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This Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Recipe is THE BEST and easiest way to make granola bars! Plus, they’re cheaper and healthier than the store-bought kind!
You guys, I have found THE BEST and easiest way to make granola bars on this sweet planet earth. I was looking for recipe ideas and came across a few Pinterest photos that had me swooning over chewy chocolate chip granola bars and it made me want to try my hand at them. After a few testers, I ended up with a super kid and school lunch-friendly, *slightly* healthier version that has gotten rave review after rave review.
Granola Bar Recipe
These are pretty darn simple granola bars AND amazingly delicious. I was seriously shocked at how well these turned out for 3 minutes of work. Literally 3 minutes. If you have kids make these! Heck, even if you don’t, make ’em anyways. They are great snacks or fast breakfasts. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Butter – this is part of the boiled sugar mixture. Some readers have found that peanut butter works great here.
- Honey – a natural sweetener.
- Brown Sugar – more sweetener, this also is part of the boiled sugar mixture along with the honey.
- Quick Cooking Oats – not rolled oats!
- Crispy Rice Cereal – some readers have replaced this with other cereals such as Cheerios or Chex.
- Vanilla – to help the flavor.
- Mini Chocolate Chips – optional but highly recommended.
How to make granola bars
- In a small saucepan, heat up some butter, honey and brown sugar over medium-high heat. Stir it together, reduce heat to medium low and let it simmer for up to 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
- While that is heating up, measure out oats and Rice Krispies into a large bowl.
- Stir in vanilla extract into the hot syrup.
- Pour the hot syrup over the dry ingredients and stir well to coat.
- Press firmly into a greased jelly roll pan using either buttered fingers or a greased spatula.
- Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.
- Cool to room temperature for about 1 hour or until set.
- Cut into bars, wrap individually and use as desired.
Adapting your granola bar recipe
The beauty of this recipe is how adaptable it is. You can make lots of granola bar flavor combinations and create your very own recipe, based on what you and your family like. Feel free to add in raisins, nuts, maple syrup, flax seeds, cinnamon, butterscotch chips, coconut, agave, craisins, citrus zest, the list goes on!
Getting the boiled sugar mixture right
This recipe is very much dependent on the boiled sugar mixture. If your granola bars don’t seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have not boiled the mixture long enough…you want it to make it just past the softball stage.
If you boil the mixture TOO MUCH, then once they set, they will be nearly too hard to eat. So, the best way to set yourself up for success is to bring the honey-butter mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes.
Storing
After your bars have set, cut into portions, wrap individually in parchment paper or plastic wrap and store the whole lot of them in a large airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 7 days. I don’t like refrigerating or freezing because then the bars get really hard and don’t keep their amazing chewy texture, even after defrosting.
Of course, you can store them however you like, but keep in mind they are enjoyed best at room temperature.
More Granola Bars to Try!
- No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Homemade Granola Recipe with Almonds
- No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars Recipe
- No-Bake Nut and Seed Bars
- Homemade Granola
Printable recipe card is below. Make sure to save this recipe because it’s a good one for any day of the week. Enjoy!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups quick-cooking oats not rolled oats
- 1 cup crispy rice cereal
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium-high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. (should take 1-2 minutes) Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients.
- Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly.
- Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
I have probably made this recipe about 10 times now. My whole family loves them and they always disappear pretty quickly so I always double the recipe. Thank you so much for sharing!
These are AMAZING, I gave made these 6 or 7 times now and they have never failed. Thank you!
Love these, and make them often for my son’s lunches. Only variation is I add some chia seeds and ground flaxseed and compensate with an extra tbsp of butter.
How long should they be good for once made and stored? I do room temp in Tupperware and they last 10 days. No issues but wasn’t sure if it should be that long.
I haven’t tried these yet but am going to! Just for a different flavor, has anyone tried adding some maple syrup? Maybe help with the binding?
Can I make extra for the whole month? Or will they go bad?
These are delicious! Could the butter be replaced with coconut oil?
These are truly amazing and exactly what I was looking for! Keeper!!!
I’m sorry these weren’t good at all!!! It tasted way too much like honey and not a granola bar. I don’t know if it’s bcuz I use really honey and not the store bought corn syrup crap.
Very Yumy
So delicious, we are in Paraguay and couldn’t find rice cereal so I just chopped up pecans and walnuts, worked perfectly! Can’t wait to try with peanut butter mixed in and maybe some almonds.
Oh and also toasted oats and nuts for 8 mins at 400.
These did not turn out as expected. Do you cook oats first. Recipe never specified. Mine bars were soggy.
In our house we go through granola bars incredibly quickly and they’re not cheap so thought I’d have a go making the,.Made them exactly as the recipe said and turned out great (ok, possibly a few more chocolate chips!) . They were a bit crumbly but I think I made them too thin. Hit with the whole family and we finished them in a day so today I’m going to try to double the recipe. Maybe add some salted peanuts to play with salty/sweet
Curious if you could substitute the butter for coconut oil?
Also would the recipe work well if protein powder was added to make them higher in protein, as well as less sugar to reduce the sweetness/carbohydrates to make them more macro friendly?
Absolutely delicious and they taste way better than the store bought version. So glad I found this recipe!
This recipe was great and tasted so good! I used white baking morsels (vanilla) I also mixed a little bit in with the dry mix and it was great. I followed the recipe to a T with boil time and everything and it didnt stick together very well, not sure what I did.
These granola bars are the best so filling so tasty!!
So glad I found this. My son has had an eczema flair up for a while now and I’ve been trying to avoid any foods that might trigger. It’s so hard to know what’s in the food you buy, so I said let’s make some. Did this recipe exactly and they’re very good! I just tweaked it to add chia seeds and flax seeds to give it a fiber boost. Thanks for sharing!