Christmas Puppy Chow: Easy Sweet & Salty Snack

Ready for an easy chocolatey, peanut-buttery Christmas Puppy Chow snack mix? 

This is also known as reindeer chow or muddie buddies that you may have grown up with, and we’ve leveled up the original recipe, so now it’s absolutely addicting!

Just grab a handful of ingredients while you’re at the store and you’ll have a delicious Christmas “Puppy Chow”snack mix (only for humans!) ready to eat for the whole gang in no time flat!

It’s festive, fun, and best of all, super easy to make. No decorating skills required!

If you have a microwave, a microwave-safe bowl and a big zipper bag, you have the basics for making this Christmas Puppy Chow recipe in a flash. 

The tiny but mighty mini Reese’s PB Cups, salty crunch of the pretzels, the rich combo of the coated chex cereal, and extra yum of the M&Ms make this a stellar sweet-and-salty Christmas Puppy Chowsnack mix.

And this recipe makes a big batch—serve it up to the whole gang, leave it on the snack table during game night or stash it in smaller baggies for some portion control during TV time.

While the red and green holiday sprinkles add some festive fun, save a few bucks and leave those out if you want.

(They all fall to the bottom eventually anyway. Oops. But they sure look cool til then!)

Let’s get started!

Supplies to gather

Tools:

• Measuring Spoons
• Measuring Cups
• Stovetop or microwave
• Large Saucepan
• Wooden Spoon
• 1 Large Mixing Bowl
• Heat-safe rubber spatula/bowl scraper
• 2 Gallon Size Zipper Bags

Ingredients:

• Chocolate Chips
• Creamy Peanut Butter
• Butter
• Vanilla
• Powdered Sugar
• Plain Chex Cereal, like Rice, Corn, or Wheat
• Reese’s Minis Unwrapped Peanut Butter Cups
• Red & Green M&Ms
• Pretzel Sticks
• Red & Green Holiday Sprinkles

About the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

There are a lot of forms to these delicious little Reese’s, and I wrote this wrong several times until I finally grabbed the bag and looked at the front of it: Reese’s Minis Unwrapped. 

These are sold in pouches of tiny Reese’s PB cups that don’t have foil or wrappers at all. 

Here’s what the package looks like, not too big, and they don’t require unwrapping. 

They’re cute, delicious, the traditional quality you expect from Reese’s, and the perfect size for this snack mix.

About the pretzels

We used the sticks because we already had them around, but you can use any plain-flavored small shape. 

I would just make sure they are plain (unflavored—while I love Snyder’s Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Nuggets, they just won’t work in this sweet and salty treat!).

About the M&Ms

If you can’t find red and green M&Ms, you can use any color of plain M&Ms you can find. 

The taste is the same; the red and green ones just add a bit of festive holiday fun.

You can add more of any of the mix-ins you want. Like a few more M&Ms? Add another ⅓ cup to the mix.

Steps to make Christmas Puppy Chow

1. Place a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add butter, peanut butter, vanilla, and chocolate chips and melt together, stirring until smooth.
2. Once the chocolate/peanut butter mixture is melted and fully combined, use a heat-safe rubber spatula and transfer into the large bowl.
3. Add cereal and stir gently with the large wooden spoon until cereal is fully coated.
4. Allow the cereal mixture to cool, about five minutes.
5. Note: You are about to divide the cereal mixture between the two large zipper bags to help with tossing and coating the cereal mixture in powdered sugar. Divide the cereal mixture in half, adding each half to the large zipper bags, then add ¾ cup of powdered sugar to each bag. You should have two zipper bags in front of you with the cereal mixture and the powdered sugar in each.
6. Seal the bags tightly since you are about to shake and turn the bags and you don’t want the contents to come flying out while shaking the bags.
7. Divide and add the toppings to the bags and gently turn, toss, and shake the bags to coat the Christmas Puppy Chow. The inside of the bag will look smeary, but it will be fully coated when you can’t see any loose powdered sugar.
8. Transfer the Christmas Puppy Chow mixture into a large serving bowl and enjoy!

Microwave cooking instructions

1. In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the butter, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and vanilla all at once.
2. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir well.
3. Continue to heat in increments of 15 seconds then stir. (Short bursts of heat are important so that you don’t burn the chocolate.)
4. Stir until melted, smooth and fully combined, then gently stir in the chex cereal.
5. Then follow the steps starting at #3 above.

The bottom line

It doesn’t get any simpler or easier than making this holiday Christmas Puppy Chow for the whole gang. 

Melt some basic pantry staples together and add a few special festive touches to ring in the holiday deliciously!

Don’t forget: While it looks like puppy chow, it’s not food for dogs, and you shouldn’t give your pets sugar or chocolate.