Here’s how to pop popcorn on the stove:
You need three things: Canola or vegetable oil, sea salt and popcorn (I think the Orville Redenbacher brand works best). You might wish to have butter or some other kind of seasoning to toss with your popcorn. I’m going to give you all kinds of recommendations for how to jazz up your popcorn at the end of this post. Choose a pot that has a pretty large surface area. Mine was 5-inches deep and 9-inches across. You don’t want the popcorn kernels to be crowded too much or piled on top of each other. Before you get started, make sure you have a lid that fits on the top of that pot 🙂
You’ll need enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. I used 3 to 4 tablespoons for 1 cup of popcorn. Add the oil to a COLD pan.
Add your popcorn kernels to the COLD oil.
Make sure the kernels are all coated with oil and are sitting in a shallow puddle of it.
They should be all spread out in the pan like this- not piled on top of each other.
Add a little bit of sea salt to the coated kernels. I like to add salt in the cooking process, and sometimes I add more after it’s all popped too. You can skip this part if you prefer to add it after.
Turn the heat to medium and heat up the kernels and the oil at the same time. Shake the pan back and forth to evenly distribute the heat to all sides of the kernels. Keep shaking it back and forth. It’ll be a little noisy. Your spouse may tell you, “Shhhhhhh!” because he can’t hear the TV. Not that my spouse did that or anything. I’m just sayin’.
Eventually (a minute or three or four later), the first kernel will pop.
Get the lid on your pot quickly because that popped kernel has a whole lot of friends who are going to begin popping almost immediately. Keep sliding the pot back and forth over the heat until all kernels are popped. Tell your spouse to go hang out in the backyard if he’s still griping about the noise.
In just a few minutes, the popping sounds will slow down and come to a halt. Remove your pot from the heat, and you’re ready to jazz up your popcorn for consumption!
You can certainly top your stove-popped popcorn with a generous amount of melted, salted butter. Sometimes I love it that way best. But I’m going to give you a whole lot of suggestions for making regular old popcorn way more delicious. I’ve gotta thank my Facebook followers for those suggestions, since they left me like a gazillion ideas for serving up popcorn in super cool and delicious ways. Here are the suggestions that sounded best to me: A few sweet (dessert) suggested add-ins: 1. chocolate syrup + peanut butter 2. caramel 3. mix in junior mints, hot tamales, chocolate chips, reeses pieces, m&m’s or sugar babies 4. maple syrup 5. melt marshmallows with brown sugar and butter and mix in And the savory suggested add-ins: 1. sea salt + freshly ground pepper 2. maple and bacon 3. Parmesan + freshly chopped rosemary 4. butter + cajun spice + brown sugar 5. fajita seasoning 6. cayenne pepper or tabasco 7. Parmesan and pepper 8. butter-flavored olive oil 9. ranch seasoning 10. white truffle oil + Parmesan 11. brewers/nutritional yeast 12. chili oil + garlic powder + curry powder 13. cheese packet from a macaroni & cheese box 14. Old Bay Seasoning 15. Dill pickle seasoning (not sure I’ve ever seen that) 16. Meat tenderizer (what?? Really?)
See how easy it is? And how many fun things you can add in? Kids go nuts over stove popcorn too since the whole “popping” process is noisy and scientifically amazing. And man, it tastes waaaaaaaay better. Please tell me that you’ll end the microwave popcorn madness. It’s just as easy to do on the stove, it pops up perfectly and with just three ingredients- you know what’s in your popcorn. It also makes for good snuggle, TV/Movie-watching time on the couch. Now go pop away!
