The Best Puppy Chow Recipe (2024)

Puppy Chow Recipe is so simple to make but the best treat. Our family loves to snack on these decadent little bites of cereal, peanut butter, chocolate and more.

What is Puppy Chow (Muddy Buddies)?

This recipe is a delicious combination of chex cereal coated in chocolate and peanut butter. Everything is mixed together and coated in powdered sugar.

You are going to love this Puppy Chow Recipe for the perfect movie snack, party food, game day and more. It is the easiest treat to make when you want something sweet and oh so tasty.

I am always amazed that something so simple as chex cereal can turn into something so fabulous. Once it is coated with so much goodness and mixed with the candy and more, it is out of this world.

Why is it Called Puppy Chow?

The shape of the coated cereal looks like the shape of dog food. The original Chex cereal was made by Purina and people in the 1930’s started calling it people chow.

The name stuck and all these years later, it is still called puppy chow. However, you might know it by other names such as muddy buddies or reindeer chow.

Some people call this recipe puppy chow and some call it muddy buddies. Whatever you prefer to call it, it is amazing. You might like any one of our Best Puppy Chow Recipes.

Do you call it Puppy Chow or Muddy Buddies?

This recipe goes by different names. We call it puppy chow but some call them muddy buddies. What do you call it?

Regardless of names, this is one delicious treat and so easy to make. It often is regional what you call it.

What are the Ingredients for Puppy Chow?

• Chocolate Chips
• Peanut Butter
• Butter
• Vanilla
• Chex Cereal
• Powdered Sugar

How to Make Puppy Chow:

• Combine Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Butter – First, you need a microwave safe bowl. Add the chocolate, peanut butter, butter and vanilla.

• Melt Ingredients – Second, put in the microwave and cook for 30 seconds.

• Continue until melted – Then stir the chocolate chips peanut butter mixture and continue to microwave for 30 second intervals. Keep doing this until the chocolate is melted. Stir in the vanilla.

• Stir cereal and melted chocolate – Next, put the cereal into a large bowl. Then pour the melted chocolate peanut butter mixture over the chex cereal.

• Gently Stir until coated – I like to use a spatula to help fold the cereal in the coated. This makes it easier to completely coat it in the chocolate. The mixture makes it amazing so you want the chocolate on each bite.

• Cover with Powdered Sugar – Finally, add the powdered sugar into a 2 gallon sized bags. If you don’t have a 2 gallon bag, you can use a giant brown paper bag from the grocery store, or divide it into 2 one gallon bags.

• Shake until cereal is evenly coated – Then pour the chocolate covered chex in the ziploc bag and shake Make sure to seal the bag really good. Next, shake the bag to coat the chex in the confectioners sugar. You can pour it on a baking sheet covered with wax paper if you want but it is not necessary.

How to store:

The mixture needs to cool completely before storing. Once cool, place inside an air tight container.

It should last about a week stored in an airtight container at room temperature. We love this puppy chow recipe so much. It doesn’t last long in my house. I usually have a jar of it on the counter all winter long.

Can you make Puppy Chow ahead?

Yes, this recipe is easy to make ahead. Around the holidays, I make a bunch in advance and freeze it.

Just make the recipe as normal and place inside a freezer bag or container. It will keep up to 2 months in the freezer.

This is the perfect dessert to prepare and give out as gifts to teachers, friends and neighbors. We like to place in cute holiday jars since this puppy chow stores so well.

Puppy Chow Recipe Substitutions:

• Seasonal muddy buddies. Try using different colors for other holidays. We love to make Christmas Puppy Chow Recipe, Valentines Day Puppy Chow Recipe and Easter puppy chow.

• Nuts. Another tasty idea to add is nuts. Just add ½ cups nuts to the mixture to change up the flavor.

• Sprinkles. We love adding sprinkles to this puppy chow recipe. You can make this for birthday parties and use sprinkles to match the party colors. That would be so fun.

• Cereal. I most always use chex cereal. However, occasionally when I can get crispix cereal on sale, I have used that.
  
• Candy – You can easily add in chocolate candy such has mini reese’s peanut cups or M&M’s to add more chocolate to this mix.
  
• Pretzels – You can add in pretzels for a sweet and salty mix.

Tips for the Best Muddy Buddies Recipe:

• Double the recipe.This treat is super easy to double if you plan to host a crowd or hand this out to friends. Just make sure you have a really large bowl.
• Peanut Butter.It is best to skip the all natural peanut butter in this recipe. The processed variety or creamy peanut butter works best. We prefer Peter Pan or Jiff.
• Allow to cool.Ensure the cereal mix has properly cooled before storing in containers. We like to place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to cool.
• Melting Chocolate – Slowly melt the chocolate to ensure that it doesn’t burn. We recommend stirring after heating for 30 seconds.

See Also

Lemon Dessert RecipesEasy Pizza Pocket Recipe {Freezer Meal} - Happy Money SaverPunjabi Palak Paneer Recipe | How To Make Palak PaneerPinkWhen - Easy Recipes for Everyone

Print this Puppy Chow Chex Recipe below:

More Puppy Chow Recipes:

• Easy Grinch Puppy Chow Recipe
• Lemon Puppy Chow
• S’mores Puppy Chow Recipe
• Christmas Puppy Chow Recipe
• St. Patrick’s Day Puppy Chow Recipe