Gardettos are my weakness for salty spicy snack mix. This recipe for Homemade Gardetto’s is a fun and easy way to make a delicious snack mix for your family! We love the flavor and that you can control all of the ingredients to make it just like your family loves it. This copycat Gardettos Recipe is perfect for tailgating, family BBQs, or holiday parties. No need to buy it when you can make it at home!
How to Make Homemade Gardettos
This Gardettos Recipe can get me through any tough day. In college I was OBSESSED with Gardetto’s. I would stay up late procrastinating and popping this snack mix like candy. I probably could have learned a bit about everything in moderation, but they were just SO darn good! I never dreamed that I could make it in large batches at home so easily.
So often I look back and wish I would have started cooking earlier, but then I probably wouldn’t have this blog all about learning to cook. We already have a favorite Chex Mix recipe on the blog (Mom’s famous for it!) but now we have these Homemade Gardetto’s as an option as well. So flavorful, delicious, and easy! The spicy and salty combination makes this snack mix recipe all I need in life!
Move over Chex Mix, there’s a new favorite snack mix recipe in town!
Copycat Gardettos Recipe
We adapted this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cravings by Chrissy Tiegen. Not only is Chrissy an amazing model and the funniest person on Twitter, she’s also an incredible cook. She compiled some of her favorite approachable and creative recipes into her cookbook and I love it SO much. So many fun and tasty options. These Homemade Gardetto’s stuck out to me as one I wanted to try right away and they took me back to college with the first bite.
Tips and tricks for making Gardettos at home
You know those dark brown little chips in Gardettos? They’re just little spiced pieces of dried rye bread. We made a couple tweaks like using Gardetto’s toast pieces in the recipe instead of toasting our own bread.
If you’d like to make your own, you can use small wheat slices, cut them into fourths, and toast them before throwing them into the mix. An awesome option for sure! We just opted for the easiest path possible to making this recipe exactly like the original.
If you make an amazing snack mix recipe at home, you need some good cocktails to wash it down with. We recommend our Skinny Margarita, Summer Shandy, Champagne Sangria, or Party Punch if you’re serving a crowd. Game Day here we come!
I hope this recipe brings you joy and calms your snack cravings! Hopefully it makes its way to your Super Bowl party, Christmas table, Summer BBQs, long road trips, and beyond.
If you’re looking for more homemade snack mix recipes be sure to check out our Butter Toffee Pretzels, Easy Candied Walnuts, Garlic Parmesan Pasta Chips, and Homemade Chex Mix Recipe. Enjoy!
See the recipe card below for details on How to Make Gardettos. Enjoy!
Homemade Gardetto’s
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Ingredients
- 6 cups Chex cereal rice and corn work well
- 3 ounces Grissini Torinesi Thin Breadsticks broken into 2-inch pieces (1 package)
- 2 cups Itty Bitty Minis Pretzels
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 ounce ranch seasoning store-bought or homemade
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon seasoning salt
- 1½ tablespoons garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups Gardetto Special Request Garlic Rye Chips
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Since this recipe requires two baking sheets, set one oven rack to upper middle and one to lower middle.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cereal, breadsticks, and pretzels.6 cups Chex cereal, 3 ounces Grissini Torinesi Thin Breadsticks, 2 cups Itty Bitty Minis Pretzels
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine butter, dry ranch dip, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Whisk well and cook until butter melts. Remove from heat.½ cup butter, 1 ounce ranch seasoning, ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon hot sauce, ½ teaspoon seasoning salt, 1½ tablespoons garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Stir well and pour butter mixture over the cereal mixture. Stir until all dry ingredients are thoroughly coated.
- Spread half of the cereal mixture, in an even layer, onto a baking sheet. Pour the remaining half over the second baking sheet.
- Place baking sheets in the 300°F oven and bake for a total of 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, add half the Gardetto Rye Chips to each tray and stir.2 cups Gardetto Special Request Garlic Rye Chips
- Rotate the baking sheets, top-to-bottom and front-to-back. Bake another 15 minutes. If the cereal isn't crispy, bake another 5-15 minutes.
- Pour the baked mix onto a clean dishcloth to cool.
- Store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
Mom made this every year, in fact, it wasn’t Xmas without this stuff.
What a wonderful memory, John! Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m a little confused – the recipe states .5 cup of butter then 1/2 stick that would be 1/4 cup right?
The correct measurement is 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)!
Definitely needs to be tweaked 30 minutes is too long and it’s very bland – I tried again with half the cereal pretzels etc and added more season salt, much. We’re
We’re sorry this recipe wasn’t quite to your tastes, Heather! Thanks for sharing what worked for you.
gardettos stans rise up
Hello, have you figured out a way to duplicate the sesame nubbins? Those were my favorite and sadly they removed them from the mix. I fear I will forever roam the earth in search of those delicious nubbins to no avail
I have not yet!
Justin, if you do a quick search for “Italian sesame breadsticks” you may be able to find some near you! They’re a salad accompaniment that some grocers still carry!
Your easy recipes caught my eye. Just enjoying thinking about all the ones I want to try. Good job!!!
Thank you! I hope you get the chance to try them!
Yum! Excited to make this! But Please take out that apostrophe!
Hey Vic! The Brand actually uses an apostrophe so it must be someone’s last name :) http://gardettos.com/
Wow.Thank you very much for this crispy tip.I used to buy gardettos.You made me to prepare this at my home.Loved it
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