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We never want to go back after dry frying the popular Japanese potato snack JagaRico【Taste test】

Elliot Hale Mar 2, 2025
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What happens when you dry fry a snack that’s already fried?

Every other day social media is buzzing with people raving about the latest food hack that promises to blow your mind and change your life forever. Little did we know, when we tried out the latest trend for ourselves, that’s exactly what would happen to one of our reporters.

JagaRico is a popular Japanese snack, like potato chips in the form of french fries. It comes in a variety of flavors, plus seasonal limited editions.

▼ “Salad,” the original JagaRico flavor (hints of carrot and parsley)

Since JagaRico is a chip-like snack, it’s already fried during production. However, when we happened to hear that dry frying the completed version makes them taste even more amazing we were intrigued. After all, JagaRico is a perfectly complete snack as it is. It’s reached its peak potential. There’s simply no way that it could possibly get any better…right?

When a Twitter user posted that dry frying the beloved snack makes it taste more delicious, JagaRico’s official account decided to test it out for themselves. They came back and definitively stated that not only is it delicious, it also becomes more fragrant and acquires a fluffy, potato-like texture. Of course the official account is unlikely to say anything disparaging about their own product, so with some measure of skepticism, we turned to our own kitchen to satisfy our curiosity.

Leading the experiment was our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun. He tossed some JagaRico into the pan, stirring until they had developed a nice golden-brown sear. On a high heat, the process only took about two minutes.

Then came the moment to taste the result. Taking a bite, P.K. was delightfully surprised to discover that it tasted great. Eating hot JagaRico was a completely new experience, with the warmth giving it a substantially different feeling to the usual snack.

It was definitely more fragrant, but the real surprise was the texture. The crispiness was accentuated, making it feel even lighter. P.K. had never considered JagaRico to be heavier before, but dry frying it changed his perspective.

What was even stranger was that it now tasted more like potatoes than the pre-dry fried snack. P.K. struggled to conceive how the official account could claim that it had a “fluffy” texture, but the original potato flavor of JagaRico did seem to have been enhanced.

If he had to put a number on it, P.K. said that it felt about 1.5 times tastier than regular Jagarico, and the rest of the team agreed. Everyone generally said, “Yeah, it’s about 1.5 times better.”

Well, except for one person.

One team member wasn’t satisfied with the “1.5 times” rating. Our food-loving reporter Ikuna Kamezawa was convinced it was three times better. She was so in love with this new take on JagaRico that she kept repeating, “It’s so good. Definitely three times better. Three times!”

She went on to claim that now she knows about this she swears she’ll never go back to regular JagaRico again. For Ikuna, hot JagaRico is the only way to eat it from now on.

After first experimenting with the salad flavor, we also tried out the cheese version, and it was just as good. We didn’t test out every flavor available, but it seems safe to say that dry frying any flavor of JagaRico is likely to have a similar measure of improvement.

▼ Dry fried cheese-flavor JagaRico

If you’ve never tried JagaRico before, it’s a decently delicious snack with several flavors to enjoy, even without the dry frying. If you have tried it before, then you need to try dry frying it. It is certain to make it taste even better. You might even be like Ikuna and become a dry fried convert, never to step foot back into the realm of non-dry fried JagaRico again.

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[ Read in Japanese ]