Chocolate Peanut Butter Chex Bars — SO EASY, NO-BAKE, and ready in FIVE minutes!! Chex cereal, pretzels, and M&M’s glued together with peanut butter and marshmallows!! An IRRESISTIBLE salty-sweet combination!!
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No-Bake Peanut Butter Chex Mix Bars
These Chex Mix chocolate peanut butter bars are such an easy, no-bake recipe that literally takes less than five minutes to whip up. Five minutes. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool enough to dive into.
The next time you need a dessert to bring to a picnic, potluck, party, kiddie classroom or birthday party, or some after school snacks your kids are going to adore, these easy no bake chocolate peanut butter bars are a hit with both kids and adults alike.
They’re like eating a dessert version of Chex Mix complete with pretzels and M&M’s.
They are salty-and-sweet, which is a personal favorite of mine. Chocolate tastes so much better when there is a little salt present and the pretzels lend the perfect amount of salt to accentuate the chocolate. And of course, chocolate + peanut butter is an irresistible combination.
The bars are crunchy, chewy, and a little bit gooey. Every bite has so much texture that you’ll want to keep taking one more bite.
Since I love cereal bars of all types these bars were an automatic hit for me and my family too.
Ingredients in Chex Bars
There are just six ingredients and every single one is a winner:
- Pretzel rods
- Corn Chex cereal
- M&M’s
- Butter
- Peanut butter
- Marshmallows
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Chex Bars
The no-bake Chex peanut butter bars are one of the easiest desserts you can make! Here are the basic instructions:
- Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil and set aside.
- Add the butter and peanut butter to a saucepan and heat until melted and smooth.
- Add the marshmallows and stir nearly continuously until melted and incorporated.
- Pour the butter mixture over the pretzels, Chex, and M&M’s. Stir to combine, then turn the mixture into the foil-lined baking dish.
- Sprinkle extra marshmallows and M&M’s over top, if desired. Let bars set before slicing.
Storage Instructions
These no-bake Chex mix bars will keep airtight at room temperature for 1 week. You cannot freeze them.
Tips for Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Chex Bars
I sprinkled an additional half-cup marshmallows on the top for both visual appeal and taste, but that does require two bags of marshmallows. Therefore, the extra marshmallows sprinkled on top are optional if you don’t want to buy a second bag of marshmallows.
I realize not everyone has bags of half-eaten marshmallows laying around like I do.
Same goes for the M&M’s; a 10.7-ounce bag is exactly 1 1/2 cups, but I wanted some extra M&Ms on top for visual appeal since the ones that are in the bars melt quite a bit and they aren’t as intact and colorful so I dug into a second bag of M&Ms.
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Chex Mix Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups pretzel rods, broken in half
- 2 ½ cups Corn Chex Cereal
- 1 ½ cups M&M's, plus 1/4 cup more for sprinkling on top if desired
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- one 10-ounce bag miniature marshmallows, plus 1/2 cup more for sprinkling on top if desired
Instructions
- Line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil for easier cleanup and spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the pretzels, Chex, M&M's, and stir to combine; set aside.
- To a large pot, add the butter, peanut butter, and heat over medium-low heat to melt, stir nearly continuously until melted and smooth.
- Add the marshmallows and stir nearly continuously until melted and incorporated.
- Pour the marshmallow mixture over the cereal mixture and stir to combine.
- Turn mixture out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula as necessary.
- Optionally, evenly sprinkle with 1/4 cup extra M&M's and/or 1/2 cup extra marshmallows.
- Allow bars to set up fully before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More No-Bake Dessert Recipes:
All of my no-bake dessert recipes!
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Chewy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cereal Bars – Easy, no-bake peanut butter cereal bars that are super soft and chewy! Topped with a heavenly chocolate-peanut butter swirl!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Kit Kat Crunch Bars – Easy, no-bake recipe that’s full of peanut butter and topped with chocolate and Kit Kat Bars!
No-Bake Cornflake Peanut Butter Bars – Peanut butter is used 3 times in these rich, soft, and very chewy bars! Easy, one-bowl recipe that’s ready in 15 minutes!
No-Bake Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cereal Bars – A peanut buttery twist on classic Rice Krispies Treats with big chewy marshmallows in every bite!
No-Bake White Chocolate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bars – EASY, no-bake bars that are soft, chewy, supremely GOOEY, spiked with extra marshmallows, and white chocolate!! An IRRESISTIBLE hit with everyone!!
Browned Butter Rice Krispies Treats – The best RKTs ever! Double the butter, and it’s browned, for great flavor and very soft, buttery, and chewy treats!
Smores Bars – SO EASY, NO-BAKE, just FOUR ingredients, and ready in FIVE minutes!! It doesn’t get any better than that and no campfire required! A hit with kids and adults at parties, potlucks, and picnics!!
I’ve never seen anything like this before but wow it looks absolutely delicious!! I’ve got to make this when I have next been food shopping to buy a few bits. I’m so excited to try this!
Emily | Snippets of Emily’s Life xx
Awesome and enjoy!
Peanut butter and marshmallow makes the best edible glue ever. Lots of good stuff in these–yum! Happy Mother’s Day and have a great weekend!
That is so true about them making the best edible glue :) Enjoy your weekend and hope it’s a relaxing one!
Chocolate, peanut and butter,… huhu, all of my favorite ingredient mixture on one delicious meals. I will try it in this weekeend. Will show you the results soon.
It looks like a candy bar on the cute birthday party. So yummy, quick and no bake.