S’mores puppy chow also known as muddy buddies is an ultimate snow day sweet snack mix. It’s a sinfully delicious, super addictive. A simple treat made with chex cereal, chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallows, powdered sugar and seasonal candies.

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About S’mores puppy chow
Why make S’mores puppy chow this holiday season?
Why is it called puppy chow?
Ingredients needed
How to make puppy chow (step-by-step)
S’mores puppy chow recipe variations
📋S’mores Puppy Chow Recipe

About S’mores puppy chow

Also known as muddy buddies this sweet and crunchy snack mix is a treat your whole family would love. It’s a perfect snack mix for snow days and for easy entertaining during this holiday season.
S’mores puppy chow makes a great gift for holiday season. Add it to your Christmas gifts for family and friends.
It’s so easy to make, you won’t mind gifting this to everyone. Pack in cute little packing jars, put on those cute Christmas tags. Don’t forget those pretty ribbons! Your neighbors will love this Christmas gift.
Muddy buddies are great for Christmas school party as well. Add in some Christmas sprinkles or candies to to make it more fun and exciting gifts for school kids.
Go ahead and make these right away. It doesn’t take much time at all. And you can make it however big batch you want to make.

Why make S’mores puppy chow this holiday season?

Let me tell you why you should make these puppy chow chex snack for the holiday season –

It’s got chocolate
There’s peanut butter
Powdered sugar looks like snow
And your favorite candies to jazz up the holiday season!

For those who have major sweet tooth you are about to enter sweet heaven with the sugary sweet classic puppy chow. It’s also a perfect NO-BAKE dessert, great for a party. Yes you can serve it as dessert too.

Why is it called puppy chow?

Ever wondered why do they call this sweet snack puppy chow?! I did! I’m not entirely sure why did people start calling it puppy chow, apparently it looks like dog food so it got the name puppy chow.

Some even call it chow chow puppy. Haha! Some call puppy chow as muddy buddies, Reindeer chow (especially the Christmas puppy chow ones) or even Monkey munch!

Whatever the name is, this classic puppy chow chex recipe is irresistible. Make sure to make a large batch of it, if you have big crowd you want to spread a little joy this holiday season.

With this puppy chow recipe chex you can easily spread the joy without much effort. You can in fact make tons of this sweet treat in short amount of time. Who doesn’t love easy to make, super-fast holiday gifting ideas? And edible holiday gifts always gets some extra love.

Ingredients needed

Chex Cereal – I used gluten free rice chex cereal.

Dark Chocolate Chips – Use premium quality dark chocolate to coat the cereal mix. You can use dark choco chips or dark chocolate bark chopped into pieces and melted in microwave.

Peanut Butter – You’ll need creamy peanut butter for this recipe.

Powdered Sugar – to coat puppy chow, it gives that snow covered look on the chex cereal.

Vanilla – use pure vanilla extract for that added vanilla flavor to the snack mix.

Mini Marshmallow – Mini marshmallows works best. You can simply add the mini marshmallows in the chocolate-peanut butter sauce and melt it or just mix it with chex cereal and coat it with chocolate-peanut butter.

Add-ons – S’mores puppy chow basically has mini marshmallows, chex cereal coated in chocolate-peanut butter and then coated with powdered sugar. While you can stop just right there, you can also try adding in more add-one.

Some of the most popular add ons that will work best are –

Miniature Reese peanut butter cups

Mini marshmallows

Choco chips

Christmas M&M’s

Pretzels

Christmas sprinkles,

or just go ahead with any other add-ons of your choice.

How to make puppy chow (step-by-step)

Puppy chow starts with melting dark chocolate and peanut butter in microwave until smooth.

melting chocolate and peanut butter with marshmallows

Stir in vanilla extract and put in mini marshmallows. Stir well. You can leave the marshmallows in bits if not melted completely.

Pro-Tip: DO NOT use old marshmallows.

DO NOT heat marshmallows in high heat, they will solidify and turn chocolate peanut butter sauce really THICK! It’s okay if mini marshmallows aren’t melted completely. S’more puppy chow should have marshmallow bits and bites to it.

Take the chex cereal in a large bowl or thick zip lock bag.

Pour melted chocolate mix over it. Toss well to coat the cereal in chocolate mix.

chocolate peanut butter sauce poured over chex cereal

Pro-Tip: be gentle if you use silicon spatula to stir coat the cereal. You don’t want to break the cereal, don’t worry about clump together. Cereal should be completely coated in chocolate.

cereals coated in chocolate peanut butter sauce

Load these chocolate coated cereal in zip lock bag with powdered sugar and shake it well. Everything should be coated well with sugar.

Wait for the puppy chow to dry. Then mix in the add-ins. Miniature Reese peanut butter cups, mini marshmallows, choco chips, Christmas M&M’s, pretzels, sprinkles, or any other add-ins of your choice.

Serve it immediately.

Left overs can be stored in air tight box for up to a week. Make sure the chocolate and sugar coating are completely dry before you store.

Pro-Tip: Spread puppy chow on a large tray to dry them fast.

S’mores puppy chow recipe variations

What we have shared today is S’more puppy chow recipe using marshmallows.

You can definitely customize your own recipe to make your own puppy chow recipe variations.

Are you allergic to peanuts? – Eliminate peanut butter entirely. You can also swap it for Nutella.

Peppermint Puppy Chow – Crush peppermint candy canes and add it to the puppy chow mix along with kisses.

Sugar Cookie Puppy Chow – Chex cereal coated in almond bark, and then covered in funfetti cake mix sprinkled with colorful sprinkles.

Cookie and Cream Puppy Chow – Chex cereal half coated in dark chocolate and chocolate pudding mix and another half in white chocolate and vanilla pudding mix. Mix in mini Oreos for added taste.

Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow – Melt white chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla extract and pumpkin spice together and coat over chex cereal. Finally coat in powdered sugar.

Caramel Apple Puppy Chow – Melt almond bark and drizzle caramel over it. Coat chex cereal and dried apple bits with almond melt and finally coat powdered sugar.

Brownie Mix Puppy Chow – Melt dark chocolate, vanilla and peanut butter. Coat cereal mix with the melted mix. Transfer to zip lock bag and add in brownie mix. Add on mini Reese peanut butter cups for added taste.

You can do endless variations.