Hey everybody welcome to my kitchen. Who doesn't want bacon snack mix? I worked on this recipe, and kind of, updated,
the traditional Chex-Mix vibe with some spiced nuts and lots and lots of candied bacon into
what I think is single best snack mix ever invented. And I'm taking full credit for it. So the first thing I want to do is my Chex
Mix into the oven. I've got some Chex Mix here, rice and corn,
I'm going to combine those. The recipe, I think, makes about 10 cups. Which you're going to want. Because it keeps really well in a zip block
bag. These are toasted bagel chips. But here are all your toasted goodies. If you like pretzels in yours, go ahead and
put pretzels in. I have some melted butter here and I'm going to season that with smoked salt,
from Jacobsen, Colonel Pabst Worcestershire, I have garlic powder and onion powder. And I have come cayenne pepper cause I want
it to be nice and spicy I'm going to take a fork, and get a nice homogenous
mixture here. And then drizzle this and toss. And then this goes in to a 250 degree – 275
degree oven for an hour, or an hour and ten minutes until it's nice and crip and toasty. Next up, the bacon. This is a pound of beautiful, applewood-smoked-nitrate-free
Nueske's bacon. But you can use whatever bacon you like. And I'm just cutting these into half inch
slices cause when they render and shrink – right – they're going to almost mimic in size
my Chex Mix. Ahh, the sizzling sound of bacon... In a cast iron skillet . Just let those cook a little while, render
the fat. We're going to crisp them up, we're going
to tilt away some of the fat, we're going to add the brown sugar and caramelize them,
and then we're going to lay them into a no-stick pan to let them cool. So, let me get my nuts. These nuts just came out of the oven. They're a little warm. But that's fine. Pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, do whatever
you like. They're lightly toasted, you don't want to
over toast them and scorch them. I have a couple tablespoons of butter, and
I'm going to throw that into my pan. I've got some rum here. If you notice what I'm doing is I'm season
the Chex Mix one way, the nut mix another way, and the bacon a third way. And then, it's all going to come together
into one, sort of, symphonic thing. Alright. My butter is ready. There we go. And I'm just going to toss this once or twice,
to combine, and then I'm just going to let it cook away until that pan in dry. So we'll get our seasoning mixture ready. Curry powder. Cumin. Cinnamon. Chili powder. So you can see there, I have a very basic
masala spice mix. Sugar and salt. Let's combine that. Oh, smells like a spice bizarre. So, once I start to smell those nuts toasting
and browning, I just want to be a little more vigilant. Right? Do you see now, that we've evaporated almost
all the liquid?You could actually see that they've gotten glazey. That is another sign that we're nearing completion. Now, with our bacon, you can see how much
fat has rendered off. We have about a half cup of fat in there. Now it's time to be vigilant with my bacon. I want it all to be crispy, this isn't that
far away from being finished. Alright, no more liquid, nuts are toasted
in that brown butter and really shinny. Dump it into our spice mix. Ooh, the smell of that curry and cinnamon... Only so much of your spice mix can cling to
the nuts. But that left over spice mix with the sugar
and salt is delicious, and will wind up into snack mix when we combine them. So, our bacon is crispy. I'm going to tip away the fat. And I'm going to add my brown sugar to the
pan. And return it to the heat. And when the brown sugar melts, it will begin
to caramelize it. Won't take long. But you want to make sure your brown sugar
isn't sandy anymore. Look at that, that's perfect. And I'm just going to spill that out onto
there in clumps. This is going to take 15, 20 minutes at least,
to cool. Perfectly seasoned Chex Mix, Iove this. Don't do the variations that are online, please
do this one. It tastes more natural, and more wholesome. That smoked salt comes through there. Spiced nuts. Homemade. Sugar, salt, the flavors of the Indian snack
bizarre. This is the predominant salty item in the
dish. The goal here is to have something that's
crunchy, salty and sweet at the same time with all of those wonderful
flavors. And then, bacon candy. I'm just breaking some of the larger pieces
here. Add the bacon candy to the snack mix. Magic. This is my bacon candy snack mix. No, I really meant it. It's MY bacon candy snack mix. As in no one else is getting any of this because
it's so good. But I give it freely to you, but you have
to make it for yourself. But now you know how.
