This Easy Chewy Honey Granola Bars recipe yields homemade granola bars made with honey, oats and optional banana chips. These honey bars are a quick, easy recipe. They're a great wholesome snack, and ultra customizable, so you can include any kind of dried fruit, nuts, seeds or chocolate chips.
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I created this recipe for Sue Bee honey. They requested something less like a true dessert, and more like a sweet mid-morning snack! I used their spun honey, but regular honey will work too. In researching flavor pairings for honey, I came across soy sauce and banana. This trio is delicious, so don't knock it 'til you try it. The sweet honey is balanced by the salty soy, and the banana chips give just enough crunch to keep the texture interesting. But rest assured, you can use practically any salt or mix-in in place of the soy sauce and banana chips. This recipe is adapted from Inspired Taste, where they use almonds, chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
What takes these chewy granola bars to the next level is toasting the oats. It intensifies their flavor and fragrance. I also do this in my chocolate oat ice cream, and it makes such a difference. Another recipe you could try this toasted oat method out on is my apple oat crumble, although I recommend cutting the toasting time in half, because the oats will continue toasting as the crumble bakes.
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Why you'll love this recipe
- These use wholesome ingredients and I find them to have a better texture than store-bought granola bars!
- The honey flavor is strong, and helps the chewy texture.
- Banana chips give these a nice crunch to contrast the chew! Nuts would be a great substitution here if you don't have banana chips on hand.
Ingredients
- Oats are the base of these delicious honey oat bars. I use old fashioned oats, but you could use quick oats in a pinch.
- Unsalted butter adds richness and flavor.
- Honey flavors the granola bars and gives the bars their chew.
- Light brown sugar also helps with chew and flavor.
- Vanilla extract balances the overall flavor.
- Soy sauce provides saltiness and brings out the honey flavor.
- Banana chips mix in at the end for a nice little crunch!
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and variations
Here's how to customize these easy chewy honey granola bars to your liking:
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- Coconut — add toasted sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes in place of the banana chips and/or swap half of the butter for coconut oil in the honey mixture.
- Nuts and seeds — instead of, or in addition to the banana chips, add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, almonds or pecans to the oat mixture.
- Another sweetener — if you want to swap any of the brown sugar or honey for another sweetener, try to use a similar textured sweetener. For example, if you want to swap the honey for something, use something equally thick and sticky, like molasses, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup or brown rice syrup. I do not recommend using maple syrup, as it is too thin. For swapping the light brown sugar, you could use granulated sugar, coconut sugar or dark brown sugar.
- Chocolate — if you want to add chocolate chips, I recommend letting the wet sticky mixture cool off for at least 5 minutes before combining with the cooled oats and THEN add the chocolate chips. Some may still melt. Another great way to add chocolate would be to dip the bottoms of the finished bars in melted chocolate melting waters and/or drizzle the tops with melted chocolate.
- Another dried fruit — dried cranberries, raisins, blueberries, mango or apricot would be really nice in these.
This recipe has not been tested with any substitutions or variations. If you try any, please let me know how it turned out by commenting below!
How to make Easy Chewy Honey Granola Bars Step-By-Step
Step 1: Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper with overhang for easy release. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (optional). Pour the oats on the pan and spread out evenly. Place in the oven to toast for 10-12 mins, or until fragrant. Remove from the oven and pour into a large heat proof bowl to cool for now.
Step 2: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt together the butter, honey and brown sugar. Cook until boiling and just until all the sugar granules are melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and soy sauce.
Step 3: Pour the warm melted ingredients into the bowl with the oats.
Step 4: Stir, then add the banana chips and stir again. Pour the sticky mixture into the prepared pan.
Step 5: Press down as hard as you can all over with greased hands or another sheet of parchment paper. Top with more banana chips and press again. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to firm up.
Step 6: Remove from the pan and slice into 12 bars. Make one cut down the center, then five cuts perpendicular to the first cut. Store in an airtight container with parchment paper prevents the bars from touching, as they will be quite sticky!
Top tips
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days. Store in the fridge for two weeks, or in the freezer for 3 months.
- Replace banana chips with any roasted nut or dried fruit of your choice. If you choose to include chocolate chips, let the oats and melted wet ingredients cool down almost fully so you don’t melt all the chips.
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📖 Recipe
Easy Chewy Honey Granola Bars
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups old fashioned oats (230g)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter cut into pieces (56g)
- ⅓ cup honey (113g)
- ¼ cup light brown sugar (50g) packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce or 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup banana chips or toasted nuts coarsely chopped then measured (50g)
Instructions
Do ahead
- Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper with overhang for easy release. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Toast the oats
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (optional). Pour the oats on the pan and spread out evenly. Place in the oven to toast for 10-12 mins, or until fragrant. Remove from the oven and pour into a large heat proof bowl to cool for now.
Melt the wet ingredients
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt together the butter, honey and brown sugar. Cook until boiling and just until all the sugar granules are melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and soy sauce.
Combine
- Pour the warm melted ingredients into the bowl with the oats. Stir, then add the banana chips and stir again. Pour the sticky mixture into the prepared pan. Press down as hard as you can all over with greased hands or another sheet of parchment paper.
- Top with more banana chips and press again. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to firm up.
Slice and serve
- Remove from the pan and slice into 12 bars. Make one cut down the center, then five cuts perpendicular to the first cut. Store in an airtight container with parchment paper prevents the bars from touching, as they will be quite sticky!
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published 4/19/2026.
