Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
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These chewy, crispy no-bake chocolate chip granola bars are easy to make — and they put all those store-bought bars to shame.
Chocolate chip granola bars are a staple in my pantry, but between my husband, my kids, and my kids’ hungry friends, I can’t seem to keep enough of them in the house. So I figured it was time to try and make them from scratch, and maybe even sneak in some health food. After many trials, I finally cracked the code and came up with a version that puts all those store-bought bars to shame. What’s more, they’re no-bake and take only ten minutes to make.
Table of Contents
“My kids rated these infinity out of ten. And my husband, the man who once left a 3 Michelin star restaurant proclaiming he’s ‘had better’ said these were delicious!”
What You’ll Need To Make Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Butter: Adds richness and helps bind the ingredients together.
- Brown Sugar: Provides sweetness and contributes to the chewy texture.
- Honey: Acts as a natural binder and adds sweetness.
- Vanilla: Enhances the flavor profile with its aromatic essence.
- Quick-Cooking/Instant Oats: Serve as the base for texture and substance.
- Crispy Rice Cereal: Adds crispiness and lightness to the bars.
- Sliced Almonds: Introduce nuttiness and extra crunch.
- Flax Meal or Wheat Germ: Offers additional nutritional value and helps with binding.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: Provide little pockets of chocolatey goodness throughout the bars.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Begin by combining the butter, brown sugar, and honey in a large pan.
Bring it to a boil, then let it bubble over low heat for a few minutes to thicken slightly.
Off the heat, stir in the salt and vanilla extract.
Then add the oats, crispy rice cereal, almonds, and flax meal (or wheat germ).
Fold the mixture with a rubber spatula until evenly combined.
Transfer the granola bar mixture to a 9 x 13-inch pan lined with aluminum foil.
Press the mixture lightly with a rubber spatula to flatten, then sprinkle the chocolate chips over top. Use the spatula to press the chips firmly into place and compact the mixture into the pan as much as possible. (The reason you don’t mix the chips in is that they’ll melt.)
Place the pan in the refrigerator for 1-1/2 -2 hours, until the bars are cool. Then use the foil overhang to lift the bars out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut into rectangles.
Keep the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator; if you have to stack them, be sure to use parchment paper or foil in between the layers, otherwise, they’ll crumble and stick. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s important to stick with quick-cooking oats which are rolled oats that have been coarsely chopped. Regular old-fashioned oats are too coarse and chewy for this recipe and cause the bars to fall apart. If you don’t have any quick-cooking oats in your pantry, you can make your own by pulsing regular oatmeal in the food processor a few times.
Sure! Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. If you have to stack the granola bars, be sure to use parchment paper or foil in between the layers; otherwise, they’ll stick together and fall apart. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Before serving, move them to the refrigerator to thaw.
Yes, these bars offer great versatility. If chocolate chips aren’t your thing, you can opt for raisins or cranberries. Similarly, if almonds aren’t to your taste or if you are dealing with a nut allergy, swap them out for unsalted sunflower seeds. While oats and rice cereal are essential, you have plenty of freedom to substitute other ingredients as long as you maintain the wet-to-dry ingredient ratio.
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
These chewy, crispy no-bake chocolate chip granola bars are easy to make — and they put all those store-bought bars to shame.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Heaping ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups quick-cooking/instant oats, such as Quaker Quick 1-Minute Oats (do not use regular old-fashioned oats)
- 1¾ cups crispy rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- ¼ cup flax meal or wheat germ
- ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips (or to taste)
Instructions
- Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large pot, combine the butter, brown sugar and honey. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
- Add the oats, rice cereal, almonds and flax meal (or wheat germ) to the pan and fold with a rubber spatula until well combined.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press down lightly with a rubber spatula to even out. Sprinkle the miniature chocolate chips over top, adding more or less to suit your taste, and press down firmly with the spatula so the chips stick.The mixture should be tightly compacted in the pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 1½ - 2 hours to cool.
- Use the foil overhang to transfer the uncut bars to a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut into rectangles. Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you have to stack them, be sure to use parchment paper or foil in between the layers, otherwise they'll stick together and fall apart.
- Note: If you are substituting dried fruit for the chocolate chips, mix it in along with the other ingredients as opposed to sprinkling over top.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The granola bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Let them cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, move them to the refrigerator and store there.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 bar
- Calories: 187
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated fat: 3g
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Sugar: 12g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 4g
- Sodium: 21mg
- Cholesterol: 11mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I love these and more importantly my husband loves them. However, I am having trouble having them stay together. I refrigerate them but they still crumble. Thoughts?
Hi Lizzie, When you store them, do you use parchment paper or foil in between the layers? If not, that would help a lot. Also, refrigerating them helps to keep them from being crumbly.
Can they be frozen?
Yes Terri, I think they would freeze nicely.
I make these often and change ingredients according to what’s on hand. All I can say is that the honey/brown sugar/butter mixture is magical, making WHATEVER you add in taste delicious.
One question though: sometimes they’re a little soft and fall apart easily. Do you find this to be true when you make them, Jen? It’s not a deterrent in making them, but if it could be remedied through better or different technique, I’d love to know. Thanks!
Hi Kaime, They are a bit crumbly if left out at room temperature but I find they hold together very well if kept cold. Are you refrigerating them?
I usually add nut butter to granola bars..helps it stay together and gives it extra yum.
Hi, can I add 1/2 cup of protein powder to the dry mixture before mixing in the wet mixture ? Thank you so much . Julie
Sure Julie, just reduce another dry ingredient in the recipe by 1/2 cup. I’d love to know how they turn out with the protein powder!
I have made this recipe a dozen times now and it is amazing!!!! These bars are so simple and delicious, I can’t keep enough of them in the house. Just follow the recipe to a T and you can’t go wrong.
Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Looks delicious (and easy to make). Can’t wait to give it a shot. Can I substitute honey with agave? If so, do I use the same amount? Thanks!
Hi Jillian, I think you could use agave instead of honey; they will just lack that distinctive honey flavor. I’d love to know how they turn out this way!
I use the agave and they turned out great!
My new go to for granola bars. No more buying them for me. These are perfect thanks for sharing!
I don’t know who likes these more, my three children or me. They are an absolute favorite in our house. I often add dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries, chopped apricots) to the mix and skip the chocolate chips. Either way, they are delicious. My only complaint is they disappear so quickly!
Thanks Jen for another great recipe.
I have made these many times, they are perfect for a sweet lunchbox treat. Most recently I made some for a charity bake sale at work. One batch chocolate-chip and another using cranberries.
I work for a newspaper and our very well respected food editor was raving about them. She bought 6 of them and the rest were gone in a flash!
So thank you for sharing such an easy versatile and tasty recipe 🙂
Couple of questions, Can I use regular brown sugar instead of the dark brown sugar? Also is there any chance you figured out a calorie count for these bars?
Hi Cat, Regular brown sugar is fine, and you’ll find the nutritional data beneath the recipe.
I just made your granola bars and they are fantastic everyone raved about them thanks for sharing
Hi
How long do the granola bars last in the fridge.
My boys loved these granola bars. My oldest son said they were the best he ever had. Thank you!!
Delicious! Sinful as is and still delicious if you reduce the amount of butter / sugar / chocolate.
I only have salted butter or margarine. Can I use either of those as substitutes in the recipe and just eliminate the extra salt?
Yes Lucia, that should work. (I would use the butter as opposed to the margarine.)
I wanted a granola bar without all the extra ingredients that you get from the processed ones. I already make my own granola, so I decided to try this simple recipe for bars, which I did yesterday. The rice krispies definitely add a nice touch. It has a very similar taste to Rice Krispie treats. I halved the recipe since it would just be me alone enjoying this, but I should have done the whole batch. I can’t get enough. My hubby enjoys it as well, which is great especially since he’s not a major fan of any kind of nut. Definitely a keeper. I’ll also be trying your honey nut granola bars too, once these are done, which will be soon. Thanks Jenn for the great recipe!
Excellent! I made a batch the other day and they are hands down better than any store bought granola bars. I needed some recipes for honey since a friend start his own hives a while ago and I have a lot of fresh honey. I substituted unsalted sunflower seeds for the almonds. I want to experiment with many other additives and am thinking about dried fruits. They were a great, tasty, easy snack for me and the kids. Definitely will be making more!!!
Thanks for the recipe. These are so amazing. They’ve become a staple for my kids’ school lunches. I add my flax meal to the liquids during their last minute of boiling. It helps them bind better. Love these. 🙂
Great tip — thank you!
This step is critical. Helps
them bind ALOT better. Also cooked the sugar honey mix to about 230°. In our heat and humidity they melted as soon as they came out of fridge. After these adjustmemts ABSOLUTLY PERFECT!!!! Dont be affraid to play around ?
I LOVE this recipe! I modified it a bit but it has become a hit with my kids (swimmers) with their own unique flavoring combos! Even my husband’s boss asked for the recipe after my husband shared a bar with him and he shared it with his family, who completely loved it, too! A wild hit with kids AND adults! Thank you!!!
Hi, I’m about to make these, do you think it would be OK to leave out the almonds and not sub any other ingredient?
Hi Kat, Yes that should be fine.
Great Recipe and the entire family loves them!
I normally double the recipe and it makes a jelly roll pan full (12X18″ pan).
You can also pull back on 1/2 the butter with flax seed oil.
These were amazing! I used splenda brown sugar blend and sugarfree honey and they turned out great!
Where do you get sugar free honey?
Thanks for this great recipe. My kids loved it. I find it a bit sweet, so I might cut down on the sugar a little bit. I added psyllium husks, and swapped the chocolate chips for cocoa nibs. These freeze really well, so I see many double batches in the future! Might add some protein powder next time. Not just for a kids. I took a batch to work, and they were devoured.
I just prepared these and I was about to bake…I don’t see the temp listed. My guess would be 350 degrees like your other bars? 🙂
Hi Mary Anne, These are actually no-bake so no need to even turn on the oven 🙂
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe! My 1st batch held together perfectly. I especially loved the texture but felt like the taste of honey was a little strong. I tried a 2nd batch today and substituted maple syrup for the honey. While this tasted amazing, the bars fell apart as I tried to cut them. Do you have any suggestions for making this recipe work with maple syrup or other honey alternative?
Hi Rebecca, I’m so glad you enjoyed the bars! You need the sticky honey to hold them together. The only thing I can think of is subbing some of the honey with peanut butter.
Hi, Can I substitute chia seeds for the flax seeds?
Hi Rosie, Yes, I think that will work. Enjoy!
Sounds like a great recipe; can’t wait to try! Question: I have a granola mix at home right now that I’m thinking would work well in this recipe (Flax Plus® Pumpkin Flax Granola), but I’m unsure how much to use. It already has many of the dry ingredients included (oats, crisp rice, pumpkin and flax seeds), so what measurement would you recommend?
Thanks!
Hi Lainie, I guess that would be 4-1/2 cups, if you were to sub that for the oats, rice krispies, flax and nuts. Hope it turns out!
I have been looking forever to make a granola bar type of snack for my kids and these sound delicious. But my youngest is allergic to Rice. Is there any type of substitution for the rice krispies? Would love to try these.
Hi Kitrina, You can use more oats but, unfortunately, the texture won’t be quite the same. Sorry!
This is a late suggestion, but there are several other options for puffed grained cereals out there. I think puffed wheat, kamut and quinoa are available at health food style stores.
Is there any way to lower the amount of sugar or honey? Mine turned out to taste like toffee and I can’t taste anything else (oats, chocolate chips).
Hi Lena, You might try reducing the sugar or honey and adding some peanut butter — this will help them stick together.
So my son does NOT eat any type of granola bars…but he had one bite of these and asked me to make more! He wants to eat them 🙂 I am so happy! Thanks!!!
These are a staple in lunch boxes now that school is back in session. Both my children enjoy them & they stick together well as long as refrigerated so don’t forget a freezer pack in the lunchbox. I send wrapped in foil.
I have been eyeing this recipe for some time now. My husband asked me to make healthy granola bars for him. I have a huge bag of sea salted almonds I’d like to use up. I see the recipe calls for plain almonds? If I use the sea salt ones I would omit adding the additional salt the recipe calls for correct? Or do you think I should go buy the plain almonds? I’d hate to make beautiful bars and have them be too salty. Thanks!
Hi Nicole, I think the salted almonds will work as long as you omit the additional salt. Please let me know how they turn out.
Is there a tip for making the granola bars stick together? They’re very delicious, but mine crumbled.
Hi Alison, The key is to store them in the fridge — they hold together when cool. Some other readers have added a few tablespoons of peanut butter in place of some of the butter.
I have noticed that if you make sure to do what Jenn says and let the butter/sugar/honey mix bubble and get nice and thick you should have no problem. Recipe states 2min, but you may want to go longer . I live in tucson,az (super hot and muggy this time of year) and leave my bars at room temp and they never fall apart
I had the same issue and will try the solution suggested by Katrina. I live in AZ also and think it is the heat also. Love the recipe Jenn! (Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and/or raisins are great substitutions for the almonds.)
Great recipe! I substitute half of the butter for chunky peanut butter and maple syrup instead of honey. Ive tried many granola bar recipes and these are the ONLY ones that actually hold together! Thank you!
I’m keen to make these! Before I start are your American measurements in this different to Australian (our cup is 250 mills). How do you think I’d go adding sultanas to the mix?
Hi Michelle, I went ahead and updated the recipe with metric measurements (this is a new feature on my site and I’m still in the process of updating older recipes). I think sultanas would be wonderful!
These are good, but also addictive. Kinda defeats the whole “healthy eating” purpose. They also crumble too easily, especially when left in room temperature for too long.
Super easy! I’m a terrible cook and I was still able to do it successfully.
I made these today after reading the reviews. Oh my goodness they are AMAZING! Better than shop bought. I followed the recipe exactly & they are perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. One to keep.
I made the recipe exactly as listed and they are wonderful! The honey and almonds really make it.
Amazing granola bars. I have been tweaking and tweaking with each new batch, creating smores, tropical, peanut butter cup, etc etc. I still use the base recipe and never, ever take out that awesomely good-for you flax. The whole family pines for them and I have pledged to create “granola bricks” for everyone for christmas this year.
I made them last night. But I left them in the fridge for two hours took them out to try one and my bar crumbled out of my hand. Any tips you can give me so they don’t crumble for next time? Otherwise they were delishious!
Hi Chelsea, Happy to help troubleshoot. That’s strange that they crumbled right out of the fridge…did you make any substitutions by chance?
Mine crumble as well it’s just the recipe you’ve made. It’s not a good one. Too much honey won’t help it stick together.
Hi, how long could I keep these bars for in an airtight container?
Hi Rhea, I’d say they keep very well for about a week.
While these taste great, they remind me more of rice krispies treats than of actual granola bars… I think next time I will try omitting the rice krispies and replacing them by oats.
I just made these this morning, haven’t cut them into bars nor tasted them yet, but I found one very important step was left out of the recipe: the granola needs to be cooled down before springkling the chocolate chips. I’m thinking 30 minutes in the fridge, maybe. My chocolate chips melted and I could not compact the granola all that much because the melted chocolate adhered to the spatula and made a big mess. I wonder why no one mentionned this, how did everyone get their chocolate chips to not melt???
Hi Isabelle, Did you use chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate?
I used HERSHEY’S Chipits Pure Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips.
Holy moly! So delicious. My 8 yr old voluntarily put away her Trader Joe cookie that she had just bought for dessert and asked to eat this instead. My 4 yr, a big fan of store bought chewy granola bars, stared in disbelief when I told her I made them.
I followed the recipe exactly (but did add unsweetened coconut because I add that to everything). Didn’t have quick oats so I quickly pulsed old fashion in the blender.
DELICIOUS! My then 5 year old threw a temper tantrum because we got Target brand granola bars instead of Quaker. I never bought another granola bar, almost 3 years later I tried this recipe, something to keep the kids busy making and a snack they could grab for themselves while i garden. I LOVE LOVE this recipe. it’s easy and DELICIOUS! Both boys love the taste, texture and how fun it was to make from scratch.
Can coconut oil be substituted for the butter?
Hi Gina, Yes, that should work fine.
This was a huge hit with kids and adults in my house! Also, something that is increasingly important: while these are called “granola” bars, they do not contain granola. Granola contains gluten. My oldest step-daughter is gluten intolerant. Anyone out there who is wondering if these are gluten free or not– they ARE GLUTEN FREE. Also, if you leave the chocolate chips out they can be completely lactose free. These can very easily be made very hypoallergenic for anyone with food allergies in their household, as the almonds are not a necessity either.
Followed the recipe but I also added shredded coconut to the top. I left them out for over an hour and they never hardened. I placed them in the fridge and the freezer afterwards and they were still crumbly. Also, can I leave out the butter? The bars tasted good but was too buttery. As a healthy snack can I substitute the butter or just leave it out because the butter/honey/sugar mixture settled to the bottom of the bar and was too sticky.
Hi Arielle, That’s strange that they never came together — even in the fridge. Did you make any substitutions? I’ve never made them without butter — they might be too dry.
These are wonderful, but the honey taste is a little bit too much for us. What can I do to reduce or replace the honey in these?
Hi Melissa, You can replace some of the honey with brown sugar.