Made with butter, honey, and plenty of spice, sweet & spicy honey Chex mix is flavor-packed and super easy to prepare. Simply mix the sauce together on the stove, pour over some crunchy snacks, and bake until crispy and delicious. It’s easy to customize this snack recipe with mix-ins of your choice.
The best part of football season is definitely the food. It’s the only time of year when a meal out of buffalo chicken dip, bacon wrapped cheesy stuffed jalapeños, and football shaped cookies makes sense. Throw slow cooker chicken chili in there too. A few other favorite game day snacks? Homemade cheese crackers, seasoned pretzels, candied nuts, jalapeño cheddar soft pretzels, and pizza pull apart rolls! Football season, you’re glorious.
Tell Me About this Sweet & Spicy Honey Chex Mix
- Flavor: An abundance of bold flavors are what sets this homemade recipe apart from store bought Chex mix. For mega flavor, remember this—a great mix begins with an even better sauce. Butter, Worcestershire sauce, honey, and hot sauce make up the base to which we add plenty of spices.
- Texture: You’ll love how crispy and crunchy this snack mix gets after it’s baked and cooled.
- Ease: A little mixing, a little stirring…this is an easy snack with a big payoff.
- Time: It just takes a few minutes to mix up the sauce and then it’s all baked until the sauce seeps into every last crispy and flavorful square.
Can I Mix Things Up?
Of course! Don’t like nuts? Leave them out. Want more of that extra crunchy wheat Chex? Mix in with a heavy hand. Making seasoned pretzels for the same party? Maybe go easy on the pretzels in this recipe. This chex mix allows for all kinds of combinations and that’s the beauty of it.
How Spicy is This Homemade Chex Mix?
Medium spicy.
The hot sauce in the wet ingredients gives the Chex mix its little kick, but if you like really really spicy, add more chili powder after the Chex mix comes out of the oven. It’s easy to customize the spices to your taste buds. Regardless of your spice preference, you’ll love this homemade Chex mix.
While Chex mix is the perfect game day snack, I certainly don’t limit it to that time of year! I love whipping up a batch to snack on while decorating sugar cookies during the holidays. A bowl of this is a must for any cookie decorating party, too!
More Favorite Snacks
- Seasoned Pretzels
- Homemade Artisan Crackers
- Soft Pretzel Bites
- Spicy Nacho Cheese Sauce
- Homemade Cheese Crackers
- Everything Bagel Pull Apart Bread
- Homemade Caramel Corn
- Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
Sweet & Spicy Honey Chex Mix
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 14 cups
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sweet & spicy honey Chex mix is made with real butter, honey, and plenty of spices. Baked until the sauce seeps into every last crispy square, this mega flavorful snack is completely addicting.
Ingredients
- 9 cups (290g) Chex cereal (I used a combination of wheat, corn, and rice Chex)
- 2 cups (225g) mixed nuts
- 2 cups (100g) mini pretzels
- 1 cup (50g) bagel chips
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter
- 6 Tablespoons (90g) Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup (170g) honey
- 1/3 cup (80g) hot sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot Sauce)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- optional: sprinkle of chili powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275°F (135°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Combine the first 4 ingredients (the dry snacks!) in a large mixing bowl.
- Place the remaining ingredients, except for the chili powder, in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted. Pour over the dry ingredients and carefully stir to coat.
- Spread evenly on prepared baking sheets and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with a little chili powder (for extra spice, if desired), then allow to cool completely on the baking sheets. The Chex mix will crisp up as it cools.
- Cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2-3 weeks.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Large Mixing Bowls | Saucepan | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper
- Make It Your Own: The dry ingredients are completely customizable. Don’t like nuts? Leave them out or replace with extra Chex or pretzels. Don’t have bagel chips? Leave them out or replace with another snack food you think would taste good!
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can’t. Stop. Eating.
Seriously delicious! Only made 2 substitutions: in consideration of a diabetic member of the family, used 1/8C Splenda Brown instead of the honey; and added 1/8 teaspoon of chipotle powder for heat and smokey flavour.
Don’t make this too far in advance of when you are hoping to serve as it will get eaten and you will need to make another batch!!!
My family have rather sensitive palates. Can I omit the Franks Red Hot Sauce or substitute something milder?
Hi Anita, you can leave it out or reduce it down. I’m unsure of the best substitute. You could also try a regular homemade chex mix recipe. I really like this one: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/chex-mix/
Was wondering if you could hot honey in place of the regular honey and cut down on some other spicy stuff?
Hi Karen, you can certainly try, but you may still want to keep in the added spices—just reduce them down a bit. Let us know what you try!
What but mix did you use ? I only have an oven that fits one tray on each. Does it matter if one tray is on the top and one on the bottom? Should I move them around ?
Did this Sweet & Spicy Honey Chex Mix use salted nuts or unsalted?
Hi Jim, we typically use salted nuts, but you can feel free to use unsalted if you prefer.
Has anyone used Franks Wing Sauce instead of hot sauce for a Buffalo twist?
Wow, I just made this for my family as we are flying tomorrow and thought it would make a great snack, as opposed to airport snacks. This is soooo good! It’s dangerously good, I couldn’t stop eating it. I know it’ll be a hit with my family. Will make this again for a party!
Would m&ms go well with this mixture? Making a holiday themed mix and wanting to add in color.
Hi Jenny, you could definitely add M&Ms for an additional sweet kick!
I usually love everything Sally does, but I found this mix boring
Had to up everything
Warning, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!!! I used Annie’s Worcestershire (vegetarian). Per Linda’s review used TX Petes 1/4 Cup. Perfect, plenty of spicy heat. Definitely a keeper & a recipe we will make repeatedly. Unable to locate mini bagel chips so used mini club crackers & they’re absolutely delicious in the mix. Also tossed in Bugles of course. Cheerios too, but those would leave out. They still taste OK, but turn into hard shrunken little nuggets, and look unappetizing. Thank you for sharing your recipe, it’s soooooo good.
Can this be done in a crockpot
Hi Nancy, we haven’t tried making this chex mix in a crockpot, but let us know if you do.
We like sweet & salty & lots of flavor, but not hot spices. So I eliminated the hot sauce/Chile powder, & instead added 1/2 t each, ground cumin & smoked paprika, along with 1 teaspoon Goya Adobo (Adobo in place of the salt listed in the recipe) & Synders Honey Mustard Onion pieces in place of part of the mini pretzels .
Some other recipes didn’t have the same balance of sweet & savory, or didn’t have enough butter & worchestershire-your’s is fantastic! Thank you-saved!
I just made this. I am very happy I used your recipe . Very good!
What substitute can I use for the Worchestershire sauce? My family is all vegetarian and I don’t want to go looking for a vegetarian Worchestershire sauce that I may not like or use in the future. I saw online that Soy sauce (equal amounts as the Worchester) or Soy sauce + ketchup are good replacements. What are your thoughts?
Hi Sue, I haven’t tested either option but I would try the soy sauce + ketchup combination over just plain soy sauce.
Great, thanks so much Sally!
ANNIES Worcestershire sauce is vegetarian
Savory Spice Shops have delicious vegetarian Worcester Sauce. I gave it to all my vegetarian friends for the holidays.
Really good. Easy to make too, great for gifts. I added a bit more spice, we like a little spicy, cayenne pepper, also don’t go light on the Worcestershire.
Made this today and love it! My new Chex mix go to!
Hi Sally!
I am making this tomorrow…As for the dry ingredients: would you recommend unsalted mixed nuts since salt is include din the recipe? Or do you use already salted and roasted nuts? Also, if I am to buy Gardetto’s rye bagel chips, will that be too salty since your recipe includes salt? Thanks!!
Isadora
Hi Isadora! Both depend on how salty you like your snacks. I usually use salted mixed nuts. Remember, there’s spice and sweetness in this mix too. The rye chips are delicious and will definitely be salty, but if you like saltier snacks, they’d be totally fine!
I’m not sure what went wrong – my mix didn’t crisp up. It’s soggy! Disappointed because the flavor is delicious! Has this happened to you before?
Keep on baking it if desired! It may be slightly soggy when removed from the oven, too, but cooling crisps it right up. 🙂
I have this in the oven right now, so can’t leave a star rating yet (although it smells amazing!). Question . . . do you think I can freeze the leftovers for a future party? I made a whole batch, and I doubt we’ll finish it (although you never know!).
Absolutely. You can freeze for up to 3 months before thawing and enjoying again.
This has just the right amount of spice for me-not a real spicey person! I have been making a version of this for years. I always add different cereals that I have around my house! Captain Crunch adds a bit of sweet to the mix! My guys like Cherrios added. Whatever works!
I have been on a homemade chex mix kick for the last month or so, mostly because when I eat store bought chex I think, “I wish it had more flavor!”. Also, I am not a huge fan of pretzels in chex mix, which is weird because I love pretzels ….. Anyways, I love this recipe, but I also added some cayenne pepper because I wanted sweet and REALLY spicy. It did the job nicely, and all my family/coworkers seemed to approve. They now expect me to make batches like twice a week!
That is exactly how this recipe evolved – I wanted my Chex mix exactly how I wanted my Chex mix 🙂 I do love how easy this is to customize and I’m glad you enjoy it also!
Ok the flavors of this chex mix are fantastic! just bumped my old recipe out for this one. Thanks Sally!
Whenever I made this recipe after it cooled down I added m&m dark chocolate pieces. I sprinkled a little bit of Chipotle chili powder on top for a little smokiness. Turned out delicious.the smoke went with the sweet and spicy and especially with the dark chocolate.
SO delicious! The only drawback for me is that some of my whole wheat pieces turned out chewy, even after cooling completely. Should I have left the batch in the oven longer? Or only bake one sheet at a time rather than two? I did 2 because I didn’t want to keep popping in the kitchen every 15 minutes for 2 hours!
Hi April! You know, that happens with the wheat chex all the time. It’s nothing to worry about, but you can always bake the chex a little longer to make sure they’re crispier.
This is an excellent recipe!
I used only 1/4 cup of Texas Pete. Folks here like a little spice, but not too much. I think it has just the right amount.
Just made this today and it is so good! Sally, you are correct that once you start eating it, you can’t stop. I know this will be a go-to recipe for many gatherings. Thanks for sharing so many wonderful recipes!