A nuts and bolts recipe with homemade ranch that really tastes like ranch! Everyone at your party will be addicted and asking for the recipe. Full of flavor and totally addicting!
Debbie has been making this amazing nuts and bolts with ranch recipe for a long ass time. I think I was probably 16 or so when I first tasted them! Loved them then, love them now and so does everyone else that tries them. Both Debbie and I make these often for a party or a get together and we always have people ask us for the recipe. Always!
Debbie calls it her crack nuts and bolts recipe because you cant stop eating them. Ever. Till they are gone. And then you still want more. It’s a million times better than any nuts and bolts mix that you can buy in the store and it’s really easy to make.
Ingredients in our nuts and bolts recipe:
You know how some people just pick at their favorite parts of the nuts and bolts mix? Well I’m one of those people and my favorite parts of this one are the chex, life cereal, and the pretzels, so pretty much every time I make this nuts and bolts recipe, I only make it with chex, life and pretzels lol. Smart right?
You can make it with whatever you want. There are lots of gluten free options out there for cereal too! Here are a few options:
- cereals: chex, life, shreddies, cheerios… basically any cereal that doesn’t have any sweetener on them
- pretzels or pretzel sticks
- bugles or corn chips
- nuts: walnuts, cashews, pecans, peanuts… go for unsalted if you can or they might turn out too salty with the seasoning mix added.
- raisins or dried cranberries – we haven’t tried these but they might be good
- make it spicy with some added chili powder
About the homemade ranch seasoning:
We used to make this recipe with pre-packaged ranch seasoning. However, as you may know, that most pre-packaged seasoning has MSG and a bunch of other things I cant pronounce so we started making our own ranch seasoning. We tried a couple recipes and all the recipes said that they would taste exactly like ranch. But they didn’t. There was always something missing.
All the homemade recipes were missing the ‘tang’. At first we thought it was salt, but it was more like a citrus tang. The missing ingredient is citric acid! It’s a naturally occurring acid found in citrus fruits and also a natural preservative. You can find it at health food stores in powdered form or here on amazon.
It’s the key to a tangy ranch dressing!
How to make the nuts and bots recipe with ranch:
- First make your ranch seasoning. Mix all the herbs, spices, and seasonings together in a mason jar or similar. Give a a good shake to combine.
- Add the oil, measured ranch seasoning, extra dill and garlic powder to a bowl and give it a good whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Add the cereal and pretzels (or whatever combination that you choose) to a large bowl or container. Pour some of the oil mixture over the dry mix and stir really well. Continue to pour and stir in batches until the oil mixture is gone.
- Let the nuts and bots recipe just sit for a while to absorb the oil.
Tip: You just have to make sure that you make it at least a couple hours before you are wanting to serve it. Even the day before. It needs to be mixed well a number of times to coat all the goodies in the seasoning really well and the oil needs time to sink in and dry. You don’t want an oily mix. But don’t kid yourself, you will be stealing from the bowl before its good and ready. Mark my words!
Tools to Make This Nuts and Bolts recipe with Ranch even Easier:
- BIG Mixing Bowl – as this is a lot of cereal and you need to be able to mix well, you will need a big ass bowl! We love this one because it has a lid AND its pink!
- Cute weck jars – we love these for storing extra ranch seasoning or anything else you like
Other appetizer recipes you might like:
- hot cheese dip with onions and gruyere
- how to create the perfect cheese board
- short rib flatbread pizza
- whiskey beef sliders
If you’ve tried this crack nuts and bolts recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out in the comments below. We love hearing from you!
To save this recipe for later on Pinterest, click here!
We love to see your creations! Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM
Crack Nuts and Bolts with Homemade Ranch Dressing
Nuts and bolts with ranch seasoning that's homemade and really tastes like ranch! Everyone at your party will be addicted and asking for the recipe.
Ingredients
FOR THE RANCH SEASONING
- 1/4 cup buttermilk powder
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp minced dried onion
- 1 tsp dill weed
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 tsp citrus acid powder (don’t leave out)
FOR THE NUTS AND BOLTS
- 4 tbsp ranch dressing powder
- 1/2 cup olive oil or any vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp dill weed
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 8 cups of cereal and nuts if you want (pretzels, cheerios, chex, life, shreddies, cashews....)
Instructions
FOR THE RANCH SEASONING
- First make your ranch seasoning. Mix all the herbs, spices, and seasonings together in a mason jar or similar. Give a a good shake to combine.
FOR THE NUTS AND BOLTS
Add the oil, measured ranch seasoning, extra dill and garlic powder to a bowl and give it a good whisk to combine. Set aside.
Add the cereal and pretzels (or whatever combination that you choose) to a large bowl or container. Pour some of the oil mixture over the dry mix and stir really well. Continue to pour and stir in batches until the oil mixture is gone.
Let the nuts and bots recipe just sit for a while to absorb the oil. Let it sit for an hour or so and mix again. Continue this pattern till the mixture starts to get dry and all the pieces are well coated.
Recipe Notes
1. You can also use pre-packaged ranch seasoning if you want to. You would use two packages for this recipe.
2. You can also use this Ranch Seasoning to make a salad dressing and best of all NO MSG or other crap! Just mix with some mayo and a little coconut milk. We havent done this yet so we cant give you exact measurements yet.
2 tbsp. of this mixture = 1 pkg. hidden valley ranch
Where can I find Citrus Acid Powder?
Hi Angela,
Debbie got citric acid poweder from a health food store. I dont believe its in regular grocery stores, but I think it is fairly easy to find in health food stores. Its worth hunting for. It makes all the difference in this ranch seasoning mix!
Citric acid powder is sold in plastic bottles by Ball for canning, to keep your fruit from going brown. A good source of vitamin C. Available at any place you can buy canning supplies. Menards, Walmart or many supermarkets.
Hi, it said garlic powder in the ingredients and then garlic salt in the directions. Which one is it? Thanks 🙂
Thanks for pointing that out. I have adjusted the recipe and instructions. Enjoy!