Whether you’re preparing a spread for a football game, having friends and family over for the holidays, or just bingeing your favorite Netflix show, having some crunchy-salty snacks on hand is a must! But store-bought snacks, like Chex Mix, can get pricey. Luckily, making Chex Mix at home is super easy and it’s way less expensive than store-bought. This super easy Spicy Chex Mix recipe is just like the classic snack mix but with an optional spicy kick! It’s so easy and so good that you might find yourself making a batch every week instead of buying your regular chips and pretzels!
Ingredients for Chex Mix
Chex mix is super simple to make and the ingredients are quite flexible, which allows you to customize this recipe to fit your needs or whatever happens to be on sale. Here’s what you’ll need to make homemade Chex Mix:
- Cereal: This is Chex mix, after all! I like to use a mix of rice Chex, corn Chex, and wheat Chex to give a lot of color, flavor, and texture variation in the mix. To save costs, generic versions of Chex work every bit as well as the brand name!
- Pretzels and Crackers: For even more texture and color, we add in some pretzels and crackers into the mix. I like to use cheese crackers and pretzel rods, but you can use any shaped pretzels you like.
- Nuts: A few nuts make the mix extra filling. I went with peanuts because they’re the most budget-friendly!
- Butter: Butter is essential for making a delicious Chex Mix. It soaks into the cereal, pretzels, and crackers making everything extra lip-licking good, and it helps all of the flavors and seasonings adhere.
- Seasoning: For this Chex Mix we used a savory mix of seasonings that include Worcestershire sauce, seasoning salt (like Lawry’s), garlic powder, smoked paprika, and hot sauce. The hot sauce is optional, so if you don’t want. your Chex Mix to be spicy, just leave it out.
Make it Spicy or Mild
This recipe is really flexible and it’s super easy to make either spicy or mild. To make the Chex Mix mild, simply skip the hot sauce. If you plan to make the spicy version, you can use just about any vinegar-based hot sauce. I’ve used a cayenne-flavored hot sauce, like Tabasco, and even a thicker hot sauce like sriracha. The flavors are slightly different, but great nonetheless!
More Chex Mix Add-Ins
If you want to take your Chex Mix up a level, here are some other ingredients you can add:
- Rice crackers
- Mini-breadsticks
- Bagel chips
- Oyster crackers
- M&Ms (add after baking)
How to Store Chex Mix
If you don’t end up eating the entire batch in one night (I won’t judge), make sure to store your leftover Chex Mix in an air-tight container like a ziptop bag or a resealable food container. As long as it stays sealed, it should stay fresh for a few weeks. You can also freeze the Chex Mix for about three months (again, make sure it’s sealed air-tight).
Homemade Chex Mix
Servings 8 1 cup eachIngredients
- 1.5 cups rice chex ($0.23)
- 1.5 cups corn chex ($0.23)
- 1.5 cups wheat chex ($1.05)
- 1 cup cheese crackers ($0.39)
- 1 cup pretzels ($0.24)
- 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts ($0.24)
- 6 Tbsp salted butter ($0.66)
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.04)
- 1.5 Tbsp hot sauce ($0.14)
- 3/4 tsp seasoning salt* ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250ºF. Combine the rice chex, corn chex, wheat chex, cheese crackers, pretzels, and peanuts. Stir the dry ingredients together.
- Melt the butter in a separate bowl, then stir in the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.
- Pour about a third of the seasoned butter over the dry ingredients, then stir well. Repeat two more times until all of the butter has been added. Continue to stir the chex mix until everything is very well coated.
- Spread the seasoned mix over a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- After baking for one hour, the snack mix will be dry, toasty, and delicious. Serve warm or let cool before serving.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
How to Make Chex Mix – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 250ºF. Melt 6 Tbsp salted butter in a bowl, then stir in 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 Tbsp hot sauce, ¾ tsp seasoning salt (like Lawry’s), ½ tsp garlic powder, and ½ tsp smoked paprika. If you want to make a mild version, just skip the hot sauce.
In a large bowl, combine 1.5 cups corn Chex, 1.5 cups rice Chex, 1.5 cups wheat Chex, 1 cup cheese crackers, 1 cup pretzels, and ½ cup unsalted peanuts. Stir the ingredients together.
Pour about ⅓ of the seasoned butter over the snack mix, then give it a good stir. Repeat two more times until all of the butter has been added.
Continue stirring the snack mix until it is very evenly covered in seasoned butter.
Spread the snack mix out onto a large baking sheet. I covered my baking sheet with parchment for easy cleanup.
Bake the chex mix for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, or until it is very dry and slightly toasty. Let the mix cool completely, then serve.
I looked this up as a recipe to go with the classic Chex Mix and a sweet n salty version I make every year. I tweaked it somewhat by upping the butter to a full stick and doubling the sauces and spices, which I always do with the classic, cause I tend to overdo the cereal and nuts. Also used Pepperidge Farm goldfish.
The end result was excellent! Will be keeping this in the rotation for the holidays.
Y’all, this Chex mix is SO GOOD. My husband is a bit of a hot sauce aficionado, and we have multiple different bottles of sauces in the house. I’ve probably made this recipe 8 times now, using a different sauce each time, and it’s been so fun to see how the flavor of the mix changes when we use different sauces. We have this smoked onion hot sauce that is my personal favorite so far. Also, I have Celiac, so I make this gluten free by using just rice and corn chex, and using GF pretzels and cheese crackers. I have no need to look for another Chex mix recipe – this will be my go-to from now on!
OMG, a smoked onion hot sauce sounds absolutely to die for! Now I need to go find that.
How is best way to store and for how long?Would like to make as Xmas gifts. Thanks,Kathi
Hi Kathi, here are our recommendations (from the blog post): “If you don’t end up eating the entire batch in one night (I won’t judge), make sure to store your leftover chex mix in an air-tight container like a ziptop bag or a resealable food container. As long as it stays sealed, it should stay fresh for a few weeks. You can also freeze the chex mix for about 3 months (again, make sure it’s sealed air-tight).”
I love this version of this recipe. I have to chuckle at keeping it for weeks. I’d never have data to support that as we do well to make it last one week!!
Hi Beth, I made this recipe with my grandson Henry in mind who is gluten sensitive. I was able to substantial all ingredients except the cheese crackers but he picked them out. Henry gives your recipe a 5 Star!!!Â
Chex mix signals the beginning of the holiday season for us. Parties, unexpected guests, holiday movies, drinks. With Chex mix we’re ready.Â
L😀😀Ks Awesome
Any susbstitute for the butter .?
Olive Oil
I LOVE this!! Made two spicy batches with sriracha and two regular batches without hot sauce for a long road trip. I’ve never found a seasoned salt I could stand the taste of so used regular instead, this stuff is addictively delicious!!
I’ve been spicing up my Chex mix for years. I don’t use seasoning salt, just a dash of low sodium soy sauce. Also, if I’m just making it “for us” I only just the three types of Chex. No nuts, crackers, etc 3 cups each Rice and Corn Chex + 2 cups Wheat Chex.
Making Chex Mix is a tradition in our family when we are taking a road trip…it’s our favorite snack when driving. I like the idea of a small spicy batch. I usually make Ranch or cheese flavored.
Oooh, Ranch sounds good! How would you modify this recipe to make it Ranch flavored? Use Ranch Seasoning Mix instead of seasoning salt??