Furikake Snack Mix

Updated May 15, 2025

Furikake Snack Mix
Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
1 hour
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Rating
4(283)
Comments
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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

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Line two 13-by-18-inch baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
283 user ratings
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Comments

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).

Would love to see the nutrition details before I try this recipe!

I've made this 4x. Big hit. Omit salt, shrimp crackers & wasabi peas. 4-5 T. Furikake, original or shrimp, sub for nori & sesame seeds. ADD LAST Sub sesame sticks or Bugles for shrimp crackers. Corn Chex is sturdier, doesn't break up into bits. Put cereal, etc. in a large roaster to warm up b4 adding butter/syrup mixture. Toss, add Furikake, toss & put in 2 trays to bake. Burns easily. 250 for 20 min, toss 2x. Turn off oven, let dry overnight.

How might you substitute Gochujang (which I have) for Gochugaru (which I haven’t)?

It was hard finding some of the ingredients. We finally found Asian Delight in Grand Rapids MI. They had it all! Keiko was great!! Everyone who has tried the mix loved it! It is pretty and a nice change to original Chex mix!

Ridiculously, dangerously good. I used Wheat Chex, Honey Nut Cheerios, shrimp crackers, pretzel sticks and cashews for my additions to the ramen. Next time will swap sesame sticks for shrimp crackers as one commenter suggested, maybe peanuts instead of cashews, or wasabi almonds per another suggestion. Skipped nori because I didn’t want a really briney flavor, also skipped salt as there was plenty of salt in the rest of the ingredients and I used salted butter which is what we had. Hard not to eat the entire batch! As for sodium and nutrition, I’m sure this is terrible on all counts. It doesn’t matter, it’s that good.

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