Texas Trash (Dairy-Free Chex Party Mix)
Step up your holiday snack game with this Dairy-Free Chex Party Mix recipe. Also called Texas Trash in our home, this snack mix features Chex cereal, cheerios, pretzels, nuts, and a wickedly addictive seasoned butter sauce.
2025 Update: This recipe was originally shared in December 2019. This post has been updated to include new photos, detailed directions, and additional dairy-free tips. I hope you enjoy this dairy-free Chex party mix recipe.
A few Christmas’s ago, my mother made my sisters and me a copy of our grandmother’s cookbook. I love flipping the pages and finding random recipes my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother had made like Fudge, Pecan Pralines, and Ice Cream Pie.
Now, after Jason and I married, he brought with him a collection of recipes his Mimi would make. We put these recipes into my grandmother’s cookbook, along with recipes from my dad’s side of the family to create a book where all of our family favorites live.
Leafing through the pages, I stumbled upon a recipe called “T.V. Trash” I chuckled at the name and began telling Jason about this recipe. He looked up and said, “that sounds exactly like the Texas Trash” Mimi makes. Sure enough, we had two pretty similar recipes that both our grandmas would make at the holidays.
What is Texas Trash?
Texas Trash, as Mimi calls it, T.V. Trash as Doris calls it, and Chex Party Mix as probably all of the world calls it is a wonderful holiday snack. A mix of Chex, Cheerios (in our home), nuts, and pretzels are slathered in a buttery, savory sauce and baked at a low temperature for hours to get just the right flavor.
While snacking on Mimi’s Texas Trash brings back wonderful holiday memories, there were some much needed updates to her recipe. For starters we agreed that as much as we LOVE bacon, frying enough bacon to make 1/2 cup of grease seemed to be a bit much.
We subbed the bacon grease for dairy-free butter, added some more Lea and Perrins, a dash more seasoning and wound up with one highly snack-able mix!!
Dairy-Free Changes to Chex Party Mix
As previously mentioned, Mimi’s version used bacon grease as part of the coating on the Chex mix, we wanted to make an option that was one less step and vegan-friendly by subbing out the bacon grease for plant based butter.
- Plant-based butter. In place of a traditional butter simply use a plant-based alternative. I typically use Country Crock’s Plant Based Butter Sticks.
Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
Personally I do not follow a vegan diet but I know that many people who follow the dairy-free lifestyle are also vegan. In place of Worcestershire sauce you can try using one of these vegan alternatives:
- Bear & Burton’s W Sauce- Veganshire
- Savory Spice Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- 365 Organic Worcestershire Sauce
How to Make Dairy-Free Chex Party Mix
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chex Cereal– A blend of corn and rice Chex work perfectly in this recipe.
- Cheerios– I like to use traditional, plain Cheerios in this snack mix.
- Pretzel sticks– Broken in half.
- Nuts– A blend of peanuts, pecans, and mixed nuts add a little flavor and change up the texture of the snack mix.
- Chex Mix Sauce- A blend of melted vegan butter, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt coat this addictive snack.
Step-By-Step Directions for Dairy-Free Chex Party Mix
- Prepare for baking: Preheat the oven to 200°F.
- Mix the dry ingredients together: In a MASSIVE mixing bowl stir together the Chex, Cheerios, nuts, and pretzel sticks.
- Whisk the wet ingredients together: In a liquid measuring cup melt vegan butter, mix in Worcestershire, tabasco, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.
- Coat the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients: Pour the liquid into the mixing bowl slowly, stirring the mix to coat.
- Divide and spread the mixture into two 9 X 13 baking dishes.
- Bake for 2 hours, remove every 15 minutes to stir the mixture.
- Cool and store: After 2 hours, remove from oven and allow to come to room temperature. Store in an air tight container, snack as often as desired.
Helpful Kitchen Tools
Making this dairy-free Chex party mix involves a few helpful kitchen tools. Here’s what we use to keep it simple.
- Large liquid measuring cup– For mixing up the wet ingredients.
- Glass mixing bowls– The largest one fits the party mix well.
- Deep 9×13 baking dish– Great for being able to stir the Chex party mix without any spilling over the sides.
Pro Tips for Making Texas Trash
After 5 winters of making diary-free Chex party mix there are a few things I have learned along the way.
- Give yourself at least 2 hours to make this dish. While it takes a long time, your active work is minimal. To pass the time, curl up with a book, work on some laundry, or watch a little Great British Baking while the trash cooks.
- It may help to season and coat the trash with the seasoning in a large bowl, then transfer to your baking dishes.
- If you do not have a large enough bowl, simply measure half of each of the ingredients into the pans and stir carefully.
Savory Snacks to Make Next
If you tried this dairy-free Chex party mix recipe please let me know in the comments below!
You can also share a picture of it with me on Instagram by tagging @mylifeafterdairy so I can see all of your life after dairy adventures!
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Texas Trash- A Dairy-Free Chex Party Mix Recipe
Step up your holiday snack game with this dairy-free chex party mix recipe.
Ingredients
- 6 cups Rice Chex
- 6 cups Corn Chex
- 4 cups Cheerios
- 2 cups Peanuts
- 3 cups Pretzel Sticks Snapped in Half
- 2 cups Mixed Nuts
- ½ cup Pecans
- 1 cup Vegan Butter Melted
- 4 Tablespoons Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 dash Tabasco
- 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder
- 2 teaspoons Onion Powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 200°F.
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Option 1:
In a MASSIVE mixing bowl stir together the Chex, Cheerios, nuts, and pretzel sticks.
In a liquid measuring cup melt vegan butter, mix in Worcestershire, tabasco, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.
Pour the liquid into the mixing bowl slowly, stirring the mix to coat.
Pour the mixture into two 9 X 13 baking dishes.
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Option 2:
In the largest bowl you have stir together HALF of the Chex, Cheerios, nuts, and pretzel sticks.
In a liquid measuring cup melt HALF the vegan butter, mix in HALF the Worcestershire, tabasco, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.
Pour the liquid into the mixing bowl slowly, stirring the mix to coat.
Pour the mixture into a 9 X 13 baking dish. REPEAT with second half.
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Once the mixture is in the baking dishes. Bake for 2 hours, remove every 15 minutes to stir the mixture.
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After 2 hours, remove from oven and allow to come to room temperature. Store in an air tight container, snack as often as desired.
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