Whether you're preparing a spread for a football game, getting together with friends and family for Christmas or New Years, or enjoying your favorite Netflix show, having some crunchy-salty snacks on hand is a must! But store-bought snacks, like Chex Mix, can be had expensive. Fortunately, there is a way to make Chex mix at home Super Easy and it's 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'll be making a batch every week instead of buying your usual chips and pretzels!
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“You, this Chex Mix is so good. My husband is a bit of a hot sauce fanatic and we have different bottles of sauce in our house. I've probably made this recipe 8 times, using a different sauce each time, and it's so fun to see how the flavor of the mixture changes when we use different sauces. We have the Smoked Onion Hot Sauce which is by far my personal favorite. Also, I have Celiac, so I make this gluten free using only rice and corn checks and GF pretzels and cheese crackers. I don't need to find another Chex mix recipe – this will be my go-to from now on!”
Carrie
Chex Mix is very easy to make and the ingredients are very flexible, allowing you to customize this recipe to suit your needs or whatever happens to be on sale. Here's what you'll need to make homemade Chex Mix:
- Cereals: It's Chex Mix, after all! I like to use a mix of rice checks, corn checks, and wheat checks so that the mixture has lots of color, flavor, and texture variation. To save costs, generic versions of Chex work just as well as the brand name every time!
- Pretzels and crackers: For even more texture and color, we add some pretzels and crackers to the mix. I like to use cheese crackers and pretzel rods, but you can use any size pretzel you like.
- nut: Some nut mixes add extra filling. I went with peanuts because they are the most budget-friendly!
- butter: Butter is essential for making delicious Chex Mix. Dipping it into cereal, pretzels, and crackers makes everything extra lip-licking good, and it helps all the flavors and seasonings stick.
- Seasoning: For this Chex Mix, we used a flavorful blend of spices including Worcestershire sauce, seasoning salt (like Lowry), garlic powder, smoked paprika, and hot sauce. Hot sauce is optional, so leave it out if you don't want your Chex Mix spicy.
Make it spicy or mild
This recipe is really flexible and very easy to make spicy or mild. To make Chex Mix milder, just skip the hot sauce. If you plan to make a spicy version, you can use a vinegar-based hot sauce. I've used a red pepper-flavored hot sauce like Tabasco and a thicker hot sauce like Sriracha. The flavors are a little different, but still great!
More variations to try!
In addition to changing the hot sauce, you can swap out other ingredients to create different variations! Here are some ideas to try:
- I use a mixture of rice, corn, and wheat checks, but you can use any combination of these grains. I've also seen mixes made with cornflakes and Cheerios cereal. I will use any leftover Rice Chex to make ours Eat the puppy For a sweet snack option!
- I went for peanuts, but cashews, almonds, or even a bag of mixed nuts would be nice too.
- Switch spices for A ranch seasoning mixAnd you'll have a ranch-flavored snack mix. I think buffalo chutney would also be delicious in this variation.
- I made this recipe using only butter. However, if you don't have butter, you can try margarine, dairy-free butter, or a pinch of vegetable oil (adding oil will reduce the amount called for in the recipe)—let me know if you try!
- add some Taco Seasoning For a fun taco-flavor combination. Or try a different spice blend like Creole (I love it). By Tony Chachere), BBQ, or everything Bagel seasoning.
If you want to take your Chex mix up a notch, here are a few other ingredients you can add:
- Rice crackers
- Mini-breadsticks
- Bagel chips
- Oyster crackers
- M&Ms (add after baking)
- Dry fruits and seeds (for making spices Trail mix! add after baking)
How to store Chex Mix
If you don't eat the whole batch in one night (I won't), be sure to store your leftover Chex Mix in an airtight container such as a ziptop bag or resealable food container. As long as it stays sealed, it should stay fresh for several weeks. You can freeze Chex Mix for about three months (again, make sure it's airtight).
Homemade Chex Mix
This Chex mix is a homemade snack mix with the right mix of salty, crunchy and spicy flavors.
Prevent your screen from going dark
- 1.5 Cup Rice checks ($0.23)
- 1.5 Cup Corn Chex ($0.23)
- 1.5 Cup Wheat checks ($1.05)
- 1 Cup Cheese crackers ($0.39)
- 1 Cup pretzels ($0.24)
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted peanuts ($0.48)
- 6 tbsp Salted butter ($0.84)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.04)
- 1.5 tbsp hot sauce ($0.14)
- 3/4 teaspoon seasoning salt* ($0.08)
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1/2 teaspoon Smoked paprika ($0.05)
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Preheat oven to 250ºF. Combine rice checks, corn checks, wheat checks, cheese crackers, pretzels and peanuts. Stir the dry ingredients together.
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In a separate bowl, melt the butter, then stir in the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder and smoked paprika.
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Add about a third of the seasoned butter to the dry ingredients, then stir well. Repeat two more times until all the butter has been added. Keep stirring the Chex Mix until everything is well coated.
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Spread the seasoned mixture on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
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After an hour of baking, the snack mix will be dry, tasty and delicious. Serve hot or let cool before serving.
Let's see how Calculate the cost of the recipe here.
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Splatterware sheet pan
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Parchment paper
* Seasoning salt like Laurie or similar generic brand.
Serving: 1CupCalories: 388kcalCarbohydrates: 49gProtein: 8gFat: 19gSodium: 908mgFiber: 4g
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How to Make Chex Mix – Step by Step Photo
Preheat oven to 250ºF. Melt 6 tsp salted butter in a bowl, then 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 tsp hot sauce, ¾ tsp seasoning salt (like Lowry), ½ tsp garlic powder and ½ tsp Stir in smoked paprika. If you want to make a milder version, just omit the hot sauce.
In a large bowl, combine 1.5 cups corn chips, 1.5 cups rice chips, 1.5 cups wheat chips, 1 cup cheese crackers, 1 cup pretzels, and ½ cup unsalted peanuts. Stir the ingredients together.
Add about ⅓ of the seasoned butter to the snack mix, then stir it well. Repeat two more times until all the butter has been added.
Stir until the snack mix is very evenly coated in the blended butter.
Spread the snack mix on a large baking sheet. I covered my baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
Bake Chex Mix for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, or until very dry and slightly chewy. Let the mixture cool completely, then serve.
This Homemade Cheeks Mix was originally published on 10/25/21. We updated and republished on 12/28/25.