Recently, I made an excessive amount of holiday treats to package up and gift to friends and neighbors. I made this puppy chow mix recipe, plus my easy chocolate Oreo truffles, and also a giant batch of royal icing sugar cookies.
The goodie bags were a hit! Plus, it was fun to do something festive for friends. Although I must admit I think my favorite treat to make and eat of the batch was this puppy chow recipe!
Maybe there are already too many puppy chow recipes available? I don’t know. But this is my favorite version, which is pretty classic BUT involves a little flaky sea salt and a lot of crunch candies. 🙂
Also, do you call these puppy chow? Or do you call it muddy buddies? I wonder if that’s a regional thing, as I always grew up calling this puppy chow. Ha.
My favorite puppy chow mix recipe uses a full box (12 ounces) of Chex cereal. I like to use the corn Chex, but you can use the rice kind or whatever versions you prefer.
Most recipes will tell you to mix this in a large (gallon size) ziplock bag, but for this recipe you will need at least two of those bags (or done in two batches), so I like to reuse a paper grocery bag instead. Just make sure if you are reusing something that it’s clean and free of debris (obviously).
You will want a plan to either bring this to a party, or gift to friends because if it’s just you this is a DANGEROUS amount of puppy chow to have laying around. Believe me. 😉
You can totally swap out the Buncha Crunch candies for other chocolate candies like M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces. But, I like the monochrome look as well as the simple chocolate crunch of these.
But whatever you do please don’t skip the flaky sea salt—I LOVE flaky sea salt alongside chocolate. You don’t want just regular iodized salt, or chucks that will be uncomfortable to bite into.
My favorite flaky sea salt for this as well as to top cookies (among other things) is Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, as they are the perfect texture and flavor for desserts like this.
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Ingredients
- 12 ounces Chex cereal
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz.)
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup chocolate candies (Bunch of Crunch)
Instructions
- In a very large bowl, add the cereal.
- In a medium size bowl, add the chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter. Melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted. You can also do this over low heat on the stove top.
- Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the cereal, sprinkle in the salt, and stir to combine. You want to get all the pieces coated in chocolate.
- Pour the cereal mix into a large paper bag (like a grocery bag) and add the powdered sugar and chocolate candies. Close, and shake so everything gets dusted in sugar.
I love this recipe! It’s so easy and was a hit at our birthday party! We used a plastic trash bag because we couldn’t find a paper grocery bag, and it worked perfectly!
I used dark chocolate and added in some vanilla, but the salt is a GAME CHANGER!
I really appreciate your strong opinions on chocolate treats. No wimpy, passionless chocolate consumption here!
I’ve never heard it called puppy chow- I actually thought this was a food recipe for dogs! Ha. It must be a regional thing because here in Tennessee,we call this muddy buddies. Thank you for the recipe- bookmarking!
I was just craving puppy chow today so this is perfect timing!! And, yes, I call it puppy chow but I also grew up in Missouri so maybe it is regional??
There was clearly naming confusion in our house, we call it Muddy Puppies!
I love the Buncha Crunch tip.
Muddy Puppies sounds like the best of both worlds for the title. Ha!
I’ve never heard of this (not American). I thought it was a special treat for dogs until I saw that chocolate was an ingredient. Was very confused for a moment, haha.
My version of this is called white trash LOL We love it around here but it is dangerous to have on hand, I could eat a whole recipe by myself.
Oh! I’ve never heard it called that. Ha. My FIL makes a homemade Chex mix that he calls ‘trash.’ 🙂