be used instead of making your own. You do not need to adjust the time. The meatballs will defrost and heat through in the soup as it cooks on the stove. I recommend using smaller meatballs for this recipe that are the size of a golf ball, or smaller.
You can leave out the cheese if you’d like. This will make a brothy soup, instead of a creamy soup.
Leftover buffalo chicken soup will last in the fridge for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container. This soup is super easy to reheat on the stove in a pot over medium heat. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes to reheat the soup and meatballs completely.
The spice level of the soup will depend on the spice level of the buffalo wing sauce used in this recipe. For a spicy soup, use an extra hot buffalo sauce. For a mild soup, use a mild sauce. You can also replace the chicken wing seasoning with ranch seasoning to make it even more mild.