Puppy Chow Recipe (Muddy Buddies)
Posted Feb 21, 2018, Updated May 31, 2024
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The Best Puppy Chow Recipe (AKA: Muddy Buddies) ever! Only 4 ingredients (no butter) and a few minutes results in an irresistible dessert loaded with chocolate and peanut butter! The perfect sweet treat to feed a crowd!
Listen carefully, my Puppy Chow Recipe is not for the faint of heart. You will never find weak puppy chow in my kitchen. You know what I mean?
The stuff that is so thinly coated with chocolate and peanut butter that the powdered sugar barely sticks to it? Not on my watch. I want clumps, and globs, and hunks, and chunks of chocolate-peanut buttery goodness.
Now the name of this treat can be controversial. I’m a midwesterner (born and raised) so I call this treat “Puppy Chow.” It has other names too, like muddy buddies, monkey munch, etc., but no matter what you call it, it’s delicious.
I make this dessert more than any others on my website (except for our famous chocolate chip cookies). It’s my favorite and it’s so easy to make!
Puppy Chow Recipe: Ingredients & Substitutions
There are only 4 ingredients in this muddy buddies recipe! But there are a few ways you can adapt it if you’d like.
- Chocolate. I recommend using a dark or semi-sweet variety. In my opinion, making this Puppy Chow Recipe with milk chocolate makes it too sweet. But if you have a serious sweet tooth by all means use whatever chocolate you prefer! If you need an allergy-friendly chocolate both Sunspire and Enjoy Life Foods make great options.
- Rice Cereal. Chex is my favorite cereal to use (or a generic equivalent). However many people love Crispex.
- Peanut Butter. You can substitute any nut or seed butter if you’re allergic to peanuts.
- Powdered sugar. There’s really no substitute for this. You can make your own refined sugar free variety.
How to Make Puppy Chow
This puppy chow recipe is very easy to make, however the method matters, a LOT. I consider myself a muddy buddies expert, so I devised the absolute perfect method to making the best puppy chow ever – no butter required.
Melt Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Melt equal parts of chocolate (semi-sweet or dark) and peanut butter together. Start by warming it for 60 seconds, stir and then warm in increments of 30 seconds so you don’t make it too hot!
Stir
The chocolate peanut butter mixture together until it’s smooth and glossy.
Assemble
Next, put some cereal in the bottom of a large bowl, pour some of the peanut butter/chocolate mixture on top, and continue to alternate cereal/chocolate/cereal, etc. until you’ve used up all the ingredients.
The key here is to start VERY conservatively with the amount of cereal! You do not, I repeat, do not want to use too much cereal. It will ruin your puppy chow, and consequently, your day.
Chill
Next, mix it all together, making sure the cereal is thickly coated . Then put the muddy buddies somewhere to cool off (outside in the winter, or in the refrigerator) before adding any powdered sugar.
This step is absolutely crucial. I am not into sickeningly sweet desserts, so I like to use as little powdered sugar as possible. If you add the powdered sugar while the mixture is still warm it will soak right in and won’t help separate the chunks at all.
Making sure your mixture is slightly cooled will mean you can use less powdered sugar in the end.
Add Powdered Sugar
Once the mixture is at or just below room temperature, but not hard, add the powdered sugar until there is a thin coating and some of the pieces start separating. It’s helpful to use a bowl with a lid, so you can shake it to coat the cereal evenly.
Chill Again
Next, let the muddy buddies cool down even more (for about 15 or 20 more minutes) before adding a little more powdered sugar. You want to add just enough so that the puppy chow can be eaten without making your hands a chocolatey-mess.
Harden
Let the puppy chow sit at room temperature for about 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, until it’s hardened.
Serve
Serve this puppy chow recipe at room temperature or only slightly chilled. If it is in an environment that is too warm, it could start to melt, so be careful.
Store/Freeze
Store this puppy chow in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week (if it lasts that long) or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Puppy Chow Recipe FAQs
Yes! this puppy chow recipe can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 2 months!
This puppy chow stays fresh for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container (but it usually gets eaten way faster)!
You can substitute sunflower seed butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc. for peanut butter.
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Puppy Chow Recipe (Muddy Buddies)
Ingredients
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 6 cups Rice Chex Cereal
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Melt peanut butter and chocolate together, either on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Next, add 3 cups of cereal to a large bowl. Pour 1 cup of the chocolate/peanut butter mixture over the cereal.
- Add 3 more cups of cereal to the bowl and then pour the rest of the chocolate/peanut butter mixture on top.
- Stir until the cereal is evenly coated. If there are pools of chocolate/peanut butter at the bottom of your bowl, add more cereal ¼ cup at a time until all the melted chocolate is being used to coat the cereal – up to a total of 7 cups of cereal.
- Let the mixture cool slightly (I throw mine in the fridge or outside on my porch if it's cold out). You do not want it to harden.
- Once your mixture is at or below room temperature, add 1 cup of powdered sugar. Mix until combined.
- Chill in the refrigerator for an additional 15 minutes.
- Add more powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time until the cereal is coated to your satisfaction.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Video
Notes
- Chocolate. I recommend using a dark or semi-sweet variety. In my opinion, making this Puppy Chow Recipe with milk chocolate makes it too sweet. But if you have a serious sweet tooth by all means use whatever chocolate you prefer! If you need an allergy-friendly chocolate both Sunspire and Enjoy Life Foods make great options!
- Rice Cereal. Chex is my favorite cereal to use (or a generic equivalent)! However many people love Crispex!
- Peanut Butter. You can substitute any nut or seed butter if you’re allergic to peanuts!
- Powdered sugar. There’s really no substitute for this. You could make your own refined sugar free variety but it will NOT be white. So if you’re OK with that then go for it! 😉
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This looks so good, I am definitely making some! Thank you for acknowledging allergies – my daughter is allergic to dairy and peanuts but that does not mean she doesn’t love a treat! Enjoy Life chocolate chips are the best and a regular staple in our home. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m thinking to make this recipe tonight for my family I was just going through some blogs to check out some new recipes but I couldn’t find one, but now I think I will try this one because it looks so yummy and healthy I kids will totally like it.thanks for sharing keep posting
I had to follow this blog as soon as I read this article and made this recipe. Also a Midwesterner, I call it puppy chow. And I couldn’t have related more to this article. I too limit my dinner intake to accomated for how much dessert I plan to devour and if I don’t have some sort of chocolate or peanut butter each night I can hardly fall asleep because I’m craving it so badly. I made this recipe for my family who loves lots of flavor and tons of toppings and it was a major success! Can’t wait to make more of your recipes. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! It sounds like we are foodie soul sisters! 😉
Have made this recipe twice and am officially and desperately addicted. I like to leave them in a container in the fridge though. Makes the flavor seem more crisp!
Can you use wowbutter or sunbutter instead of peanut butter? I have a child with a peanut allergy and another child with dairy allergy.
Hey Jennifer! Yes! you can use any nut or seed butter of your choice!
We also use cheerios with the Crispin! It really does resemble puppy chow when making it this way!
Question…would it work as well using natural peanut butter? We’ve made the switch and I’d rather forego the added sugar and hydrogenated oil, if possible. Thanks!
Yes! True story, I am actually just about to make some and use natural! 🙂 You may need a touch more powdered sugar to get it to hold up but it should be great!
Hi Laura, I was curious if there were any subtle differences with the natural peanut butter, and which you preferred? I have Skippy Creamy regular peanut butter and Laura Scudder Creamy natural peanut butter in the house and was really curious about this. Thank you!
Hey Jessica! I often use a brand like Skippy or Jiff to make this because it’s sweeter and my family loves it! Both will have great results though!
OK, cool! Sweeter = good 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Laura! As this is going around Pinterest again, it would be great if you made note in the title, or somewhere prominent, that this “Puppy Chow” is not for dogs before some idiot feeds it to their Christmas puppy and it dies from chocolate toxicity. The dogs of the world will thank you because sometimes they are smarter than their people. Mine is much smarter than I am but he would say I’m highly trainable. Thank you for your time. And for caring about our fur babies.
Janie! Thank you for your concern for the puppies of the world! 🙂 I hope anyone who owns a dog would know to NEVER ever feed it chocolate! 😉 I hope you and your dog have a great Thanksgiving this week!
Chocolte is not good for puppies or adult dogs; however, humans can consume large amounts of this delicious treat!!
LOL Sharon absolutely. I do not recommend feeding this to actual puppies. 😉
This recipe looks good and all that but I don’t believe it should be labeled “gluten and dairy free” the chocolate chips has dairy.
Hello Chelsea! There are many varieties of semi-sweet and dark chocolate bars/chips that actually are dairy-free (YAY)! Enjoy Life Foods makes a whole line of dairy-free, nut-free and soy-free chocolate baking products! I use many of the dairy-free chocolate options listed in this article as well! ???? I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions!
Mine don’t! I think fir this of us who are dairy free, we understand that you need dairy free chocolate, which thankfully, these days, is easy to come by! Yay for Enjoy Life chips!!!
I agree Dana! Yay for enjoy life!! 🙂