This Homemade Popcorn with Truffle Salt is the best thing for movie nights or a party snack! It‘s a quick and easy crowd pleaser with a gourmet touch.
Love popcorn but never made it from scratch at home? Today could be the turning point for you. Throw away those microwave popcorn bags in your pantry (they’re bad for health) and get popcorn kernels instead (I get organic ones from Trader Joe’s).
Homemade popcorn is one of the easiest snacks you can make at home and it’s DELICIOUS! It’s healthy and high in fiber, and the best part is that you can create your own flavored popcorn! Today I’m going to share my family’s #1 favorite, Homemade Popcorn with Truffle Salt.
Family Movie Time with Homemade Popcorn
Mr. JOC and I work on weekends filming tutorial videos and photographing my recipes. Since the natural light is so important for food photography and the final video clip, we usually start filming in the morning and wrap up around the evening time.
Our children are very supportive of what we do, and they patiently wait for us to finish our work (we usually give them assignments like doing math problems on the computer or practicing piano and they get to have free time afterward).
Because we have limited time to spend with children on weekends, we really treasure our family time even more. One of our favorite activities we do together is family movie time. The kids pick the popcorn flavor of the night while Mr. JOC figures out what movie to watch. I go to the kitchen with my daughter and we make popcorn together.
6 Easy Tips for Making Perfect Homemade Popcorn
Although making popcorn is easy, here are some of my tips to achieve desired the perfect homemade popcorn.
- Pot: Use a heavy-bottomed pot (like a Dutch oven) deep enough to accommodate the popped corn kernels. For 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels, you will need at least a 3 1/2 quart pot, preferably 4 1/2 quart. That will give plenty of space for the popcorn to move around.
- Oil: My personal favorite is coconut oil which is tasty and considered “healthy” fat. You can also use canola oil which has a nice clean taste and doesn’t overwhelm the popcorn’s natural flavors. I don’t recommend olive oil as it has a low smoking point and tends to burn quickly.
- Heat: My gas stove is pretty strong so I use medium heat, but it should be between medium to medium-high heat.
- Salt: I like adding salt (in this case, truffle salt) to the oil in the pan before popping. Oil in the pot is nicely infused and salt will be well distributed throughout the batch. With my recipe (below), I do not sprinkle additional salt after making popcorn.
- Shake: Every 30-60 seconds, give the pot a shake to make sure all of the kernels get popped.
- Lid: Keep the lid slightly ajar while popping (not while shaking) to release the steam, and uncover the pot immediately after popping. This will help the popcorn stay crisper.
Truffle Salt for Homemade Popcorn
So, who doesn’t love truffles? I’m definitely a big fan and so glad I found the truffle & salt mix. The rich, earthy odor and flavor of black truffle infused with sea salt. The one word that comes to mind is heaven! Besides popcorn, truffle salt enhances flavors for various types of food, from grilled meat to scramble eggs. If you love truffles, I highly recommend you experiment with truffle salt at home.
I bought Sabatino Truffle Sea Salt on Amazon, which is relatively inexpensive compared to this brand (I’ll try it next time!).
How to Make a Classic Homemade Popcorn with Butter
If you are not a fan of truffle (what!)… of course, you can make classic popcorn with butter at home. It tastes amazingly delicious so go ahead and toss that microwave popcorn!
Make the popcorn by following the recipe below. Use kosher salt instead of truffle salt. While making popcorn, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave or on the stove (for ½ cup popcorn kernels). As soon as the popcorn is done, drizzle the melted butter over hot popcorn and mix it all together.
If you are not in a hurry, here’s an even better way to enjoy butter-flavored popcorn at home. Add 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and allow it to simmer. Remove from heat and skim the foam off with a spoon. Once it’s clean, you see a yellow layer of clarified butter with milk solids underneath. Drizzle the clarified butter over the popcorn and avoid pouring the milk solids.
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Homemade Popcorn with Truffle Salt
Video
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp coconut oil (or peanut, vegetable, or canola oil)
- ½ cup popcorn kernels
- 1 tsp truffle salt (you can find it on Amazon)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Set a large deep pot (I use a 3.5 Quart Dutch oven) on the stovetop over medium heat. Add 3 Tbsp coconut oil and 3 popcorn kernels.
- Close the lid and wait until the kernels pop. When the kernels pop, the oil is hot enough to add the rest of the popcorn kernels.
- Open the lid and add 1 tsp truffle salt and ½ cup popcorn kernels.
- Cover the pot with the lid and gently shake the pot from side to side (or back and forth). This will distribute the popcorns in an even layer and mix the truffle and salt with the kernels.
- While the kernels pop, shake the pot occasionally over the burner to prevent the kernels from burning. When you are not shaking the pot, keep the lid slightly ajar to release the steam from the pot. Cook until there are about 2–3 seconds between pops. By this time, you can’t hear many kernels moving against the bottom of the pan.
- Remove from the heat. Shake a few times to let the last few kernels pop and take the lid off to let the steam out; this will allow the popcorn to stay crisp. Enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store it at room temperature for 1–2 days. Consume soon!
[…] – planning on bringing Japanese shows on Netflix or a Japanese movie night? Flavor your homemade popcorn with furikake to keep to the […]
I like to make a lid out of aluminum foil with several knife stabs to let the steam out.
Hi Paul! That’s a great idea! I put the lid ajar sometimes too (small enough that popcorn won’t come out). It’s probably just me, but I don’t really notice the difference. But since it’s pretty easy to do, I do both ways and see any difference… 😀
I also like furikake that I put through a pulse in the spice grinder on my pop corn. Another favorite is Curry powder! Oishii desu yo!
Oh yeah curry powder is DELICIOUS! It makes me want to eat popcorns now….
🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
Dear Nami,
I wonder if I want to make it sweet instead of salty, do you have suggestion about how much sugar or any sweetener I should put in?
Thanks!
Hi Sofie! There are so many sweet versions for homemade popcorn, from chocolate to caramel, and endless! We’re not a big fan of sweet versions but you’ll find many choices online. 🙂 Here are some:
http://greatist.com/eat/healthy-popcorn-recipes
Nami-chan. The popcorn looks yummy, I must try it and I love your bloopers, I laughed along with you.
Hi Chiyo-san! Thank you for laughing with me… 🙂 Mr. JOC was so happy making bloopers this time. 😀
Aloha Nami, thank you for the video and post showing stove-top popcorn. Ever since I was a small girl my aunt made it on the stove EVERYDAY. I too make it that way but wanted to compare your way to ours just so people can have a choice. Your way looks very interesting and I will be trying it soon. 1. I use an old NSF commercial grade 3 quart aluminum pan with a lid because it has a single handle, The single handle method allows for you to easily pick up the pan with one hand, shake it, and remove the lid to pour out popcorn as you go, thus decreasing the likelihood of burning. 2) We use a higher temperature on the stove but perhaps that is because of the pan choice. 3. I love to use corn oil because it really enhances the flavor of the corn (corn on corn) and allows any other flavors (like truffle or curry) to come through brightly.
thank you for your blog and recipes – it is my favorite,
Christina
Aloha Christina! When I make a small portion for myself (1/4 cup of kernels), I use a single-handle saucepan too. It’s not cast iron, so it’s easy to shake with one hand. I like to try pouring out as you go – does it pop like crazy when you are trying to pour out? I’m going to try with my small saucepan first. Probably harder to use a cast iron skillet for that. 😀 I mentioned in the post or recipe, but my gas range is professional grade and very strong… My medium heat is like medium high heat in my previous gas stove. I never cook with high heat anymore except for using for wok. I never use corn oil but it does makes sense!! Thank you for sharing, Christina! And thank you for reading my blog! xo
I am so Jealous, I loved eating popcorn but can’t have it now cause of health reasons. Need smell vision that way I can just enjoy the smell at least! 😉 Domo Arigato Gozaimasu!
Hi Tania! I’m so sorry you can’t enjoy popcorn anymore. Let me know what kind of snack you can eat, so I can create something healthier. 🙂
You don’t have too. I can eat anything that does not have gluten, if it has nuts they have to be in paste form you know like creamy, I can’t have seeds or anything that has seeds in it. Unless I de-seed everything. My life is so complicated. and I can not eat red meat not because I don’t want to but because it causes my gout to flair up something awful. So, yeah I get bummed sometimes but I love watching your videos and sharing then with people I know who love to cook.
Hi Tania! Oh that sounds quite challenging but you must be a real foodie still following recipes and think about your friends! Next recipe I’m writing is GF and I hope you enjoy… 🙂
Hi Nami:
You can use a microwave to pop your corn rather easily. 1/4 cup popcorn, 1 tbsp oil, salt to taste & mix together to distribute the oil over the kernels. Place all in a large brown paper sandwich bag. Fold the bag at the top by creasing the top 1″ & then ripping 2 vertical tears – it will prevent the bag from unfolding at the wrong time. Make sure your rig does fit in the microwave however. Put a paper towel down on the turntable to prevent the oil from getting on the turntable. Nuke it for about 3 min or UNTIL the popcorn stops popping rapidly & the pops kinda peter out. If you go longer, you will burn the corn. A few unpopped kernels are just fine.
Also, instead of clarifying your own butter, use Ghee (Indian food section), which is already clarified. If you are in the Indian food section, get some Garam Masala & sprinkle it on the popcorn instead of other flavourings – the fragance from the warm garam masala coming from the popcorn is amazing & you don’t need butter (well, maybe not).
Have fun
RE: previous comment – popping in a pot is fine & the Le Cruset is a wonderful pot (been there, done that), I just hate cleaning pots…..
And the truffle salt sounds wonderful. Now I have to get some.
Hi Al!!! Thank you so much for your wonderful tip! I especially love your tip on “ripping 2 vertical tears”. That’s SO SMART!!!! I’ll remember that. 🙂 Right! You can purchase Ghee in Trader Joe’s too, and it’s very convenient! If you eat butter popcorn often, using Ghee is probably the easiest method! Haha, I know, cleaning can be a pain, but we have big popcorn eater so we need a big pot. 🙂 I think I’ll try my own popcorn for snack in microwave so I don’t have to wash the pot! I have to find a clean paper bag first! 🙂