By Sue Li
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Prep Time
- 20 minutes
- Cook Time
- 40 minutes
- Rating
- 4(174)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This sweet and spicy snack mix is inspired by furikake snack mix, a Japanese Hawaiian dish that uses a soy-butter blend to coat a cereal mixture and then seasons it with furikake, a traditional Japanese seasoning mix that traditionally combines dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds, creating deep umami. Taking the original as inspiration, this recipe introduces the use of a pack of store-bought ramen. The ramen seasoning is used to flavor the cereal mix, while its crunchy noodles add texture and flair. The foundation of this snack mix calls for a wide variety of crunchy ingredients, but feel free to streamline your shopping list by skipping one of the snack items listed and doubling up on another.
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Ingredients
Yield:12 servings (about 14 cups)
- ¾cup/1½ sticks unsalted butter
- 3tablespoons light agave syrup
- 3tablespoons soy sauce
- 2tablespoons gochugaru
- 1teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 1(4.23-ounce) pack spicy Korean ramen (such as Shin Ramen), spice packet reserved and noodles broken into bite-size pieces
- 1(2.6-ounce) pack shrimp crackers (about 2½ cups), or substitute with extra oyster crackers
- 2cups waffled rice cereal (such as Rice Chex)
- 2cups honey-flavored corn and oat cereal (such as Honeycomb)
- 2cups thin, 3-inch-long pretzel sticks
- 2cups oyster crackers
- 1cup wasabi peas
- 4sheets toasted nori, torn into ½-to-1-inch pieces
- 2tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Line two 13-by-18-inch baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
Step
2
In a small saucepan, combine butter, agave syrup, soy sauce, gochugaru, salt and the spice packet from the ramen. Cook over medium heat until the butter is melted and slightly bubbling, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to allow the gochugaru to bloom.
Step
3
In a large bowl, combine the ramen noodles with the shrimp crackers, rice cereal, honey-flavored cereal, pretzel sticks, oyster crackers, wasabi peas and nori.
Step
4
Drizzle half of the warm, spicy butter over the crunchy mixture and toss to coat. Drizzle with the remaining butter and toss to coat again until all of the pieces are coated.
Step
5
Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared baking sheets and spread into even layers. Sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds.
Step
6
Bake until the mixture has dried and toasted, 25 to 35 minutes, switching the sheet pans between racks and tossing the mixture every 10 minutes. Let cool completely before serving (about 20 minutes). Snack mix will keep 1 week in an airtight container.
Ratings
4
out of 5
174
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
Katy
Would love to see the nutrition details before I try this recipe!
Gourmanding in the 206
I like this Korean style Chex Mix! Added cashews and almonds instead of Honeycomb but the flavor profile is a keeper. Thanks.
Christy
The hardest thing about this recipe is not eating the entire massive quantity of snack mix in one standing (as opposed to sitting, because I’m in my kitchen trying to convince myself I’m about to put the lid back on the container).
Stephanie
Yes, it’s an absolute sodium bomb … and therefore delicious. I subbed Diamond brand wasabi roasted almonds. The almonds themselves were not a terrible addition but all the wasabi flavoring was washed off by the butter/Gochujang mixture. Couldn’t find Honeycomb (so disappointed, this was the sugar cereal fantasy of my youth, still yet to pass these lips) so subbed Honey Nut Chex. Next time I might increase the sweet Chex and decrease the plain — I like that hit of sweet and savory.
Cynthia
Should furikake be added?
Melissa
I have been obsessed with this recipe since it was published because I've loved this flavor profile ever since a childhood in Hawaii where arare crackers are popular. I finally got around to buying all the ingredients, which involved a trip to three stores. (I still couldn't find gochugaru but substituted Aleppo pepper, which worked fine.) It turned out great! Because I live alone, I halved the recipe. How to use up the leftover ingredients is my next task ...
Suzanne
Agreed. The sodium content has to be really high.
carolem
I learned from your experience and added coarsely chopped wasabi/soy almonds at the end, after cooking the mix. Turned out very nicely. I don't care for wasabi peas, so it was an excellent substitution.
SusanW
The recipe says that it makes approximately 14 cups for 12 servings. So it's a little more than one cup per serving.
Brushjl
Oh my, I think I just added 10 years to my life! Absolutely delicious. Will never go back to my mother's chef mix.
Johnson
its honestly really good in my opinion, especially if you have had it before.
Melissa
There's no need to; it has the furikake ingredients (nori, sesame seed) in it.
Betsy
I made this for my husband this afternoon, and he sampled it when he got home. He called it "fantastic." (I really don't like spicy stuff, so I have no opinion.)
Sweet Tooth
Omitted wasabi peas, nori, & shrimp crackers. Added more of other 4 dry ingred; only 2 oz of ramen noodles. Subbed Aleppo pepper for gochugaru, and Lyle's Golden Syrup for agave. Omitted salt and used only one ramen seasoning pack. This resulted in a less salty snack mix. I bumped up the sweetness, too, by going a little heavy on my Honeycomb cereal and syrup. I like the salty, sweet, spicy, umami flavor. Planning to add macadamia nuts! Definitely switch the pans every 8 min; 25 min total.
Sue T
So we’re basically addicted to this stuff. I made some for Christmas snacking and am making more today for New Year’s snacking. My husband suggested adding mini Nilla wafers (basically cause we were in the cookie aisle and he wanted some) but it turned out to be genius! Another little hint of sweet along with the Honeycomb. And I was pleasantly surprised by the gochugaru as I'd never heard of it. Smoky and just slightly spicy. Love it!
Susan B
I made this exactly as written, but found that it was inedibly salty and very spicy. After spending about $30 on the ingredients, I ended up throwing most of it out. Maybe I used a very salty brand of Shin Ramen? The torn bits of toasted nori had the unappetizing appearance of burnt paper flakes in the mix.
Nancy
Made as directed except used Gold Emblem Asian Trail Mix in place of shrimp crackers, used two small packs of Gim roasted seaweed snacks instead of toasting Nori sheets, and only used 5 tsp of Gochugaru. It was really good and everyone liked it. Next time, I would sprinkle the sesame seeds on at Step 4. Doing it at Step 5, a lot of them just fell off.
Anchorage
Very good, especially first day. After that, the nori became a bit overpowering and I might leave out on next batch as it definitely commanded the palate. Swapped in light corn syrup for agave and loved how it made clumps of mix and did not over sweeten the batch.
durantenge
delicious!!! addictive.
Nancy
Gochukaru is Korean chile flakes, kind of like Aleppo pepper in consistency.
Regina
Thanks - I've mainly seen it paste form. I'm glad I asked!
Regina
Is the gochugaru powdered or sauce?
Nancy
Gochukaru is Korean chile flakes, kind of like Aleppo pepper in consistency.
Choppie
Rotated my baking sheets after 12 minutes. Four minutes later everything was burned. The different elements seemed to bake at different speeds. The rice Chex was black! Next time I will remove after 12 minutes!
Regina
I rotated the pans and tossed the mix at each rotation every 10 minutes.
A. Cleary
This looks like a nice change from the Chex Party Mix, and I'd like to give it a try. But I have some furikake on hand and wonder if I could substitute it for some of the ingredients here. Any ideas?
Anne
This is close to gluten free already. How can I make it totally gluten free?
carolem
Substituted dark maple syrup for the agave syrup with decent results. Light maple syrup is probably a better sub.
Christy
The hardest thing about this recipe is not eating the entire massive quantity of snack mix in one standing (as opposed to sitting, because I’m in my kitchen trying to convince myself I’m about to put the lid back on the container).
Jessica
I can’t wait to make this! Someone mentioned using Diamond wasabi almonds. Are they less spicy than wasabi peas? I plan on only using half the ramen spice packet because of the high sodium and will omit the pretzels or use no salt ones to modify it a little. Curious if others have worked with lessening the salt or spice.
Betsy
I made this for my husband this afternoon, and he sampled it when he got home. He called it "fantastic." (I really don't like spicy stuff, so I have no opinion.)
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