This sweet chex mix recipe is the perfect treat to bring to an event and share with family and friends. It’s sweet, sticky, chewy, gooey, and loaded with flavor! This snack mix is completely addicting!
Looking for more potluck sweets? These Oreo balls, fruit salsa with cinnamon chips, or this cinnamon sugar snack mix are always crowd favorites.
Any excuse we can find to make this sweet chex mix, we do. Holidays, birthdays, potlucks, game days — you name it! This stick, sweet, and nutty snack mix is the perfect shareable treat. It also makes a great edible gift for friends or neighbors during the holiday season.
Besides how great it tastes, it’s also such an easy recipe. No baking required and ready in about 20 minutes or less. What’s not to love?!
Ingredients
- Rice Chex cereal
- Corn Chex cereal
- Golden Grahams cereal: use any leftover cereal in these Smores bars!
- Mixed nuts: we like getting a roasted and salted nut mix for a richer snack mix flavor
- Shredded sweetened coconut
- Granulated white sugar
- Light corn syrup
- Unsalted butter
- Salt: to balance the sweetness and overall intensify flavors
- Vanilla extract: this adds a nice overall flavor to the mix
- Coconut extract: this brings out the flavor of the coconut flakes and adds a nice overall flavor. It’s optional, so if you love coconut you’ll want to add it and if not, it will still be great without it!
How to make this Sweet Chex Mix Recipe
The descriptions below correlate with the photo collage in this post.
- Add all the cereal, nuts, and coconut to a large, foil-lined sheet pan.
- Add the butter, corn syrup, and sugar to a pot
- Melt the butter and then bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes
- Pour over the cereal mix
- Immediately toss the cereal mix to get covered in the sugary coating
- Let stand on the sheet pan until hardened. It doesn’t harden completely — the mix is supposed to be sticky 🙂
Variation & substitution ideas
- Sweet chex mix recipe with M&M’s: once the mixture has cooled down and hardened a bit, stir in 1 to 2 cups of M&Ms. The M&Ms can be holiday themed or event specific (think pastel M&Ms for a baby shower!)
- Sweet chex mix recipe with Chocolate: once the mixture has cooled down completely, melt some milk or white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Transfer the melted chocolate to a plastic bag and cut off the tip with scissors. Pipe the melted chocolate across the snack mix and allow to harden.
- Nut-free: leave out the nuts and replace them in equal parts extra cereal!
- Less gooey and sticky: add an extra cup of Rice Chex and an extra cup of Corn Chex.
- Less coconut flavored: leave out the coconut extract.
- Sweet chex mix recipe with powdered sugar: thinking of Muddy Buddies? One of our favorite treats as well!
Sweet Chex Mix Recipe tips
- Make sure the sugary syrup boils for 2 full minutes; it’s important it gets that full amount of time to boil.
- I recommend using an extra large sheet pan (15 x 21 inches) or two large sheet pans. I like these pans-they’re 15×21 inches and work perfectly to toss everything together.
- Speaking of sheet pan — don’t forget to line it with foil or parchment paper — this mix is sticky!
- Once the cereal is coated in the syrup mixture, work quickly to toss the cereal in the mixture. The quicker you work, the better the coating on the cereal and nuts will be.
More delicious treats:
- Tiger Butter Fudge only 4 ingredients
- Toffee with lots of tips!
- Chocolate Popcorn with marshmallows and three types of chocolate!
- White Chocolate Chex Mix easy no bake mix
- Trail Mix 5 easy recipes
This sweet chex mix recipe is the perfect treat to bring to an event and share with family and friends. It's sweet, sticky, gooey, and loaded with flavor!
- 3 cups Rice Chex cereal (See Note 1)
- 3 cups Corn Chex cereal
- 3 cups Golden Grahams cereal
- 1 and 1/2 cups mixed roasted and salted nuts
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract, optional
PREP: Line a very large sheet pan (15x21 inches) with parchment paper or foil. Lightly spray with cooking spray.
CEREAL: on the prepared pan, add the 3 cups Rice Chex cereal, 3 cups Corn Chex cereal, 3 cups Golden Grahams cereal, 1 and 1/2 cups mixed roasted and salted nuts, and 2 cups sweetened coconut. Toss together with your hands.
SYRUP: in a medium sized pot, add the 3/4 cup unsalted butter (cut into tablespoons), the 1 cup white sugar, and the 1 cup corn syrup. Stir over medium high heat until butter is melted. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. After 2 minutes, remove from the heat and carefully add in the 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla (it may sputter), and 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract if using.
COAT CEREAL: pour the prepared sugar mixture over cereal mixture on the pan and, using 2 wooden spoons or a spatula and a spoon, toss to evenly coat. Make sure all the cereal/nuts/coconut is well coated in the sugar mixture. Let mixture stand at room temperature until hardened and firm, about 1-2 hours. The mix won't ever fully firm up, it is meant to be sticky and gooey 🙂
STORAGE: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. The cereal and nuts do get softer/mushier each day the mix sits. We do like this mix best the first or second day it is made.
Recipe Video
Note 1: this mixture is sticky, gooey, and very sweet. If you'd like it less sweet and/or less gooey, add 1 extra cup of each of the cereals. (We like this mix just as written - sticky and sweet!)
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