I really, really, big puffy heart love popcorn. It’s one of those snack foods with which I have very little control—we’re talking hand to mouth until the bowl is empty. Also, buttered popcorn is my favorite Jelly Belly flavor.
Popcorn also holds nostalgia for me. I grew up in a popcorn-loving family and ate popcorn nearly every Sunday evening during my childhood (I still do!), and some of the only memories I have of my paternal grandfather is making popcorn with him. When we’d visit my grandparents’ home on a sheep farm in rural Idaho, my cousins and I would grab his enormous hands and try to pull his lanky 6’5” frame out of his recliner and into the kitchen. I was always amazed at how he could toss the popcorn and butter around in the bowl without dropping any on the floor.
Butter. It was always butter. Even now I’m mostly a popcorn purist and prefer real butter and a sprinkle of sea salt. But every so often I get a hankering for something different, and luckily popcorn is a perfect blank slate.
I wanted to share a few of our favorite flavors with you! Just so you know, all of these recipes are based on a standard batch of air-popped popcorn using 1/2 cup of kernels per batch. You may need to tweak the measurements or method if your popper holds a different amount or if you use a popper that requires oil.
We’ve always used an air-popper, and I find that they’re incredibly easy to use, inexpensive, and sturdy. (My toddler goes into the pantry frequently and drags it out onto the kitchen floor asking for “pop pop.” He hasn’t broken it. Yet.) I also like that I can control the amount of butter or oil that goes on the popcorn and flavor it how I like.
1 - Spicy
This is probably the most frequently made flavor in our house aside from plain buttered. It’s so easy! Simply add 3-4 teaspoons (or more) of hot sauce to 4 tablespoons of butter before drizzling it over the popcorn. We’ve used Mexican-style hot sauces like Chalula and Tapatio, and Asian-style chile sauces like Sriracha and sambal oelek. You could even add a few pinches of crushed red pepper flakes and let it sit in the melted butter for a while to infuse it with spicy chile goodness.
2 - Herb and Cheese
I made a batch with rosemary, Pecorino, and black pepper this time and loved it! You can use any herb and hard cheese that you like. Dill and Parmesan would be a stellar combination, too. For this particular batch, I added 2 teaspoons of fresh rosemary and 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper to the butter and let it hang out and infuse flavor while the popcorn popped. After I drizzled the herb butter over the popcorn, I sprinkled about 1/2 cup of finely grated Pecorino-Romano cheese and tossed it again.
And now, let’s talk about a couple of sweet batches.
3 - Chocolate
There are SO many flavor combinations you can create with chocolate! I threw together a dark chocolate pretzel raspberry batch that my whole family loved! I melted a 10-ounce bag of dark chocolate chips and poured it over a full batch of popcorn, then I tossed in a few handfuls of small pretzel thins, about 1 1/2 cups of freeze-dried raspberries, and a few big pinches of sea salt, and mixed it all together.
Have you ever used freeze-dried berries? They’re my new favorite thing, and I prefer them over dried fruit in things like this because they’re lighter and don’t fall to the bottom of the bowl. Their light, crispy texture doesn’t break up the texture of the popcorn the way a wad of chewy dried fruit would.
4 - Caramel
Classic, right? I think everyone has either eaten or made caramel corn in their lifetime. I’m also sure that most everyone has a recipe for caramel corn in their arsenal—a couple cups of sugar and a half bottle of corn syrup I’m guessing? That ooey-gooey (or crispy, depending on which camp you belong to) popcorn is a dreamy indulgence, but sometimes it can be a bit too much. I lightened up the caramel in this version and added some crispy apple chips for tartness and crunch.
You can find the full recipe and instructions for the Caramel Apple Popcorn at the end of this post, but here are a couple of photos to get you started.
This caramel sauce comes together in less than 10 minutes. Just pour it right over a full batch of air-popped popcorn.
Crunch some apple chips over the top and give it a stir. That’s it! This version was the favorite in our house. It’s sweeter than kettle-style popcorn, but not as rich and sticky as traditional caramel corn. Plus it has bits of tart apples scattered throughout.
Ok, let’s change gears for a minute and talk about some unconventional uses for popcorn.
When I was growing up, my mom would use popcorn as a packing substance when mailing Christmas gifts out to family members. I thought that was a festive idea! Biodegradable, too.
Did you know early American colonists ate popcorn for breakfast with milk or cream? Perhaps the first “puffed” grain cereal?
If that doesn’t appeal to you, use popcorn in soup instead of crackers, in salad in place of croutons, or add it to granola bars. Or put it in cookie dough. (I’ve actually tried that, and it’s unreal.) Or use caramel corn as an ice cream topping!
I really like to grind up popcorn in my food processor and use it as a breading for fish. Yep.
It’s super easy, and a great gluten-free breading option. I added some chopped rosemary (leftover from that herb and cheese batch up there) and sea salt, then dipped the fish in beaten eggs, then the popcorn mixture, then pan-fried it in a little coconut oil.
You’ll want to use really thin fillets, like Dover sole, so the popcorn mixture doesn’t burn before the fish is cooked through.
Gorgeous, right? It gives the fish such a great flavor, too.
All this talk of popcorn is making me munchy all over again. I hope you feel inspired in your popcorn adventures! I’d love to hear your creative uses for popcorn.
