Furikake Chex Mix

How to Make Furikake Chex Mix

To start this Hawaiian snack, you heat butter, corn syrup, soy sauce, sugar and oil together in a pot. Once the butter is melted and everything looks homogenous, you pour it over your cereal and mix until each piece is glossy and coated with the sauce. You then sprinkle a bottle of furikake into the bowl, and stir again. The mix gets spread onto baking sheets and it dries out in the oven for an hour before you can devour!

What are the components of Chex mix?

For any Chex mix, there’s two parts: the mix-ins (cereal, pretzels, chips, breadsticks, crackers, nuts, basically anything hard and crunchy) and the seasoning mix.

For the mix-ins, I usually stick to Chex cereal and call it a day, but you can add anything. I typically see honeycomb cereal, pretzels and popcorn used in furikake Chex mix.

Obviously the flavor of furikake Chex mix is a little different than storebought Chex mix, so the seasoning sauce is a little different. This one has soy sauce; however, I add soy sauce to almost everything, regardless if the dish is Asian or not, so I would make a case for adding a dash of soy sauce to any Chex mix.

I also sprinkle the furikake onto the Chex mix as I stir it in, since it’s hard to evenly distribute it otherwise in the mix if you add it earlier.

If you’re not familiar with furikake, it’s a Japanese seasoning typically used for topping rice. It’s made with roasted seaweed and sesame seeds, though there are variations with everything from bonito flakes (made from salted fish, it’s delicious I promise) to umeboshi (salted plum) to wasabi and chiles. I like using it on carby things (think baked sushi, Spam musubi with egg, furikake fries, etc etc) for a little extra crunch.

How do you fix a Chex mix that is too salty?

Before you bake the Chex mix, I would recommend tasting a piece. If it’s too salty for you, you can add more cereal to help dilute the level of seasoning.

It’s best to adjust the amount of mix-ins before you bake it so that the new mix-ins get some flavor, and whoever eats those bits isn’t stuck with a plain piece of cereal. It also lets all the cereal crisp up in the oven, which helps the snack taste fresher if you’re using older or slightly stale cereal.

How do you make Chex mix not soggy?

Once you mix everything together, you have to bake the Chex mix to dry it out. There’s a lot of moisture from the corn syrup, butter and soy sauce, so baking it makes sure that it doesn’t get soggy as it sits (because there’s no way you can polish off a whole batch right after mixing it, no matter how much you try to shovel into your mouth).

It also helps preserve the Chex mix longer, since it’s less likely to go bad or get moldy if it’s less moist.

How do you know when Chex mix is done?

When it’s done, it’ll clump together, and you won’t be able to break it into bite-sized pieces without hearing a snapping sound. It’ll be really brittle and crispy to the touch, and it shouldn’t bend before breaking.

If it doesn’t seem crispy or dry enough, return the Chex mix to the oven and check every 5-10 minutes until it’s done.

How long is homemade Chex mix good for?

The seasoning sauce helps preserve the Chex mix for about a week. If you can’t eat the whole batch within that time frame, I’d recommend sharing with your friends and family, or halving or quartering the recipe.

Why is Chex mix so good?

Cliché, but it’s a good mix of salty and sweet. The savory, sesame-y furikake balances out that sticky, caramelly brew used to force the furikake to cling to the cereal.

I love crunchy snacks too, and the sound and texture of this one is so satisfying. Definitely more of a snack meant for a loud Japanese American basketball tournament, rather than trying to sneak a handful when you’re not supposed to in a meeting or a lecture.

5 from 2 votes

Print

Furikake Chex Mix

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 5 mins

Total Time

1 hr 10 mins

 

Furikake chex mix is an Asian American twist on the usual chex mix, and features the Japanese rice condiment furikake, made of roasted seaweed and sesame seed.

Course: Snack

Cuisine: American, Hawaiian, Japanese

Keyword: butter, cereal, chex, chex mix, corn syrup, egg-free, furikake, nut-free, seaweed, soy sauce, sugar, vegetarian

Servings: 48 people

Calories: 124 kcal

Ingredients

Syrup

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ cup canola oil

Assembly

• 2 boxes chex cereal 24 ounces total
• 1 bottle furikake

Instructions

Syrup

1. Heat all syrup ingredients in a pot over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts.

Assembly

1. Put the cereal in a large (wide and shallow is better than deep and skinny if you can find it) bowl. Recruit an extra set of hands, or prepare to pick up and put down different things a bunch of times. While continuously tossing with a heat-proof rubber spatula, drizzle the syrup all over the cereal, pausing occasionally to sprinkle on some furikake. Even coverage is the key here.
2. Spread the mix on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 250F for 1 hour, then cool before breaking into bite-sized pieces. It will crisp as it cools. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.