Appetizers
Puppy Chow Recipe (Muddy Buddies)
If it isn't already, puppy chow will quickly become a favorite snack. It's straightforward to mix and everyone loves it!
This puppy chow recipe will quickly become a favorite. It’s straightforward to mix and everyone loves it!
At a glance
What stands out: Ummm, because it tastes so good?!
How long it takes: 10 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: microwave safe bowl, microwave
Servings: makes 9 cups – you decide how many servings that is!
Puppy Chow. Muddy Buddies. Where do we begin with our love for these?
Actually, if we’re being honest, we have a love-hate relationship with anything with powdered sugar on it.
We love it because, well, it’s powdered sugar.
We hate it because, well, IT GETS EVERYWHERE! EVVVVERYWHERE. Don’t even get us started on the kids eating stuff like this (They don’t. We do it in hiding.). Even making any recipe that involves powdered sugar is bound to end up with a major disaster requiring a lot of cleaning.
Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating just a wee bit.
When powdered sugar is paired with crispy cereal, chocolate and peanut butter — well, we'd clean up pounds of the stuff if necessary. This is what snacking is meant to be. Finger licking good. Literally.
We made this puppy chow for our son’s 1st birthday party. We threw him a “Winter ONEderland” party and the puppy chow attended disguised as “little snowflakes.” They fit the part pretty well, don’t you think? We served them up in little snack cups to cut down on the mess a little bit, and they were a huge hit. How could they not be?
About This Puppy Chow Recipe
Do we need to review? CHOCOLATE. PEANUT BUTTER. POWDERED SUGAR.
And the great part is, this from-scratch treat is incredibly straightforward to mix. We'll run through the recipe here and give you a few extra tips. You should probably go ahead and get started right now!
What You’ll Need
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: You could use milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips if you like but we're a dark chocolate fan so we'll always stick to semi-sweet.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: We’re talking about regular creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy. We don’t think natural peanut butters would work as well.
- Butter: Either unsalted or salted is fine. It’s best if it’s at room temperature and not rock hard so it melts easily with the chocolate chips and peanut butter.
- Rice Chex Cereal: Did you know that this cereal is gluten-free? Crispix or other types of Chex can be substituted, such as Corn Chex or even Chocolate Chex (our personal favorite).
- Powdered Sugar (Confectioners’ Sugar): Yup, lots of it to give the puppy chow its snowy appearance.
How it comes together
Measure out the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter into a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments and stir well each time. Don’t overheat the mixture. Sometimes just stirring it thoroughly completes the melting process.
For our friends who don’t have microwaves – it’s straightforward to do on the stovetop as well. Just put the three ingredients into a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly.
Once the mixture is melted, stir in the vanilla. Add the cereal and mix until the cereal is coated with chocolate.
Throw the whole shebang in a bag full of powdered sugar. Shake-shake-shake and you have puppy chow.
Put it into a serving bowl and chow down! Bark bark! Ruff Ruff! Guau Guau! Or whatever dog sound you want to make. We'll say Yum Yum!
Before you start
Make It Your Own
We saw CHOCOLATE Chex cereal at the store and couldn’t resist adding a little more chocolate goodness to this snack. Not at all necessary, but more chocolate is never, ever, ever a bad thing. Ever.
Keeping leftovers
Store puppy chow in an airtight container after it’s completely cool. It will keep for a couple of weeks. Will it last that long? Probably not. Unless you hide it.
- Yield: 18
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Total: 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter (not natural peanut butter)
- ⅓ cup butter
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 9 cups Rice Chex cereal (see note)
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
Method
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in 30-second increments in the microwave. Stir after each increment until smooth. Add the vanilla, and stir to combine.
- Add the Rice Chex cereal to the bowl and gently toss with a spatula to coat the cereal in the melted chocolate mixture.
- When the cereal has been completely coated, spoon it into a gallon-size zip-lock resealable bag. (You may have to do this in batches if the bag is not big enough to hold all the cereal). Pour in the confectioners' sugar and seal the bag.
- Toss the cereal in the confectioners' sugar to coat.
- When the cereal is completely coated in the confectioners' sugar, remove it from the bag and put it into a serving bowl.
- Serve at room temperature.
Notes
Storage: Once the puppy chow has completely cooled, you can store it in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Variations: You can substitute other types of Chex cereal (try Chocolate Chex if it’s available!) or Crispix cereal. Milk chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips could be used instead of semi-sweet chips.
