Reindeer Food: Our Easy & Addicting Christmas Puppy Chow

A little reindeer food is easy but delicious. That’s what I wrote when I posted ours last Christmas, and honestly? I stand by it. 🦌

This has been a staple in our household. It is easy, fun to give to family and friends, and hint: put it in the fridge to chill it and it is too good.

This reindeer food recipe is Chex and crushed pretzels coated in melted chocolate and peanut butter, shaken in powdered sugar, with Christmas M&Ms and mini Reese’s cups tossed in at the end. If you grew up on puppy chow (or muddy buddies, depending where you’re from), this is its Christmas cousin.

So many of you asked for the recipe in the comments, so here it is all in one place. Plus the peanut free swap I always used when I was a teacher.

Reindeer Food at a Glance

• What it is: Chex and pretzels in melted chocolate and peanut butter, shaken in powdered sugar, with M&Ms and mini Reese’s
• Also called: Christmas puppy chow, reindeer chow, muddy buddies
• Time: about 15 minutes of work, plus 30 minutes in the fridge
• Oven: nope. Just the microwave.
• Peanut allergy? Swap in SunButter (all the details are below)
• Great for: Christmas parties, neighbor gifts, teacher gifts, and movie night

Watch out, because the Reese’s usually get picked out first by select people.

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What You Need for This Reindeer Food Recipe

• 5 cups Chex cereal
• 2 cups mini pretzels, crushed
• 1½ cups creamy peanut butter (or SunButter for peanut free- great for kids!)
• 1½ cups chocolate chips
• 2 cups powdered sugar, plus more as needed
• 1 cup Christmas M&Ms
• 1 cup mini Reese’s cups

Here is everything you need from Target

You’ll also want your biggest mixing bowl, a microwave-safe bowl, a spatula, a big bowl with a lid (a gallon zip-top bag works too), and a few zip-top bags if you’re gifting it.

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How to Make Reindeer Food

1. Measure the Chex

Pour 5 cups of Chex into your biggest bowl. You need room to stir later, so go big.

2. Crush the pretzels

Put the mini pretzels in a zip-top bag and crush them with your fist. You want little pieces, not dust. Then add them right into the Chex.

3. Melt the chocolate and peanut butter

Add 1½ cups of chocolate chips and 1½ cups of peanut butter to a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second bursts and stir in between until it’s smooth.

Go slow here. Chocolate burns fast, and once it does, there’s no saving it.

4. Pour it over and stir

Pour the chocolate right over the cereal and pretzels. Fold it all together with a spatula until every single piece is coated.

5. Chill for 30 minutes

Put the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes. This lets the chocolate set up a little before the powdered sugar goes on.

6. Shake it in powdered sugar

Put about half the powdered sugar in the bottom of a big bowl with a lid. Add the chocolate mix, then the rest of the powdered sugar on top.

Lid on and shake. Shake it like you mean it. If it still looks sticky, add a little more powdered sugar and shake again.

7. Add the M&Ms and mini Reese’s

Toss in the M&Ms and mini Reese’s cups last, after the shake, so they stay bright and don’t get coated in sugar.

8. Bag it up

Scoop it into an airtight container for your counter, or into zip-top bags for gifts.

We package this to our neighbors, holiday parties we go to, teachers, and honestly, we keep a lot for us!

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Peanut Free Reindeer Food

Someone asked me if they could leave the peanut butter out because their daughter is allergic. Yes! Use SunButter (sunflower seed butter) instead, the same 1½ cups.

When I was a teacher, I always made it with SunButter in case of allergies. Leave out the mini Reese’s too, since those are peanut butter cups, and check the labels on your chocolate chips and M&Ms.

Some people use cookie butter. It works, but it’s really sweet, so I’d only use 1 cup if you go that way.

Tips for This Reindeer Food Recipe

1. Crush, don’t pulverize. Little pretzel pieces give you that salty crunch. Pretzel dust just disappears.
2. Melt it low and slow. Short bursts in the microwave and a stir every time.
3. Don’t skip the fridge. Thirty minutes is all it needs.
4. Add the powdered sugar in two rounds. Some under the mix, some on top, so it coats evenly when you shake.
5. Candy goes in last. That’s how the M&Ms stay red and green instead of snowy white.
6. No bowl with a lid? A gallon zip-top bag works just as well. Shake it in two batches if it’s packed.

How to Store Reindeer Food

This reindeer food recipe keeps in an airtight container or zip-top bags at room temperature for up to a week. That makes it easy to make a few days before a party or before you hand out gifts.

Here’s Your Sign to Make a Batch

Make a double batch. Honestly. It disappears faster than you’d think, and nobody’s mad about a bag of reindeer food showing up at their door.

Want to see us make it?

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