Popcorn! One of my favorite snacks to eat and now one of my favorite snacks to make. Up until a few months ago whenever I wanted popcorn I just grabbed a bag out of the pantry and popped into the microwave for a quick snack in under 3 minutes. I had no idea that microwave popcorn had so many extra ingredients and many of these are not so healthy, so whenever I found out I decided to see if I could make my own batch of popcorn homemade. Well I did it and guess what it was just as easy as making it in the microwave but it tasted a whole lot better and it only includes 4 basic ingredients:
3/4 Cup Corn Kernels
3-4 Tablespoons of Canola Oil
2 Tablespoons of Butter
Salt (to taste)
The first thing you need to do is find a large pot that has a lid. You need a large pot so that there is plenty of room for your kernels to pop up and expand. Next add about 3-4 Tablespoons of Oil make sure that you cover the bottom of the pan completely. I used Canola Oil but you could use whatever you have on hand.
Now place your pot on the stove and increase the heat to about medium-high. Add 3 kernels of corn to the oil. These will be your test kernels and when they start to pop you know your oil is ready for the rest of the corn.
When the kernels start to pop add 1 Tablespoon of butter, a dash of salt for taste and 3/4 Cup of Corn Kernels. Stir well coating all of the corn, and cover the pot.
It will only take a few minutes for the kernels to start popping but to make sure that the bottom ones don’t burn you can shake the pan gently back and forth a few times to prevent this from happening.
After the popping starts to slow down turn your stove off and remove the pan from the heat. Carefully remove the lid and add the salt. You can add as much or as little as you would like, it just depends on your taste. I also added an extra 1 tablespoon of butter to the popcorn and stirred well for more butter flavor.
Once you make your own popcorn you will never want to make it any other way. It’s easy, fun and my kids love helping out when we make it. You can add just about any kind of flavoring that you would like to the popcorn, the options are endless. I hope you enjoy this recipe and I would love to hear what you think.