With spicy, shredded crockpot buffalo chicken and cool, crunchy celery ranch slaw stuffed in a crispy taco shell, these Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos are sure to be a hit for an easy weeknight dinner or even your next game day party.
In our house, every year when fall rolls around, it means only one thing: Football season is here! And for me, football season is the perfect excuse to cook up some new game day recipes. From spicy buffalo chicken inspired dishes to anything creamy, gooey, or cheesy, I love a good football snack. With the big game this weekend, and football season sadly coming to an end for the year, I wanted to come up with something extra special to celebrate.
These Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Creamy Celery Ranch Slaw are just the thing to be the MVP of your game day spread.
How Do You Make Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos?
Making these buffalo chicken tacos is as easy as one, two, three.
- Cook the Chicken: Cook your chicken using my favorite, go to Easy Crockpot Buffalo Chicken recipe. Or if you want to make it even easier, you can also use shredded rotisserie chicken or any cooked and shredded chicken tossed with Franks Buffalo Wing sauce to taste.
- Make the Slaw: Just slice up some fresh veggies, mix your dressing, and toss it all together. See some helpful tips and hints below.
- Stuff Your Tacos & Enjoy: Finally, just load some premade crispy taco shells up with the crockpot buffalo chicken and cheese, bake until the cheese is melty, and top with the slaw, extra wing sauce, and cilantro before serving.
What is Creamy Celery Ranch Slaw?
While anything with spicy, shredded buffalo chicken is a win in my book (especially tacos!), the real star of these tacos is the creamy celery ranch slaw. The celery is very thinly sliced on a bias, resulting in thin, flat crispy celery slices that soak up and absorb the creamy sauce while adding just a subtle crunch. While celery isn’t the traditional slaw ingredient, the play on celery and buffalo chicken is a match made in food heaven. This creamy celery slaw is the perfect cool, crisp crunch to complement the juicy shredded chicken and gooey melted cheese.
So how do you make celery ranch slaw for these Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos? Just a few simple steps:
- Slice the Celery: The most important part of getting this celery ranch slaw just right is slicing the celery. You want to take each whole stalk, and using a sharp knife, slice it thinly diagonally on a bias so that you get nice, super thin slices. You should almost be able to see through each slice when you hold it up. The thin slices will be somewhat pliable, but still provide that crisp celery crunch. You can also use a mandoline slicer if you like to get nice, thin slices.
- Grate the Carrots: For the carrots, use a box grater to grate the carrots into small shreds. These will add a nice sweetness and a little extra crunch. You can also use your mandolin to julienne the carrots, if you already used it for the celery.
- Slice the Green Onion: For a little onion-y goodness, thinly slice the green onion, using both the white and green parts.
- Mix the Dressing: For the dressing, I wanted a combination of cool and creamy ranch and tangy blue cheese, but I didn’t want either to completely overpower. So I mixed together a combination of ranch dressing, greek yogurt (you can substitute sour cream if you prefer), lime juice, and salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
- Toss: Once the veggies are prepped and the dressing is mixed, combine them together in a large bowl with some blue cheese crumbles and toss to coat.
If you aren’t ready to seve the Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos just yet, store the celery ranch slaw in the fridge until ready to eat. It should keep for a couple of hours. The carrots my bleed their color out a little, making the slaw more orange, but it will still be just as tasty.
Want More Game Day Recipe Favorites?
Looking for more football snack and appetizer recipes for your game day party fun? Check out some of my favorites:
- Deep Dish Jalapeno Popper Pizza with Candied Bacon – jalapeno poppers meet deep dish pizza, need I say more?
- Dill Pickle Dip – a cool and creamy dip loaded with tangy pickle flavor
- Philly Cheese Steak Pizza – a cheesy, meaty mash up piled on a chewy, crispy crust
- Mustard Beer Cheese Dip – a cheesy dip great for pretzels, crusty bread, or even cut veggies
- Taco Breakfast Casserole – perfect to fill you up for your morning tailgate or those early games
What’s your favorite football or game day snack? Let me know in the comments below.
Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Creamy Celery Ranch Slaw
Ingredients
Creamy Celery Ranch Slaw
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 carrot
- 2 green onions
- ¼ cup blue cheese crumbles
- 2 tsp ranch dressing
- ¼ cup greek yogurt (or sub. sour cream)
- Juice of 1 -2 limes (to taste)
- ½ tsp each salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos
- 4 cups shredded crockpot buffalo chicken (see recipe link in notes)
- ½ cup pepper jack or monterey jack cheese (shredded)
- 12 crunchy taco shells
- Extra buffalo wing or hot sauce
- Cilantro for garnish
Instructions
To make the slaw:
- Using a sharp knife or mandoline slicer, very thinly slice celery on a bias. Add to large bowl.
- Using a box grater or your mandoline slicer set to julienne, grate or julienne carrot and add to celery.
- Slice green onions thinly and toss with celery and grated carrots.
- In a separate small bowl, mix together ranch, greek yogurt, lime juice, and spiced, and stir to combine.
- Add dressing and blue cheese crumbles to celery, carrots, and onion, and toss to combine.
- Refrigerate until ready to use. This will keep a couple of hours in the fridge.
To make the tacos:
- Preheat oven to 375°. Stand taco shells in a large baking or casserole dish, and stuff each shell with shredded buffalo chicken and top with cheese.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and shells are crisp.
- Top each taco with a big spoonful of slaw, extra buffalo wing or hot sauce to taste. Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.