Last updated on January 10th, 2025 at 09:14 am
If you love Chex party mix, you’ll love this recipe to make your own custom Chex mix.
What a genius marketing idea for Chex cereals when they debuted the Party Mix recipe in Life Magazine back in 1952. The original recipe called for Rice and Wheat Chex.
I was first introduced to Chex mix as a kid, tagging along with my parents to a cocktail party; I remember the hostess passed the bowl and called it “Nuts and Bolts.” I carefully avoided a Brazil nut while taking more of the seasoned Corn Chex, which were my favorite.
If you’ve ever found yourself picking over a bowl of Chex mix and secretly taking just the pieces you like, why not make a custom blend just for you, with all of your favorite flavors?
I recently made a batch with these tasty ingredients:
- Corn Chex™ cereal
- Wheat Chex™ cereal
- Bugles™ snacks, broken in half
- Pretzels sticks, which I (somewhat neurotically) broke in thirds
- Potato sticks
- Roasted pistachio nuts
Breaking the Bugles and pretzel sticks so that all the components are about the same size make the flavor of the mix more balanced. Because my family and I love every one of those ingredients, it tasted so good!
Alternative Chex Mix Recipes
Here’s the classic Chex mix recipe, with equal parts Corn, Rice and Wheat Chex plus pretzels and nuts, drizzled with a Worcestershire sauce butter and oven-baked for an hour. Just ignore the directions to microwave the mix. You want to bake it in a roasting pan at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. (Did you know that Chex offers a special 3 pound box of Triple Chex with all three varieties?)
You can also make slow cooker Chex mix.
… or even Instant Pot Chex Mix.
There’s even a recipe for Gluten-Free Chex Mix.
And if you substitute margarine or vegan butter for the dairy butter, you can make dairy-free vegan Chex mix.
For a slightly different flavor, you might like substituting soy sauce for the Worcestershire sauce. I like San-J Tamari sauce. Since soy sauce is salty, reduce or eliminate the seasoning salt in the recipe.
If you’d like a little heat, you can sprinkle on some Cajun seasoning like Slap Ya Mama.
Savory Chex Mix Recipe Crunchy Add-Ins
To customize a mix, get creative! In addition to the classic ingredients, here are some new additions you may wish to try:
- Crispy Chow Mein noodles
- Cheerios
- Goldfish crackers
- French’s fried onions
- Broken tortilla chips
- Oyster crackers
- Pretzel nuggets
- Cheese crackers
- Waffle potato chip pieces
- Gardetto’s Garlic Rye chips
- Bagel chip pieces
- Sesame sticks
- Pita chip pieces
- Crispix™ cereal
- Crumbled cooked, drained bacon (just store in the refrigerator if you add bacon!)
Nutty Chex Mix Add-Ins
- Roasted almonds
- Roasted pecans
- Dry roasted peanuts
- Hulled roasted pumpkin seeds (also called pepitas)
- Roasted cashews
- Honey roasted peanuts
- Macadamia nuts
Let’s Bake Some Chex Mix
Would you like to make a batch of crispy, delicious snack mix? Here’s the easy, customizable recipe:
Custom Chex Mix
Equipment
- roasting pan
- large spoon
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 4 cups Corn Chex cereal
- 3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
- 1 1/2 cups Bugles snacks, broken in pieces
- 1 1/2 cups potato sticks
- 1 cup pretzels sticks broken in thirds
- 1 cup salted shelled roasted pistachio nuts
Instructions
- Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
- Melt butter in large roasting pan in oven. Whisk in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, garlic powder and onion powder until blended and spread on the bottom of the pan.
- Scatter the Corn and Wheat Chex, Bugles, potato sticks, pretzel sticks and pistachio nuts evenly and stir with a large spoon until well coated.
- Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
- Cool completely before storing in a sealed container.
Notes
Nutrition
If you enjoy this savory Chex mix recipe, I’d be thrilled if you clicked the 5 little stars above and gave the recipe a 5-star rating.
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Eliza Cross is an author and food blogger who enjoys helping busy people with easy recipes and tips for gardening, holidays, and home. She is the founder of BENSA Bacon Lovers Society and Happy Simple Living, and the award-winning author of 17 cookbooks.
