Have you ever done it? Have you ever popped your own popcorn on the stove? That’s the way we used to do it when I was little (shortly after electricity was invented and before microwaves began invading people’s kitchens). It’s the best way to pop perfect popcorn, all kernels popped and none of those ingredients that you can’t pronounce on the side of the microwave popcorn bag.
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!
How to Pop Popcorn on the Stove
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup canola, vegetable or coconut oil
- 1 cup popcorn kernels
- sea salt, optional
- melted butter or additional mix-ins, optional
Instructions
- Take out a pot with a large surface area (one that has a matching lid). A 5-inch deep, 9-inches across pot is perfect for 1 cup of popcorn.
- Pour in the oil and then add the popcorn kernels. Sprinkle in a bit of sea salt, if desired. Shake the pan around to evenly distribute the kernels and coat them with oil. The pan should be big enough so that the kernels are not over-crowded and/or piled on top of each other.
- Turn heat to medium and begin to slide the pot back and forth over the burner. Keep sliding/shaking the pan back and forth to evenly distribute the heat to all sides of the kernels. Eventually (3-5 minutes later), the first kernel will pop. At this point, put the lid on the pan. Keep sliding/shaking the pan back and forth and the other kernels will begin to pop. Keep that pan moving back and forth until the popping slows down and the kernels are all popped. Remove the pan from heat.
- Toss popcorn with melted butter and/or other seasonings, and serve immediately.
Notes
- A few sweet (dessert) suggested add-ins from RecipeGirl readers:
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 from RecipeGirl readers:
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?)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Nice tutorial – made a batch just fine! Peanut oil may be better than canola, as it can also take the high heat, thought people with allergies shouldn’t use it, obviously. For toppings we added in some parmesan/romano cheese as well as a bunch of roasted spiced chickpeas. These add both a kick and extra protein + fiber making the snack even healthier.
Wonderful explanation i have learnt a lot and popping my corn is made easy by this awesome tutorial thanks a lot!
Thank you for the tutorial. I’m old enough to remember popcorn before the microwave, but mom had an air popper. Don’t know where to find one of those these days, and I had NO clue how to pop it on the stove.
I much prefer to use coconut oil – the neutral tasting expeller pressed kind – for making popcorn. Canola oil, like other highly processed vegetable oils (think soybean, corn and safflower oils), is chock full of free radicals and prone to rancidity. I suggest using coconut oil and organic popcorn, drizzled with melted real butter and sprinkled with sea salt – YUM!
Taste the popcorn before adding more salt. Thanks for the recipe..I was not adding to cold oil and it does not pop, leaves kernals in the popcorn
Cheers..
Tony
Huffing microwave popcorn fumes will can give you a sweet lung disease. Stick to tradition methods like this one.
Great instructions! I followed your recipe verbatim, and it come out amazingly well. I will do this from now on. Thanks
I don’t know when I started to buy microwave popcorn but I made a decision not to use a microwave anymore. We had a special popcorn shaker pan when I was a child and we made lots of popcorn in that pan.
I bought some organic popcorn and tried your method. The popcorn came out perfectly and all the corn popped. I mixed half with melted butter with a little maple syrup and sprinkled on sea salt. The other half I left plain to munch on the next day.
I liked it plain just as well as with butter.
Thank you so much for taking the time to post your method. I will make real popcorn from now on.
Instead of vegetable oil, use Luanna brand of coconut oil! This brand doesn’t taste like coconut. You will be amazed at how crisp your popcorn is! Even fabulous the next day!
Seriously?? A single cup of kernels fill a whole pot??
It does!