For Crowd-Pleasing Chex Mix, Add Andrew Zimmern's Secret Ingredient

What better way to gather a crowd than around a bowl of party mix? There's a reason Chex Mix maintains its status as the absolute best store-bought snack mix, but you can always prepare your own homemade variety using cereal and other custom ingredients for full flavor control. TV chef Andrew Zimmern is known for more than just "Bizarre Foods," and his secret ingredient upgrade to a batch of the snack is a triumph. In a video on Zimmern's Instagram, he shares, "It's hard to improve on something like homemade Chex mix, but everything's better with bacon candy — you can't argue with that. "

Smoky, rich, and fabulous, candied bacon is one unexpected ingredient to add to your homemade snack mix that will easily elevate the offering at your next shindig. Zimmern's recipe calls for the basic ingredients of both corn and rice flavored Chex alongside bagel chips for extra crunch. Combining this with savory spices and sauces, as well as a hearty helping of spiced nuts and candied bacon, will make your snack mix truly unforgettable.

These ingredient additions take a typically carb-heavy snack mix and transform it into a protein-packed nosh. While Zimmern candies his bacon using brown sugar, you can try a maple-cinnamon candied bacon recipe that's bursting with sweet and spicy flavors. Albeit time-consuming, the process of candying bacon is certainly worthwhile to yield delicious results.

Whereas Zimmern uses a cast-iron pan on the stovetop to candy his bacon, you can also do this in the oven for a more hands-off approach. Keep in mind that if you're using the oven to toast any other Chex mix ingredients, you'll want to separate these processes by time and temperature, allowing you to adjust the settings in between. Whichever method you use, be sure to let your bacon fully cool before chopping and incorporating the pieces into your Chex mix.

It's also a good idea to let your entire batch of Chex mix cool before putting out a bowl at your next party. While candied bacon makes a wonderfully sweet and salty addition to this snack, you can use this flavor profile to inspire other ingredient additions. For example, try adding small chocolate chips or mini M&M's once fully cooled to avoid a melty mess.

Or when seasoning your Chex cereal, add smoked paprika to complement the tastes of your candied bacon. Alternatively, try dousing your cereal with some hot sauce prior to baking in the oven for a party mix filled with pleasantly sweet heat. To make your Chex mix even more accessible, try candying plant-based bacon in lieu of a pork-based product. Any way you choose to prepare this mix, a little inspiration from Andrew Zimmern is the way to go.