White Chocolate Puppy Chow (muddy buddies) is a delicious treat made with chex cereal, white chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar. This easy Christmas puppy chow or reindeer chow is the perfect snack for the holiday season!
We make Christmas muddy buddies every year for my daughter's annual gingerbread house party. This easy recipe is a real crowd pleaser perfect for movie nights, family game nights, birthday parties and holiday parties.
This snack mix recipe goes by several different names, so you might know this sweet treat as reindeer chow or white chocolate chex mix.
Classic puppy chow usually uses chocolate chips. When I make Fall puppy chow or Oreo puppy chow I use semi sweet chocolate chips. But for this puppy chow chex mix recipe white chocolate chips are perfect!
By the way, this puppy chow is meant for people only. It's not for puppies!
Ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients for this white chocolate party mix recipe. They should be easy to find in your grocery store.
- Rice chex cereal -- You can sub corn chex if you prefer.
- White chocolate chips -- or almond bark or white candy melts
- Peanut butter -- creamy peanut butter works best
- Butter -- salted butter or unsalted butter
- Powdered sugar -- for the sweet coating
- Vanilla extract -- for flavor
- M & M's -- Choose red and green m&m's for the holiday season
How to Make Christmas Puppy Chow
We make puppy chow in the microwave, but you can melt the ingredients on the stove if you prefer.
First, place the butter, peanut butter and white chocolate morsels into a large mixing bowl. Make sure you use a microwave-safe bowl.
Melt the peanut butter mixture for 30 seconds. Stir, then heat in 15 second increments, until mixture is soft. Stir gently after each 15 second interval.
White chocolate is sometimes tricky to melt, so don't cook it too long. When the chips look soft, stir until they're completely melted. Mine only took 1 minute and 15 seconds to melt.
Next, add the chex cereal.
Stir well until the cereal is coated with the melted chocolate peanut butter mixture.
Finally, pour some of the chex mixture into a large ziploc bag. We use a gallon freezer bag for this.
Add half of the powdered sugar, and close the bag. Shake the cereal mixture well.
Add the remaining cereal and the rest of the powdered sugar. This helps ensure the cereal pieces are well coated. After a few minutes, the cereal should be completely coated with the powdered sugar.
Pour the muddy buddy mix into a large bowl. Then, add the m&m's.
If you want to make white chocolate puppy chow with sprinkles, add some to the cereal mixture in the bag as you shake it.
How to Store
Store reindeer chow in an airtight container. You can refrigerate it or keep it at room temperature if your house is cool.
Homemade puppy chow should last for about 1 week before the cereal starts to get soft. You can freeze muddy buddies in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.
Variations
It's easy to change up the basic white chocolate chex mix recipe. Add your favorite candies in addition to or in place of m&m's.
This is a great recipe for an edible gift. Just add the mixture to plastic bags or holiday treat bags, and hand out to friends and neighbors.
You can also use semi sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips if you don't want to use white chocolate.
Add pink and red m&ms's to the white chocolate snack mix for Valentine's Day and pastel candies for spring or Easter.
Recipe
White Chocolate Puppy Chow (muddy buddies)
Ingredients
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 9 cups Rice Chex cereal
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- m&ms red and green
Instructions
- Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter together in a large mixing bowl for 30 seconds. Stir, then melt in 15 seconds increments until mixture is soft.Stir until completely melted Once completely melted, add vanilla and stir
- Stir in vanilla extract
- Add the cereal and mix until the cereal is evenly covered in the chocolate mixture
- Place half of the cereal and half of the powdered sugar in a large ziplock bag and shake until the cereal is evenly covered in powdered sugar. Add remaining chex mix and powdered sugar and shake until completely coated with powdered sugar.
- Place the cereal into a mixing bowl and let cool, then add candy, and serve
Notes
Nutrition information is estimated. Please do your own calculation to fit special diets.
Nutrition
I hope you enjoy this Christmas puppy chow chex mix recipe as much as we do. If you try this Christmas snack mix, please leave a star rating and/or comment.
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Betty says
Wow! Easy and fun! Made this with the grandkids and then we ate it all up! Will be making this all season! Thinking about little gift bags of it too!
Dee says
This would be perfect for gift bags. Thanks, Betty!