Furikake Chex mix is the snack everyone in Hawaii brings to a potluck. Boxes of Rice and Corn Chex are tossed in a glossy mix of melted butter, shoyu, sugar, and corn syrup, dusted with nori komi furikake, and baked low and slow until every piece is coated in a brittle savory-sweet shell. The bag never lasts. Someone always asks for the recipe. Someone always brings it back to the next potluck the next month.
The dish is straight Hawaii plantation-era logic: take a mainland party snack — the original Chex Mix that first ran on Chex cereal boxes in 1952 — and rework it with the pantry that Japanese immigrant families already had on the islands. Out goes Worcestershire and pretzels. In come shoyu, sugar, butter, and a heavy hand of nori komi furikake (the green-and-white seaweed-and-sesame seasoning sold in shaker jars at most Hawaii grocery stores). The result is sweeter, saltier, more umami, and unmistakably island. The local version spread through community and church cookbooks in the latter half of the 20th century and never left.
At a glance
About 14 cups (one large potluck bowl)
10 minutes
1 hour
Easy
Ingredients
For the cereal mix
- 1 box (12 oz) Rice Chex cereal
- 1 box (12 oz) Corn Chex cereal
- 1 cup unsalted peanuts or mixed nuts (optional)
For the glaze
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup Aloha shoyu or other light soy sauce
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon mirin (optional)
For the finish
- 2 to 3 (1.7 oz) jars nori komi furikake (the green-and-white seaweed-and-sesame blend)
Equipment
- Largest mixing bowl you own (a stockpot works)
- Two rimmed sheet pans
- Medium saucepan
- Heat-proof spatula
To store and serve
- A large airtight container or zip-top bag
- Cocktail napkins — the glaze is sticky for a few hours after baking
Method
- Heat the oven. Set the oven to 250°F. Yes, low. A high oven scorches the sugar in the glaze and turns the Chex bitter. Low and slow is the whole trick.
- Combine the cereal. Tip both boxes of Chex (and the optional nuts) into your biggest mixing bowl. Toss gently with your hands so the two types of Chex distribute evenly.
- Build the glaze. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, oil, shoyu, sugar, corn syrup, and optional mirin. Whisk constantly as the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Bring just to a gentle simmer — do not let it boil hard or the sugar will start to crystalize on the spoon.
- Coat the cereal. Pour the hot glaze over the cereal in three or four passes, folding gently with the spatula between each pour so every piece gets coated. Take your time; rushing this turns the Chex into clumps and crushes pieces.
- Spread and bake. Divide the coated cereal between the two sheet pans in a thin even layer. Bake for 1 hour total, stirring every 15 minutes so the pieces toast evenly. The Chex will look glossy at first, then matte, then dry to the touch by the end of the hour.
- Finish with furikake. Pull the pans from the oven. While the Chex is still warm and slightly tacky, sprinkle the furikake generously over both pans — 2 jars for a moderate coating, 3 for a heavy one. Toss gently. The warm glaze grips the seasoning.
- Cool, then store. Let cool completely on the pans — at least 30 minutes — before transferring to an airtight container. The mix crisps fully as it cools. Eat within a week. (It will not last a week.)
Notes from a local cook
Use both Rice and Corn Chex. Rice alone bakes too delicate and the pieces shatter. Corn alone gets too dense. The mix of the two is the texture I keep coming back to, and most of the Hawaii recipes I've cooked from land in the same place. If you want to add a third cereal, plain Cheerios work; skip Wheat Chex (the wheat flavor fights the shoyu) and anything sweet (Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs).
Nori komi furikake, specifically. "Furikake" is a whole family of Japanese rice seasonings — salmon, bonito, plum, kimchi, wasabi. For Chex mix the one you want is the green-and-white nori komi (nori plus sesame plus salt and sugar) sold in shaker jars. Mishima and JFC are the two brands I see most often on island shelves. Buy two jars more than you think you need; you will use them.
The corn syrup is what gives the shell its glossy crunch. Sub honey if you must and accept that the result will be slightly chewier. Do not skip the corn syrup AND the mirin — one of the two needs to be there to give the glaze its lacquer.
Storage. Airtight container at room temperature for a week. Do not refrigerate — cold air introduces moisture and the Chex go soft. If yours softens, spread it back on a sheet pan and re-crisp at 250°F for 15 minutes.
While You're on the Islands
Eat it made by someone else. Furikake Chex mix is fundamentally a homemade snack — the version you want is the one from someone's auntie or the church potluck table, not a restaurant. In my experience eating around the islands, you rarely see Chex mix on a sit-down restaurant menu — the home cooks have it covered. For our take on Hawaii's other essential party-tray snack, see our hurricane popcorn recipe.
Buy the ingredients fresh. The closest commercial stand-ins, and the source for the furikake and arare itself, are the snack aisles at Foodland, Times, Don Quijote, and the other island grocers — stock up while you're there since these brands are harder to find at a regular mainland supermarket.
Bring It Home
What to stock up on before you fly home: a few bags of nori komi furikake and arare rice crackers travel well in a suitcase and are the two ingredients that make this taste like the real thing instead of plain Chex mix with seasoning salt.
