Try this at your next party.
Okay, everyone's working on Turkey (glad to see all the success, makes my little Q heart just smoke with happiness). I certainly wasn't the first to brine, but glad to see everyone is joining in. Soooooo, I had to do something else to get everyone thinking. took a version of the chex mix and instead of adding liquid smoke (smokin's opinion YUCK!)
I smoked the chex mix instead.
I mixed the batch up (it was a big batch, I put it in a really large kitchen sack), added the ingredients. Set the smoker at 210, split the mix up into small pans and smoked with a very small amount of pecan...
WOW, love that real smoke flavor[/b], the smokin' family taste testers gave their thumbs up. We now have another tradition.
One option is to add some hot sauce to this mixture for a little kick, just use your favorite, but add a LITTLE at a time, too much will ruin it.
My opinion, the right amount of spice enhances, doesn't burn. I'm sure there will be a few questions, so here's the the recipe.
This recipe is for a conventional oven. I did this in my smoker, in multiple pans at 210 and it took 3 hours to dry it completely.
Smokin Okie's Party Mix
The blend of sweet and spicy gives this mix a real unique flavor. Feel free to change any ingredients and make it your own
Sauce ingredients
- 1 lb. Margarine
- 2 c. bacon fat (I use the renderings from 2 lbs. cheap bacon)
- 1 c. Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 c. teriyaki sauce
- 1/2 c. soy sauce
- 1/2 c. maple syrup
- 4 T. chili powder
- 4 T. Tabasco sauce (or 1 t. Habenero paste, or some combination to fit your taste)
- 2 T. savory salt
- 2 T. liquid smoke
- 2 T. garlic powder
- 2 T. celery salt
Dry ingredients
- 1 box Cheerios (~16 cups)
- 1 box Crispix (~16 cups)
- 2 bags pretzels (~16 cups - I use one of sticks and one of rounds to provide a more varied texture)
- 1 box Alpha-Bits (~12 cups)
- 1 box Captain Crunch (~12 cups)
- 2 lbs. Dry roasted peanuts
- 2 lbs. Pecan halves
Combine sauce ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil.
Cool mixture while combining dry ingredients in a kitchen-sized garbage bag.
Add sauce to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
NOTE: Sometimes I'll double the batch of the "sauce". After you try it the first time, you can decide if you need more of it.
Pour mixture into 3 large roasting pans. Cook in 200-210 oven with door ajar until dry (4-5 hours), stirring every 30 minutes. An additional roasting pan is useful for stirring. Put in airtight containers and give to friends.
It is important to share this, although not for strictly altruistic reasons. If you keep an entire batch around the house, you will eat it all and get fat. This stuff freezes well, although it seldom lasts long enough for freshness to be a problem.
Notes: This is a pretty dynamic recipe. The actual cereals change from time to time. Sometimes I use Crispix, sometimes Rice or Corn Chex, and sometimes a combination. Sometimes I leave out the pecans (they're the most expensive ingredient, but oh, so good), and add a second box of non-sweet cereal. They don't seem to make Alpha-Bits that aren't sugar-frosted any more, so I'm currently using Waffle Crisp. The trick is to get the ratio of the sweet cereals to the other dry ingredients right to balance the spicy sauce. The correct balance, of course, depends on how spicy you've made the sauce.
Smokin Okie's Party Mix