How to Make the Perfect Air Popped Popcorn

If you know me, you know how much I love, like LOVE popcorn. Growing up my mom made air popped popcorn every Sunday night. I would sit at the counter and watch her make it each week. It wasn’t until I was an adult myself making my own air popped popcorn that I realized my mom had a method to make the perfect popcorn! It’s all about the butter distribution and the toss, I’m serious. The toss is a key element to nail down.

I’ve carried on this weekly popcorn tradition in my own home. I make a giant bowl at least twice a week. The kids love to take leftovers in their lunch and I’ll snack on the leftovers the next day while I work. Once you get the hang of making your own popcorn, you may start popping your own to take the movies. If it’s still hot, I’ll put mine in a brown paper bag. If not, I’ll put it in a gallon size Ziploc. Tip: don’t put hot popcorn into a Ziploc. You will melt the plastic bag wherever up-popped kernel lands.

What is air popped popcorn?

It’s made using a hot air popper instead of a stove top that requires added oil and far, like FAR better than microwave popcorn. When we were in Hawaii I bought microwavable popcorn. It had been years since I’d bought it. All we tasted were chemicals. Most microwave popcorn is not a healthy snack and tends to have more sodium and saturated fat.

Is air popped popcorn healthy?

Yes! Here’s the thing you want to know, buy organic corn kernels. Why? Because they digest properly in your system. They will pass through you much quicker than non organic. The fiber stays in tact in organic kernels, that makes a big difference. TMI: if you struggle staying regular, this popcorn/butter combo will help you out..

As you see in my video I use a whole stick of organic butter for our giant bowl. You can totally use less. Using a whole stick for such a big bowl is totally acceptable in my opinion. People use coconut oil, olive oil, no oil, no butter, etc. You do you. Sometimes I’ll add parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast (tastes like cheese, but much healthier)

Nutritional info: 1 cup of air popped popcorn (without butter) has 31 calories. With butter about 50 calories.

How to Make Air Popped Popcorn

Ingredients:

Air Popped Popcorn Machine 

Organic Kernels

Organic Unsalted Butter

Sea Salt

Measuring Cup

Bowl

TIPS:

Keep your kernels in the freezer to stay fresh longer. Side note, I also keep batteries in the freezer to stay fresh longer. Weird? Maybe.

Don’t reheat your butter after it’s already been melted. It may result in a butter explosion in the microwave.  My microwave melts the one stick perfectly at 1 minute 10 seconds without spilling over.

Make sure you watch the popcorn as it comes out so you can move your bowl around to avoid overfilling one side of the bowl. You’ll have popcorn everywhere!

WARNING: 

Once you start to make this regularly and offer it to friends and family, you will find yourself making it a lot!  When Poppy has friends over she asks me to make them popcorn and they all stand around and watch me like I’m a dog showing them a new trick…

MORE RECIPES:

SHRIMP CEVICHE – PROTEIN GUACAMOLE – TOMATILLO SALSA – LEMON CHICKEN SOUP – PROTEIN FUDGE – BRUSSELS SPROUTS SALAD –  WHITE CHICKEN CHILI –PROTEIN BALLS – CHICKEN TOMATILLO SOUP – PROTEIN DATE SHAKE

Thanks for watching! I appreciate each of you. Have a great weekend!