If I were to write a list of my life skills, making excellent popcorn would definitely make the cut. Crafting a bowl of popcorn that you just can’t stop eating is something I’m very proud of. And I probably take it a bit too seriously.
Popcorn is perfect for when the munchies suddenly strike and you don’t want to spend a lot of time making your snack (read: you need food NOW). It’s so quick and easy to make once you know a couple of tricks. But if you don’t know the secret, you can end up with a bowl of burnt kernels.
Let me take you through the process!
You really only need three things to pop popcorn over the stove: A pan with a lid, popcorn (obviously), and oil. But let’s go deeper…
Your choice of pot is important. It needs to be large enough to account for the expansion of the popcorn. It should also be on the thin side. This is not the time to pull out your Dutch oven: you’ll have a lot more duds if you use a heavy-duty pot.
This is my favorite popcorn-making pot. It has a large surface area, isn’t too heavy so it heats up quickly, and is shallow. I’m not sure why, but this pot works better than my stock pot that is the same diameter but deeper.
If you only have a deep pot, it will totally still work. Just not quite as well as a shallow pot.
There are many different kinds of oils that you can use to pop popcorn. Some of my favorites are avocado oil, ghee, coconut oil, and red palm oil. The red palm oil gives the popcorn a beautiful golden color—kind of like theater popcorn. However, I recently learned that red palm oil has a smoking point of only 302ºF, so I’m going to choose avocado oil (which has a smoking point of 500ºF) over red palm oil in the future. You can still pour the red palm oil (mixed with butter) over the popcorn at the end to give it that signature color.
On to the popping process!
It’s really simple, but you need to follow these steps carefully.
Place your oil in the pan (I use about 2 tablespoons of oil for half a cup of unpopped kernels). Turn the heat up to high, and add 2 kernels of popcorn.
Cover the pot and wait for those 2 kernels to pop. Once they pop, remove the pot from the heat, remove the 2 popped kernels, and add the remaining unpopped kernels.
Cover, give it a good shake, and let it sit for 1 minute. This allows the popcorn kernels to heat up evenly. Otherwise, some of the kernels will pop too early and burn before the rest have a chance to pop.
Put the pot back on the stove, turn the heat on to high again, and wait. Give the pot a good shake every now and then.
Within a few minutes, your popcorn should start popping … slowly at first … then crazy fast! It may even start to push the lid of your pot up.
Once the popping has slowed down to nearly a stop, remove the pot from the stove and let it sit for a little while longer to let any stubborn kernels pop. Pour the popcorn into a large serving bowl.
Now, if you ask me, popcorn NEEDS butter. If I’m really hungry, I’ll eat popcorn plain. But there’s just nothing like popcorn coated in melted butter. Ugh, I could eat some right now!
My favorite kind of butter to use is cultured butter (sometimes called European butter). It has a tangy, almost cheesy flavor. It really makes the popcorn reminiscent of theater or microwave popcorn (except more real-tasting, if that makes sense). You must give it a try!
I know some will disagree with me, but I like my popcorn practically drenched in butter. For half a cup of unpopped kernels (about 15 cups popped), I use 7 tablespoons of butter. No more, no less.
Okay, okay. Sometimes I go ahead and melt a whole stick.
If you’re just starting out, you can go with a half stick of butter, and perhaps some day you can slowly work yourself up to the full 7 tablespoons (wink).
The butter pour is also important (I told you I take my popcorn seriously). You must slowly drizzle it over the popcorn in a circular motion. It helps if you have someone stir the popcorn as you pour, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
Then, tip the bowl to the side and toss the popcorn with a spatula to evenly distribute the butter.
Another highly important ingredient: salt! Under-salted popcorn is just bland. My husband says he’d rather eat over-salted popcorn than under-salted. But remember: you can always add more, but you can’t very well add less, now can you?
My point: taste as you go. Give your popcorn a few sprinkles of salt and taste to see if you need more. Make sure to toss well between sprinkles.
And there you have it: a most glorious bowl of popcorn!
I’m kinda partial to just butter and salt, but popcorn is a perfect blank canvas for add-ins. Make sure to check out Natalie’s post about Elevating Popcorn for some ideas. Or you can turn it into salted pecan or peanut butter caramel corn, or cotton candy or candy corn popcorn balls.
Popcorn is the quintessential companion to your favorite show. It’s a tradition of ours to make popcorn to munch on while we catch up on American Ninja Warrior. If I’m fortunate enough to convince Reuben to watch a cooking show with me, he insists on having popcorn (or some kind of snack) so he doesn’t get too hungry watching people prepare food.
And oh! If your plans this week include tucking into a bowl of popcorn for movie night, may I make a suggestion? I think this would be the perfect time to go with a great classic: The Princess Bride! It’s one of our all-time favorites (so many good quotes!) and this year is actually the 30th anniversary of its release. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to make a big batch of popcorn and relive all those great moments.
Do you have a favorite popcorn topping? Make sure to share it with us in the comments!
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