Reindeer chow is perfect for the Christmas season. Also known as Christmas Chex Muddy Buddies, this dessert snack has a lot going for it.
First- and most importantly with the busy holiday season- it’s easy to make. Very easy.
Second, the kids can help! Tossing the puppy chow in powdered sugar is a lot of fun. Just make sure they stand over the sink while they shake it up. And yes, I learned that from personal experience. If a Ziploc breaks open while you’re tossing powdered sugar, your floor will get covered. Haha.
Last- you can make this a great Christmas tradition with the kids. You know how you leave out cookies for Santa? Why not feed the reindeer too? After all, they’re going to be flying around the entire world!
If you like reindeer chow, you might like the page dedicated to Christmas & Peppermint. It’s full of Christmas recipes, printables for Christmas, and peppermint recipes.
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As I mentioned, reindeer chow is very easy to make. One thing to be careful of is melting the chocolate. Chocolate scorches very easily. So be sure to follow the instructions in the recipe below and don’t overheat it.
Reindeer Chow
Ingredients
- 10 C Corn or Rice Chex
- 1 & 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 C unsalted butter
- 1 C creamy peanut butter creamy
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 & 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 18 oz. Red and green M&M’s
Instructions
- Mise en place! Pour cereal into a large mixing bowl.
- In another bowl, heat chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter in microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power. Stir well. Continue heating on intervals (15 seconds, 50% power), stirring between each interval until chocolate is melted and ingredients are well-mixed. Do NOT overheat chocolate, it will scorch.
- Stir vanilla into chocolate.
- Pour chocolate mixture over cereal. Mix well.
- Pour half of powdered sugar in large Ziploc bag. Add half of cereal mixture. Toss until cereal is well-coated and any chunks are broken up. Lay out on a cookie sheet to dry.
- Repeat with remaining powdered sugar and cereal mix.
- After mix is dry, toss coated cereal with Christmas colored M&M’s. Serve. (Hide any that you want…this disappears fast!)
Doesn’t that look easy? You’re going to love reindeer chow. It’s going to become a new Christmas favorite. I promise.
Anything replace with peanut butter? Any suggestion?
I have a whole page dedicated to muddy buddies (and barks): https://www.thehousewifemodern.com/recipes/puppy-chow-aka-muddy-buddies/
A few of them there are versions without peanut butter, including the cookies the cream version, the snickerdoodle version, and the mint version. For adjusting this particular recipe, it’s going to be pretty bland without the peanut butter. So I would suggest just making one of the suggested ones and adding Christmas M&M’s.
Super easy to make and so festive! 🎄
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. It’s one of my favorite Christmas recipes because of how easy it is to make.
Is one box of the cereal approximately 10 cups?
Yes. I normally just dump a regular size box in. This recipe is good in that you don’t need to be exact.