Puppy Chow (AKA Muddy Buddies)

What's better than a quick & easy snack that involves cereal, chocolate, peanut butter, and lots of fun mix-ins? Puppy Chow is a family party food favorite!

I grew up eating Puppy Chow at family holiday gatherings in the Midwest. Once I moved to New York, I found that none of my new friends were familiar with the goodness of this delicious mix of chocolate, peanut butter, cereal, and powdered sugar.

So I decided that I needed to bring it to the masses. It felt like a civic duty of sorts.

Well over a decade ago, I made a big batch of Puppy Chow (AKA Muddy Buddies) for a Super Bowl party that we hosted for my husband's co-workers.

Only one of the guests was familiar with Puppy Chow (she was from Ohio) and she squealed with glee when she saw it on the party table!

It was a big hit with the rest of the group as well. I was glad to bring one of my favorites to them.

Back in those days, I stuck with plain ol' Puppy Chow - straight up with no mix-ins. But it can be a lot of fun to add things into the mix, right?

Now don't get me wrong - I love it without any additional candy or snack items mixed in. But getting creative with the extras is something that can bring your puppy chow to the next level.

This dish is perfect for parties. You can pick mix-ins to match any theme, holiday, or color scheme.

I love using a sweet-and-salty mix, personally. Salted pretzel sticks, chocolate candies (M&Ms are a favorite and a good way to add color), and peanuts are all fun. Things like mini marshmallows or chopped up candy bars are also good.

You can always make a batch plain and offer bowls of additional ingredients so everyone can customize their own bags.

To get started, pour your cereal into the biggest bowl you have. I like getting it into a bowl before melting the chocolate/peanut butter together so it's ready as soon as I am.

I like melting the chocolate mixture in 30-second intervals in the microwave. This way you can stir the mixture and make sure it melts evenly and gets nice and smooth.

You could also do this on a double boiler on the stovetop if you want, but the microwave makes it super simple.

When it's nice and melted, stir in vanilla extract and salt and pour it onto the cereal. Stir it gently until it's fully coated.

You may want to use a 2 utensil method to stir it like I did in the video. It will likely max out space in your biggest mixing bowl, but it works! Once it's all coated, you're ready to cover it all in powdered sugar!

Put the powdered sugar in the bottom of a gallon-sized zip-top bag. You can do this in the bowl if you want, or even on a big baking sheet, but I find this method the easiest for getting everything coated with minimal hassle.

Seal the bag (make sure it's fully sealed to avoid a dust storm!) and gently shake and turn the bag until the chocolate is fully coated with powdered sugar.

At this point, you're ready to rock! You can serve it as-is or have fun mixing and matching different items to bulk up your puppy chow mixture.

Looking for more dessert recipes? Check out some of our favorites:

• Rich Cocoa Brownie Bites
• Elvis-Style Frozen Bananas
• Sweet + Salty Dark Chocolate Clusters
• 5-Ingredient Samoa Cereal Bowls
• Orange Scented Cannoli Dip
• Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Icing
• Dessert Nachos with Fresh Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
• Tolon’s Strawberry Basil Shortcake
• Cranberry Orange Snickerdoodles
• Bourbon Bacon Pecan Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust
• Chocolate Cream Pie with Orange Zested Whipped Cream
• Great Grandma Francesca Cardile’s Cookies
• Triple-Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
• Ricotta Cookies
• Grandma’s Christmas Cookies
• Coconut Jelly

Doing some online shopping? Check out my Amazon Shop page for recommendations!

Recipe for Puppy Chow (AKA Muddy Buddies)

If you try out this recipe, please come back and give it a star rating and comment below. I’d love to know what you think of it!

Print

📖 Recipe