So, I have been waiting to share this recipe. I share it periodically on my instagram and mostly get people salivating at the heavy use of butter, but it is time to share this family treasure with the world.
I think every family has a recipe like this, just a Chex mix with a family spin on it. My Grandmother would make this and EVERY time I would go to her house I would steal a bag. I would take it with me to my college classes in my giant ziplock bag and people would stare at me like I was weird (and I probably was, but whatever, it was good).
Prior to my Grandmother passing, this was the recipe I found most important to learn from her. I knew it would be important for my Dad to have and just important for our family. So I learned it. And we made it on the day we found out she passed as comfort food. It truly is great comfort food, zero percent healthy, just no health benefits at all. But you didn't come to this blog for health.
The really really important thing for this recipe is that you'll need a roaster. You cannot pass go without a roaster. You also just need to get a big roaster. We bought a roaster to try this and bought a small roaster. It was wrong and bad and everything was awful. If you have a small electronic roaster then you should half the recipe, it'll be significantly easier, promise.
We bought our roaster on amazon, it's not fancy, it doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be able to roast.
After you have your roaster your job here is easy breezy.
First mix the wet ingredients together. It is going to look terribly unappetizing. But it is like 80% butter and everything is better with butter.
Combine your dry ingredients in a big bowl. No a bigger bowl. Yes, that bowl will do. This is not one of those recipes that is particularly picky about the dry ingredients you use. If you want to use stick pretzels instead of the bow pretzels, that's great. Want to use a different type of cereal, also great. Want to tweak your portions, also okay. It will be fine. You don't have to measure super accurately, which is great, because I have yet to find a coral box in the right sizes for this recipe which was clearly written when portion sizes were different, so we just do a lot of eyeballing.
Once you have everything separately combined, go ahead and mix it together. If you had to use two bowls because you over-estimated your bowl size, then just make sure you pour the mixture evenly over the dry cereal. Toss them to combine. Make sure everything is well coated as you toss them.
Once you're done tossing, put them in your pre-heated roaster. I have a note at the bottom of this, with the recipe. My Grandmother's recipe says she cooked this at 275 degrees, I have tried that and it burns very very fast. I like a little bit of burned on my trash, but I don't want it to be a charred mess. So 275 doesn't work for us or our roaster. We've found that around 250 does work for us. Just make sure you stir it ever 20 or so minutes or it will turn into a charred mess, and you will be sad. Let it roast for about 3 hours or until you feel like it's done, sometimes it's about 3.5 hours for us.
Once it's done, turn off the roaster and spoon it into galloon ziplock bags. This should make at least 4 gallon bags. We store ours in the freezer and eat it cold. Which may be weird, or may be awesome.
Give this a try. I'd also love to hear your family versions of this same recipe!
TRASH
YIELDS: 4 GALLON BAGS | PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES | COOK TIME: 2 – 3 HOURS
Ingredients
1 lb. margarine or butter, melted 1 cup oil 1-2 Tbsp. Tabasco 4 tsp. garlic salt 3 tsp. Accent (MSG) 6 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
4 oz. can mixed nuts 8 oz. peanuts 14 oz. box corn Chex 12 oz. box rice Chex 12 oz. box wheat Chex 6 oz. cheerios 8 oz. stick pretzels
Instructions
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Mix all wet ingredients together with the spices. Evenly pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Place the mixture in the roaster.
Bake in a roaster at 275 degrees for 2 – 3 hours; stirring every 20-25 minutes
Note: Check the temperature on your roaster, it may need to be roasted at a lower temperature to prevent (or minimize) burning. 250 degrees seems ideal.
Place in gallon storage bags and store in the freezer.