I knew this cowboy butter snack mix was ready when I could no longer walk away from the bowl. The butter, lemon and herbs made it hard to leave alone, and between the Chex, pretzels, crackers and nuts, there’s always something different in the next handful.
Homemade Snack Mix with Cowboy Butter, Herbs and Lemon
In the scheme of everything, I probably spent way more time on this cowboy butter snack mix than was reasonable. Getting the flavor onto a baked snack mix took a lot more work than I was really expecting. I was using fresh lemon and it made the mix too wet, while the garlic got lost in everything else. A few early attempts were technically fine but not good enough for me to keep making. I left it alone for a while because I couldn’t get the lemon part where I wanted it.
At some point I was on a flight and asked for lemon with my sparkling water. The flight attendant handed me a stack of those True Lemon packets, and because I hate throwing usable things away, I shoved them into my purse and forgot about them. I came across them one day and thought about this snack mix because lemon without the extra liquid was the part I hadn’t figured out.
Once that finally worked, I got really picky about everything else. I wanted it buttery and herby with smoke, lemon and spice, but it still had to stay crisp enough to store. My favorite part is that one handful might have a Triscuit and a walnut, the next is mostly Chex and Cheez-Its. I haven’t decided which combo I like more.
The Decisions Behind This Recipe
- The lemon was the biggest problem I had to solve and leaving it out wasn’t an option. Without enough lemon, it didn’t taste like cowboy butter to me. But fresh lemon juice kept adding more moisture than I wanted. I worked on that part for a stupid amount of time, even abandoning it for a while. The True Lemon really did change everything. I could finally use enough lemon without adding more liquid to the butter mixture.
- I tested garlic too because you’d normally expect to find it in cowboy butter, but eventually took it out. Between the smoked paprika, liquid smoke, Worcestershire and herbs, the garlic kept getting buried. Adding more didn’t help, so eventually I stopped trying to make garlic happen in this recipe. I tossed cayenne out for a similar reason. Crushed red pepper was the right choice for heat, and there was no reason to add more.
- I went with dried herbs because this gets baked, cooled and stored, and I didn’t want to introduce more moisture with fresh herbs.
- And yeah, there’s a lot of butter. There are eleven cups of cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts in the bowl, and they don’t all absorb the coating the same way. To get the finished mix to taste seriously buttery, you need it. Otherwise it tastes like somebody waved seasoning over a box of Chex without thinking it through.
Ingredients
- Rice Chex and Corn Chex – I tried Wheat Chex and didn’t care for them in this mix. Rice and corn are lighter, which is what I wanted with this much butter going over them.
- Cheez-Its, Triscuits and oyster crackers – Three different cracker textures, and trust me, you want them. The Cheez-Its add cheese and salt, obviously. Triscuits are denser, while the oyster crackers soak up the butter in a totally different way. I break the Triscuits into chunks so they’re closer in size to everything else in the bowl. If you can find Triscuit Minis, those are great too.
- Small twist pretzels – I like the small twists because they’re close in size to the cereal and crackers and don’t need to be broken up before they go into the bowl.
- Peanuts and walnuts – Peanuts are expected in a snack mix. Walnuts aren’t, which is why I like them in this one. They taste really good with the butter and herbs, and I’d miss them if they weren’t there.
- Unsalted butter – There’s a lot of it because we’re coating eleven cups of cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts. I use unsalted because the Cheez-Its, pretzels, peanuts and Worcestershire are already adding salt.
- Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce – Dijon adds acidity, and Worcestershire adds the savory part. They mix into the butter with the herbs and spices without either one tasting overly strong.
- Liquid smoke and smoked paprika – This is where the smoke comes from. I wanted it noticeable without turning the snack mix into barbecue seasoning.
- Dried chives, dill, parsley and thyme – Four herbs sounds like a lot until they’re spread through eleven cups of snack mix. Keeping them dried means there’s no extra moisture coming from fresh herbs.
- Crushed red pepper, black pepper and sea salt – Crushed red pepper adds heat, while black pepper and sea salt season the butter mixture.
- True Lemon Crystallized Lemon – These packets are crystallized lemon made with lemon juice and lemon oil. I use three in the butter mixture, and there isn’t a substitute that will make this snack mix the same way. Look for True Lemon near drink mixes, sweeteners or powdered beverage packets, or buy it online.
How to Make Cowboy Butter Snack Mix
Find the complete printable recipe with measurements in the recipe card at the BOTTOM OF THE POST.
- Step One (get the pans ready)
Preheat the oven to 250°F and line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. You want two pans for this amount because one overloaded sheet pan turns into a buttered cereal traffic jam, and I want the mix spread out enough to bake instead of sitting in a thick mound. - Step Two (mix the dry seasonings)
Stir the dried chives, dill, parsley, thyme, smoked paprika, sea salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and True Lemon crystals together in a medium bowl. Mixing them first keeps one handful from getting all the dill while another somehow gets none of the lemon. - Step Three (make the cowboy butter)
Whisk the melted butter with the Dijon mustard, liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the dry seasoning mixture until everything is well blended. Give it another good whisk right before you pour it because the herbs and spices will start settling while you’re standing there. - Step Four (coat the snack mix)
Put the Cheez-Its, broken Triscuits, peanuts, walnuts, pretzels, oyster crackers, Rice Chex and Corn Chex in a very large bowl. Pour the cowboy butter over everything and toss carefully until the mixture is coated as evenly as you can get it. There are 11 cups in that bowl, so take your time and use a light hand unless you want to make cowboy butter crumbs. - Step Five (divide and bake)
Divide the mixture between the prepared baking sheets and spread it into an even layer. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring each pan after 20 minutes. Spread everything back out before returning the pans to the oven because some pieces will have moved around a lot more than others. - Step Six (let it cool)
Leave the snack mix on the baking sheets until it has cooled completely. This isn’t the time to get impatient and dump warm snack mix into a container because trapping the moisture is how crisp cereal becomes disappointing cereal.
Recipe Tips
- Use the biggest mixing bowl you own. Eleven cups of cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts needs room to move around, and a cramped bowl makes it much harder to distribute the butter without crushing everything.
- Don’t decide whether the snack mix is crisp enough until it has cooled completely. It will still seem softer when it first comes out of the oven.
- When I break up the Triscuits, I’m looking for chunks roughly the size of the Chex and Cheez-Its. A few pieces from each cracker is enough because I don’t want a lot of Triscuit crumbs mixed in there.
- You may still see some butter on the baking sheets when you stir everything at 20 minutes. That’s normal with this amount of butter, so stir it well, spread the snack mix back out and keep baking.
- If you’re now staring down a bottle of opened liquid smoke, it does have a decent shelf life. But you can also use it to make my slow cooker kalua pork, sausage balls or a batch of my smoked tomato Bloody Mary mix.
- My favorite places to use a handful of extra walnuts, if you’ve opened a package for this mix, are in my baked apples with maple-walnut sauce and my crispy gnocchi with sage brown butter.
Storage
- Once the snack mix is completely cool, store it in an airtight container or resealable bag at room temperature for up to two weeks.
- There’s no reason to refrigerate it. In fact, room temperature is better for keeping the cereal and crackers crisp.
FAQs
- Can I use fresh lemon juice instead of True Lemon?
No. I went round for round with different amounts of fresh lemon first, but it isn’t concentrated enough, and adding more juice adds more moisture. True Lemon gets the lemon flavor into the snack mix without adding that extra liquid. - Why is there no garlic in this cowboy butter snack mix?
Because ultimately it was better without it. I know garlic is common in cowboy butter, and it’s great on a steak, but it kept getting lost among everything else in this snack mix. Adding more only covered up the herbs and lemon, so I left it out. - Can I use fresh herbs instead of dried herbs?
Stay with dried herbs. Fresh herbs are great in cowboy butter served as a sauce, but this gets baked and stored. Dried herbs are a much better fit for this one. - Is cowboy butter snack mix spicy?
It has some heat from the crushed red pepper flakes, but I wouldn’t call it spicy. You can reduce them or leave them out if you want the buttery, smoky flavor without the heat. - Can I substitute different crackers or nuts?
Yes, but within reason. Pecans or cashews are good subs for the walnuts or peanuts, and you can trade one cracker for something with a similar size and texture. I wouldn’t change several cups of the base at once, though. A Triscuit, a Chex square and an oyster cracker do not absorb butter the same way, and eventually the ratio stops acting like the recipe I tested. - Why does this recipe use so much butter?
Because there are eleven cups of snack mix in the bowl, and this is supposed to taste seriously buttery. I tried less, and it tasted like seasoned cereal and crackers.
From My Kitchen Notes
Small observations from the margins.
- Lots of ideas become clearer after I stop expecting them to turn out the way they were supposed to.
- Leaving something alone and giving up on it are not the same thing.
- Sometimes the thing I keep trying to fix needs me to change the form.
- When something comes back to me after I’ve stopped working on it, I pay attention.
- I do like when one small detail makes me reconsider everything.
- Removing one thing can tell me more than adding five others ever did.
- The first attempt doesn’t deserve to survive because it came first.
- Some things are worth coming back to, but not in the same form.
- Accumulated history gets my attention. Change gets another chance.
- I have much less patience for repetition dressed up as progress.
More Reasons to Fill a Bowl
- Sweet and Spicy Furikake Popcorn – Furikake, chile, sweet seasoning.
- BBQ Chex Snack Mix – Chex, pretzels, Cheez-Its, smoky barbecue seasoning.
- Puppy Chow Recipe (Muddy Buddies) – Chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar.
- Air Fryer Pumpkin Spice Chex Mix – Chex, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice.
- Christmas Popcorn Mix – Popcorn, white chocolate, candy, pretzels.
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Cowboy Butter Snack Mix
Cowboy butter snack mix takes Chex cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts and coats them in butter seasoned with dried herbs, Dijon, Worcestershire, smoked paprika, lemon and crushed red pepper. Baking the mixture gives the seasoning time to flavor the different cereals and crackers while everything becomes crisp.
Servings: 11 cups
Calories: 270kcal
Equipment
- very large mixing bowl You need enough room to toss 11 cups of snack mix without crushing the cereal and crackers.
- 2 baking sheet (large) Dividing the mixture between two pans gives it enough surface area to bake evenly.
- parchment paper Lines the baking sheets and makes cleanup easier after baking the butter-coated mixture.
- 2 mixing bowls (medium). One for the dry seasonings and one for the melted butter mixture.
- whisk Distributes the Dijon, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, herbs and seasonings throughout the melted butter.
- rubber spatula or spoon (large). Useful for coating the snack mix and stirring it halfway through baking.
Ingredients
Dry Seasoning Mix:
- 1 tbsp (2 g) dried chives
- 1 tbsp (3 g) dried dill
- 1 tbsp (2 g) dried parsley
- ½ tbsp (2 g) dried thyme leaves
- 1 tbsp (7 g) smoked paprika
- 1 tsp (6 g) fine sea salt
- ½ tsp (1 g) ground black pepper
- ½ tsp (1 g) red pepper flakes
- 3 packets (2.4 g) True Lemon Crystallized Lemon
Cowboy Butter Mixture:
- 1½ cups (340 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 tbsp (15 g) Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp (2.5 g) liquid smoke
- 1 tsp (5 g) Worcestershire sauce
Snack Mix Base:
- 2 cups (120 g) Cheez-It crackers
- 1 cup (60 g) broken into chunks Triscuit crackers (if you can find mini Triscuits, those are fine too)
- 1 cup (145 g) roasted, salted peanuts
- 1 cup (120 g) walnut pieces
- 1 cup (40 g) mini pretzels
- 1 cup (50 g) oyster crackers
- 2 cups (56 g) Rice Chex cereal
- 2 cups (56 g) Corn Chex cereal
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F (121°C). Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine the dried chives, dill, parsley, thyme, smoked paprika, sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and True Lemon crystals in a medium bowl.1 tbsp (2 g) dried chives, 1 tbsp (3 g) dried dill, 1 tbsp (2 g) dried parsley, ½ tbsp (2 g) dried thyme leaves, 1 tbsp (7 g) smoked paprika, 1 tsp (6 g) fine sea salt, ½ tsp (1 g) ground black pepper, ½ tsp (1 g) red pepper flakes, 3 packets (2.4 g) True Lemon Crystallized Lemon
- Whisk the melted butter, Dijon mustard, liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce in a separate bowl until thoroughly blended.1½ cups (340 g) unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (15 g) Dijon mustard, ½ tsp (2.5 g) liquid smoke, 1 tsp (5 g) Worcestershire sauce
- Add the dry seasoning mixture to the melted butter mixture and whisk until the herbs and seasonings are evenly distributed.
- Add the Cheez-It crackers, broken Triscuits, roasted peanuts, walnuts, pretzels, oyster crackers, Rice Chex and Corn Chex to a very large mixing bowl. Pour the cowboy butter mixture over the snack mix and toss carefully until the cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts are evenly coated.2 cups (120 g) Cheez-It crackers, 1 cup (60 g) broken into chunks Triscuit crackers, 1 cup (145 g) roasted, salted peanuts, 1 cup (120 g) walnut pieces, 1 cup (40 g) mini pretzels, 1 cup (50 g) oyster crackers, 2 cups (56 g) Rice Chex cereal, 2 cups (56 g) Corn Chex cereal
- Divide the snack mix between the prepared baking sheets and spread into an even layer.
- Bake for 40 minutes, stirring each pan after 20 minutes and redistributing the mixture into an even layer before returning it to the oven.
- Cool completely on the baking sheets before serving or transferring to an airtight container for storage.
Notes
- I use True Lemon Crystallized Lemon because it gives the seasoning the lemon flavor I wanted without adding fresh lemon juice.
- I tested garlic in this mix and left it out because it overwhelmed the herbs and lemon without adding anything I missed in the finished recipe.
- Whisk the cowboy butter mixture again immediately before pouring it over the snack mix since the dried herbs and seasonings can sink as it sits.
- Use a very large mixing bowl so there is enough room to coat the cereal, crackers, pretzels and nuts without crushing them.
- Let the snack mix cool completely on the baking sheets before transferring it to a container so it stays crisp.
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
Cowboy Butter Snack Mix
Amount Per Serving (47 g)
Calories 270
Calories from Fat 198
% Daily Value*
Fat 22g34%
Saturated Fat 9g56%
Polyunsaturated Fat 5g
Monounsaturated Fat 6g
Cholesterol 33mg11%
Sodium 300mg13%
Potassium 105mg3%
Carbohydrates 15g5%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 2g2%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 390IU8%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 35mg4%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Have you made this Cowboy Butter Snack Mix? I’d love to hear how it turned out – leave a comment below and let me know.
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