Sweet Chex Mix Recipe

Grab some Chex mix cereal, nuts, and pretzels, and get ready to make this simple sweet Chex mix that everyone will love! The mix is tossed in a 3-ingredient buttery, sugary, maple syrup coating and baked until crispy. It’s an irresistible party snack that will have everyone asking for more!

The Best Sweet Chex Mix Recipe

There’s something about seeing a bowl of party mix on the table that indicates that it’s time to make a beeline to the snacks before they’re all gone! Any type of party mix whether it’s a cheddar chex mix, a fall snack mix, or a classic homemade chex mix, is so irresistible, that the bowl is bound to be empty before you know it.

This recipe for sweet chex mix is no different. It’s made with crispy crunchy cereal, pretzels, and pecans that are tossed in a sweet sugary maple coating and baked until lightly crunchy and ultra flavorful. It’s so good you won’t be able to stop eating it by the handfuls!

It’s the perfect snack for movie night, game day parties, a Super Bowl party, holiday parties and even to give as gifts to family and friends. It also goes great on charcuterie boards with snacks like this birthday charcuterie board!

It’s the kind of recipe that gets the “this is so good, how did you make this?!” reaction at family gatherings and then you get to tell them just how easy is it to make for their next party!

1. Rice Chex – you can either use Rice Chex or Crispix Cereal for this sweet party sweet, either works great. I don’t recommend switching over to a different type of chex!
2. Chopped pecans – use salted nuts for a sweet and salty balance. Otherwise, unsalted is great. I like to just buy chopped pecans but you could use pecan halves and just chop those as well!
3. Itty bitty pretzels – a mini version of regular pretzels, you can once again use salted, for a bit of salt in the mix, or unsalted. If you can’t find the minis, you can use regular size pretzels but the minis are my favorite! You could also use pretzel sticks if you want.

4. Butter – unsalted or salted butter works great! You’ll melt butter in a pan, so no need to soften it like in other recipes!
5. Pure maple syrup – make sure to use pure maple syrup, not the fake stuff. The fake stuff just doesn’t combine and coat the same way!
6. Sugar – I like the taste of the granulated sugar but if you want a richer taste, light brown sugar can work as a substitute too.

This is a super simple recipe but it does take a little while so that you can toast and coat the ingredients! Trust me – the wait is worth it!

1 – Prep the Snack Mix

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or wax paper) to prevent any of the ingredients from sticking to the pan!
3. Combine the mini pretzels, rice chex mix, and pecans in a large bowl. Gently stir all the ingredients together, being careful not to crush all of the cereal. Once they’re mixed, set the bowl of ingredients aside for later.

2 – Make the sweet sauce

1. Make the sweet sauce for the chex mix by combining the butter, sugar, and maple syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring the heat up to medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil.
2. Once the mixture has began to boil, set a timer for two minutes and continuously stir the mixture until the timer goes off then remove the pan from the heat.
3. Pour all of the sauce mixture over the dry ingredients.

4. Fold the sauce and ingredients together gently. Your goal is to coat all of the ingredients without crushing all of the ingredients at the same time.

4 – bake the sweet chex mix

1. After the dry ingredients are fully coated in the sauce mixture, gently transfer them onto the prepared baking sheet, pouring the sweet chex mix into one even layer. If you just pour them in piles all over the baking sheet, the cereal mixture won’t be able to cook properly.

2. Place the baking sheet into the preheated oven and bake for an hour. Stir every 15 minutes during the hour of baking. This will allow all of the ingredients to cook evenly.
3. Take the chex mix out of the oven once it is finished baking and let it cool before serving.

Serve the sweet party mix as soon as it’s cooled or put it in an airtight container or zipper top bag and enjoy it later whenever you’re craving something a little sweet!

This snack mix will last for up to two weeks in an airtight container and still be nice and crispy and delicious! That’s why it’s one of my favorites – we make a batch then enjoy for every movie night, game night, and party over a two week span!

Once the sweet snack mix has cooled, you can add a variety of different mix-ins if you want to change it up! Mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and even shredded coconut are some of my favorites.

You could even just make the base snack mix recipe the first time then next time try adding in something else! It’s the perfect treat for adding your favorite mix-ins!

Just make sure to let the mixture to cool completely before adding in anything like chocolate chips or chocolate candies that may melt from the heat.

Recipe FAQs

The best thing about quick and easy snacks is that you can always make more than one at a time! Here are a few more to add to your snack table.

• Marshmallow popcorn balls – these sweet, sticky, and marshmallow-y balls are made with fresh popcorn! Think rice krispie squares, but popcorn balls!
• Best rice krispie treats – an elevated version of rice krispie squares using vanilla extract for flavor and keeping some extra whole mini marshmallows inside for even more texture.
• Candied nuts – a big batch of cinnamon sugar candied mixed nuts is made entirely in the slow cooker and can be enjoyed as a snack and given away as a gift!
• Butterbeer popcorn – a delicious sweet treat made of popcorn, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and marshmallows is perfect for your next Harry Potter movie marathon!
• Cinnamon sugar pretzels – soft pretzel bites coated in cinnamon sugar. You’ll love adding these to your snack menu.