The traditional Chex Mix, a beloved snack known for its crunchy and savory flavors, gets an exciting makeover when prepared in a barbecue smoker. Smoking Chex Mix infuses it with a unique, smoky flavor that elevates this classic snack to a new level!
I've created the Urban Cowgirl recipe differently, by providing you with how many boxes of each snack to purchase instead of using "cups" as measurements. This allows you to scale up or down without having excess cereal or googling how many cups of mini pretzels are in an average bag! I think you'll find it much more user-friendly. 🙂
This guide will walk you through the steps to create your own big batch of Smoked Chex Mix for a crowd, perfect for holiday gatherings, giving as homemade gifts, or just a delicious snack on game day with the whole crew.
(Links are affiliate links to products we think are helpful and we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if purchased.)
Instructions For Making Smoked Chex Mix
- Preheat Your Smoker: Begin by preheating your barbecue smoker to 200-225°. Your lowest setting general creates the most smoke.
- Mix the Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine Corn, Rice, and Wheat Chex cereals, mixed nuts, pretzels, cheese crackers, and garlic rye chips. Toss them using gloves.
- Prepare the Melted Butter Mixture: In a medium saucepan, melt butter, Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana-style hot sauce, seasoned salt, dry ranch mix, garlic powder, and onion powder. Whisk to combine.
- Combine and Toss: Pour the seasoning mixture over the cereal mix. Use gloved hands to gently toss the mixture, ensuring that the seasoning coats the party mix evenly.
- Prepare for Smoking: Spread the mix evenly over a single layer on 4 large baking sheets or a large disposable pan. Shake additional dry ranch mix over the top.
- Smoke the Chex Mix: Place the prepared mix in the smoker or pellet grill. Close the lid and smoke for about 1-2 hours. Stir the mix every 15 minutes to ensure even smoking.
- Cool and Serve: Once the mix is nicely smoked and crispy, remove it from the smoker and let it cool. The mix will crisp up further as it cools.
- Storage: Store the Smoked Chex Mix in an airtight container, ziptop bag, or in gift-giving tins for the holiday season.
How Long Does Smoked Chex Mix Last?
Homemade chex party mix can last up to two weeks in an airtight container. When you share this tasty snack with friends it may be helpful to tell them to snack up, or this recipe can be frozen.
Can The Smoked Chex Mix Be Frozen?
Smoked Chex Mix can be frozen in an airtight ziplock baggie for 1 month with excellent results. The flavor of the mix does not suffer at all!
How Many Gift-Giving Containers Does this Recipe Make?
This recipe fills 20 holiday tins with about 3-4 cups of smoked chex mix. Certainly enough to gift everyone in your neighborhood and office with one of the best snacks!
You may also choose to use ziplock baggies, colored Tupperware, or large glass mason jars to store and transport your favorite snacks.
Substitutions To The Recipe:
- Other additions that make this the best chex mix recipe for your particular tastes include bagel chips, life cereals, cheerios cereal mixture, Cheetos, bite-sized pretzels, sesame sticks, a different nut, or a different hot sauce.
- If you add many more dry snacks to your base mix, add an additional stick of butter to your butter mixture, just to make sure you have enough sauce to coat the ingredients well.
- The dry seasonings can be played with a bit adding barbecue rub, brown sugar, or your favorite season salt to the mix.
- For a delicious hint of spice, add a dash of cayenne pepper or chile powder to the seasoning sauce.
What Wood Chips, Pellets or Wood Works Best When Smoking Chex Mix?
- Oak, Pecan, Maple, Hickory, or Wood Blends are all terrific with this bold chex mix.,
Smoking Chex Mix in a barbecue smoker is a fun and easy way to take traditional snack mix to a whole new level... It’s perfect for Christmas parties, the big game, tailgating, or just enjoying with a cold beer.
The unique smoky flavor combined with the classic savory taste makes this Smoked Chex Mix a sure hit for any occasion. Happy smoking!
Have questions? Need help? Have an addition or a suggestion to a recipe? Drop me a comment below!
If you make this recipe, I would LOVE to see it!
Tag me on Instagram @UrbanCowgirl and use #UrbanCowgirl to be featured. 🙂
Follow us on Social Media using the links below!!
Smoked Chex Mix (Big Batch Recipe)
Ingredients
- 1 12 oz. box corn chex cereal
- 1 12 oz. box wheat chex cereal
- 1 12 oz. box rice chex cereal
- 21 oz. box Cheeze-Its
- 16 oz. bag Dot's Homestyle Pretzels may substitute any pretzel you like
- 14 oz. Gardetto's Garlic Rye Chips
- Wood Chips Pellets, or Wood For Smoking
Nut Mixture
- 1 pound cashews
- 1 pound almonds
- 1 pound walnuts
- 1 pound peanuts
Melted Butter Seasoning Sauce:
- 1 pound butter 4 sticks
- 2/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 3 tablespoons Lawry's Seasoning Salt or any seasoning salt but this is my favorite
- 3 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 4 tablespoons dry ranch mix plus more for dusting the top if you wish for extra flavor
- 2-3 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce I used crystal hot sauce
Instructions
Note:
- You'll need a large vessel for tossing the chex mix such as a clean 5-gallon bucket, an large disposable roasting pan, crawfish boil pot, or several large bowls in order to mix the large number of dry ingredients. I recommend disposable gloves for tossing the batches of chex mix in the seasoning sauce.
- 1. Preheat the pellet smoker, electric smoker, or barbecue to 200-225 degrees F.
Making The Base:
- 2. Add all of the boxes of chex cereal, Cheeze-its, stick pretzels, garlic rye chips, and nuts into the large mixing bowl/container.
- 3. On the stovetop in a large saucepan melt the butter (salted or unsalted butter is fine). Add in the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, Lawry's seasoned salt, and all the seasonings. Whisk well to combine. For spicy chex mix you can add cayenne pepper to taste.
- 4. Drizzle the seasoned butter mixture over the dry snack mixture. Using your hands (covered with gloves) toss well. Drizzle any extra sauce on the baking sheets and transfer the snack mix over to the baking sheets, evenly distributed.
- Toss once more on the baking sheets to ensure every piece gets a little seasoning. Sprinkle extra dry ranch seasoning over the top if desired.
Smoking The Chex Mix:
- 5.Place the tossed chex mix on baking sheets (or a large roasting pan may be used) and smoke for 1-2 hours, tossing once or twice during smoking.
- 1 hour provides a whisper of smoke, while 2 hours provides a strong smoke flavor.
- (This is all based on what you like in flavor!)
- **Most pellet grills will only be able to smoke 2 baking sheets at one time as that takes up all the space in the chamber. The final 2 additional baking sheets can be reserved until it's their time to be smoked, or you can bake in an oven at 250 degrees for 1 hour, tossing once throughout cooking.
- **(I made a smoked chex mix recipe, and the standard classic chex mix recipe and people greatly preferred the smoked!)
- 6. When done, remove from the barbecue smoker and cool fully. During this time they will crisp up more.
- 7. When cool, transfer from the large baking sheet to an airtight container.
- Let your friends know to pour a big bowl of this classic snack mix and enjoy this delicious snack with the whole family!
Joyce says
Looking forward to making this and can this recipe be halved, successfully?
Sarah Penrod says
It absolutely can Joyce! Although you and the people you're making it for may be sad you didn't have more! LOL 🙂
Greg says
This is very good, I have made it several times now and I'm making it again for the SB and to bring into work next week. The last time I made it, I left out the Lawry's because it was a bit too salty for us with it. And I couldn't find the rye crackers so I doubled the Cheese-its instead. So good, people seem to really love the smoked Cheese-its the best.
Sarah Penrod says
So glad to hear that Greg!