This yellow, intensely buttery homemade Movie Popcorn stays crisp FOR DAYS! Save a fortune at the movie theatre candy bar – just remember to take a giant bag so you can smuggle in loads of your own homemade Butter Popcorn….
Homemade Movie Popcorn (Butter Popcorn)
Today’s butter popcorn recipe is for everyone who’s blown a fortune at movie theatre candy bars.
In particular, for all fellow Aussies who remember enjoying cheap movie tickets on Tight-Arse-Tuesdays*, only to spend twice as much on popcorn and M&M’s.
I can’t help you on the M&M’s.
But I can help you with the butter popcorn!!!
This butter popcorn is intensely buttery – and it stays crisp for days!
* In Australia, movie tickets are (were??) discounted by most cinemas every Tuesday. We affectionally referred to it as Tight-Arse-Tuesdays. You’d be hard pressed to find an Aussie who isn’t familiar with this term!
How to make butter popcorn without it going soggy
The secret to stay-crispy popcorn that’s really butter is clarified butter, also known as ghee. This is just melted butter that’s simmered until the water in the butter evaporates – because butter is made up of fat, milk solids and water.
Once the water is evaporated, the melted butter is now pure butter fat. This has two benefits for butter popcorn:
Use to pop the popcorn – because it has a higher smoke point than normal butter. You CANNOT pop popcorn with normal butter, it just burns; and
Won’t make popcorn soggy when you pour the butter over it. In fact, it stays crispy for days and days and days….
Alternative to making clarified butter: Use store bought ghee. That’s what clarified butter is!
How to make clarified butter– the secret to “stay crispy” butter popcorn
This stuff is also known as liquid gold. The buttery smell is just insane!
And if that isn’t enough, another miracle is that clarified butter can be stored in the pantry for months and months. It’s liquid when warm and a soft butter consistency at room temperature (just microwave to melt).
You’ll find ghee is called for in almost every Indian recipe. Also, use it in place of melted butter in any recipe – clarified butter is just browned butter which is butter on steroids!
How to make Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn
So now you know the secret to stay-crispy butter popcorn, here’s how to make Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn that’s ultra buttery and will stray crisp for days! (I use the same technique in my Lightly Sweet ‘n Salty Popcorn, which adds a slightly sweet touch compared to this Butter Popcorn.)
Grind salt or blitz in food processor to make it a fine powder – it needs to be fine so it sticks to the popcorn
Melt clarified butter (ghee) in a pot – do not use normal butter
For optional movie theatre yellow popcorn colour – add tumeric and saffron powder (see section below for more info)
Add popcorn kernels, clamp lid on
30 seconds after popcorn starts popping, shake pot once
When popping stops, remove from pot and immediately transfer popcorn into large bowl
Douse liberally with more clarified butter and sprinkle with salt. Do not use normal butter, it will make it soggy!
How to make Movie Popcorn YELLOW!
For a truly authentic Movie Popcorn experience, this recipe includes an option to make your popcorn yellow!
After many many batches of popcorn, I’ve settled on a combination of imitation saffron and tumeric powder as the best way to add an authentic yellow colour to the popcorn. I dissolve it in a touch of water, then swirl it around in the butter before adding the kernels.
Caveat: You will get yellow fingers and tongue, just like when you indulge in Cheetos and Cheezels! There is also the slightest hum of warmth left on your tongue from the spices, barely noticeable. None of my friends noticed it – until I probed them repeatedly!!!
For fellow food nerds interested in how I landed on this: The spices have to be dissolved in a touch of water because they don’t dissolve or seep into fat. This was also the problem with normal yellow food colouring – it doesn’t dissolve in fat. I tried emulsifying it by shaking in a jar with the butter, grinding with salt and sprinkling. I also found that using both spices achieved the colour I was after – tumeric alone makes the popcorn a crazy neon yellow colour, while saffron comes out a cheddar orange colour.
Phew! Who knew I could write so much about popcorn??!!
I will tell you this though. Putting aside the yellow colouring, because that really is optional, Homemade Movie Popcorn is insanely addictive. It’s buttery in a way that just dousing with normal melted butter never will be. It’s lightly and evenly salted in a way that you can’t achieve just by using normal cooking or table salt.
And the best part?
IT STAYS CRISP FOR DAYS. As in – perfectly crispy.
Start thinking about how you’re going to smuggle this into the cinema. Because honestly, it’s almost criminal how expensive movie popcorn is to buy!!! – Nagi x
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Homemade Movie Popcorn (Stay-crisp Butter Popcorn)
Ingredients
Movie Popcorn:
- 3 tbsp Popcorn Butter or ghee (Note 1)
- 3/4 cup popcorn kernels
- 2 – 3 tbsp Extra Popcorn Butter or ghee (Note 1)
- 1 tsp Popcorn Salt
Popcorn Salt:
- 1 tbsp salt
Popcorn Butter (clarified butter / ghee):
- 250 g / 2 sticks unsalted butter
Yellow Colouring (optional):
- 1 1/2 tsp warm tap water
- 1/4 tsp saffron powder , imitation (Note 2)
- 1/8 tsp tumeric powder
Instructions
Movie Popcorn:
- Place 3 tbsp Popcorn Butter in a large 10L/10qt lightweight pot over medium heat (medium high if weak stove).
- When the butter is almost melted, pour in Yellow Colouring, if using. Quickly give the pan a shake to disperse the colouring across the base.
- Add kernels, shake quickly to spread across the base, then clamp lid on. The kernels will start popping after a minute or so.
- Shake briefly once after 30 seconds or so. When the popping stops, immediately pour popcorn into a large bowl.
- Melt Extra Popcorn Butter in microwave. Pour over popcorn, sprinkle over salt. Shake and toss well to disperse. Extra fantastic served warm but still irresistible at room temp.
.
Popcorn Salt:
- Place in a mortar and pestle and grind into a fine powder. OR use about 1/2 cup salt and blitz in food processor.
Popcorn Butter (video helpful):
- Place butter in a silver saucepan over medium low to medium heat.
- Leave to melt, it will start to sputter and spit, then foam.
- When you push the foam aside and you see brown bits on the bottom of the saucepan, remove from heat. Takes about 10 minutes.
- Line a strainer with 2 paper towels, then strain butter through – discard brown bits.
- Pour strained butter into a jar or container. It sets when it cools. Use in liquid or set form. Keeps in the pantry for months (it is now ghee / clarified butter).
Yellow Colouring (optional):
- Mix ingredients in a small bowl until spices dissolve.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Look what I found on my phone from the trip down south to Araluen last weekend! Just rolled out of bed, complete with ugg boots, trackies, bed hair, completely makeup-less, clutching Dozer.
Ooooh…. *light bulb goes off in head*…. I could be talking about any day…..
Hahaha! Then I’ll be watching for Kettle popcorn, toffee popcorn, oooh chocolate popcorn etc. Yum, yum, and yum!!!
Stop! I’m going to be buried under a mound of popcorn!!
Hahaha! How did I ever forget caramel popcorn! Just saying. I’ll stop now bc you’ll never catch up. 😀
Love the pic of you and Dozer…….you look so happy Nagi and relaxed, and Dozer, well Dozer looks a little bewildered….but beautiful even then…….keep him close.
The recipe looks and sounds great I can make it for the grandchildren. Unfortunately :-(…..I can’t eat popcorn, although I enjoyed it very much at one time in my life.
Glad you enjoyed your time away!
Bewildered!!! Ba ha ha! I think that was either a “Woman! Feed me!” look or “Woman! Let me go to run FREEEEEE!”
Ha! One of the best photos of you and Dozer I have seen – love the mussed hair and no makeup and big happy smile 🙂 ! Have never been into popcorn – well, being some 45km from the nearest cinema along busy Hume Highway have forgotten what a trip there is like also. More comfortable at home and should really try your ‘movie’ popcorn once for a TV session in bed! Wondering: if one did turn up at the cinema with a big bag of illicit popcorn these days . . . would you not be suspect to carrying weapons or drugs or else . . . 🙂 ?
Remind me what area you’re in? I was down at Araluen last weekend – beautiful part of the world
Just up the hill from the Sydney Basin near Picton: pretty but not quite as ‘posh’ as Bowral down the road . . . . and a little ‘hemmed in’, having been a long-time Eastern Subs gal . . . .
I don’t know if it’s available “down under” but there are are commonly available pre packaged kits of 8 ounces that contain the corn, coconut oil, coloring and flavored salt AKA flavacol. 1 ounce roughly means 1quart popped.
Wow they sell the kits with Flavacol! I have to try one next time I’m in the states! N xx
First let me clarify that you are among my faves.
The kits and flavacol salt are available on Amazon. What’s new? Here’s what I do. I get a piece of foil big enough to crimp over an 8-quart pot. Set that aside. Fire up the stove and put the pot on the stove. Add just the oil part of the kit.
When it just starts to smoke, add the corn and salt. Give it a circular motion stir for a couple seconds. You now have 30 seconds before the action starts.
Quickly cover and crimp the foil over the pot. Poke about 8-10 small holes or slits to let steam escape.
Shake the pot again to ensure all kernels heat evenly. Shake every few seconds. When the pot is half full with popped corn, remove the foil and keep shaking it. When popping slows to one or less per second, dump it into a larger bowl. Add more salt or flavavol if desired and shake to distribute.
To emulate the light, fluffy crunch of true theater popcorn, place the bowl of popped corn in a 250° oven for 15-20 minutes.
Add your toppings and share with the dog(s) or someone you like just a little less. Lol
I know that method! Where did I read about that?? I can’t remember. Maybe Alton Brown???
Where’s the fun in that! Much more satisfying to make your own.
Yes it is. Go for it. Wherever method you use, be sure and bake your popped corn as I recommended if you prefer a light and fluffy chew. Otherwise after popping let it dry a little, add more salt, toss then serve. Letting the popped kernels dry out some before salting prevents a tougher chew.
In the US, theater popcorn used to be popped in coconut oil with authentic butter flavoring (probably a ghee equivalent) and coloring, until the NIH and food nazis went on an anti-fat rampage and pressured theaters to change it all years ago. Most theaters here don’t even pop it fresh anymore. They buy it bagged in huge cartons and just warm it under lights in units that look like popping machines, then drizzle it with a yellow, artificially flavored faux-butter oil. It’s disgusting! AND, it’s a less healthy version of the original version the food nazis had campaigned against back when they’d declared that a great war on fats! These would be the same folks who’d also thought that sugar substitutes were healthy. Idiots!
It’s outrageous that theaters charge what they do for popcorn, but especially so for the nasty facsimile product they continue to pass off as theater popcorn! They should bring back the real thing, but probably never will. Fortunately, our super hero Nagi and her trusty canine sidekick Dozer have come through and saved the day, and all of us, from the hellish evils of faux theater popcorn And the further insult and indignity of being charged astronomical prices for it, too! We can all indulge in the real thing again! Thanks!!!
I don’t want to KNOW what it’s movie theatre popcorn!!!
Nagi – The price of popcorn at our cinemas ‘is’ criminal!! I have a habit of buying cookies from Coles or Woolies and we sneak them in. Sneaky and lovely.
The recipe looks fabulous and who doesn’t need ghee in the fridge handy?
Have a wonderful weekend- The photo of you and Dozer is beautiful. Diana 🙂
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who sneaks food into cinemas! I’ve been doing it for years – and always feel so guilty!! But we shouldn’t, should we!
Hi where can u buy saffron powder from?
Great popcorn recipe can’t wait to try
THANKS
Hi Karlene! Just the herbs and spices section at supermarkets 🙂 Get the cheap stuff which has colouring added, not the expensive saffron powder which is pure gouger saffron!
Hi Nagi! It made me laugh, just picturing all these women going to the movie theater with great big handbags or totes. The guys would have a backpack.
Your right, the popcorn is so crazy expensive! Hmm that would be a bit trickier replicating m&m’s! Lol.
You and Dozer have a great weekend!
Star rating works again!😀
I’m hoping to start a DIY Popcorn Movement!!!
What a great recipe! I can’t wait to try it. I stopped buying microwave popcorn a long time ago after I discovered how bad all the artificial ingredients were for your health. But I love popcorn and I don’t have a popcorn maker. This looks so simple to make.
Technical question: How do you make the process photo collages? What program do you use? Thank you!
Hi Mary Ann! I have a template in Photoshop, I’ll email it to you now! It’s a biggish file so I might have to send a dropbox link 🙂 N x
Nagi,
Awesome – thank you sooo much! That’s very generous of you. I really appreciate it.
Hi Nagi,
You and Dozer look so happy together! Love it! Can’t wait to try the popcorn recipe – it looks great.
I swear, you can’t be in a bad mood when you have a dog. It’s impossible!! I got Dozer and the morning grumps were gone for good!
Hi Nagi,
Truer words were never typed!
MIOVIE TIME! 😂
I am loving the pic of you and Dozer. Looked like a cozy morning😊
Have an Awesome Sauce weekend! Hugs
There was snoozing in front of the fire place shortly thereafter…. it certainly was a cosy morning!!! Happy weekend to you too Gail, hugs back! N x
Hi Nagi,
You always find the cutest photos of Dozer for us to coo over, it’s nice to see you sharing the spotlight. We’re both HUGE fans of popcorn here, Steve often pops a bag for lunch! Me, I’m all about the stovetop and this is going into my Make it Now! file.
BTW, I’m really impressed at how much popcorn you can grab with your baby hands! (ducking)
I grew up in a family where if you weren’t fast enough, you missed out. I’ve had lots of practice. Where there’s a will, there’s a way….no matter how small your hands are!
Nagi — HOW do you come up with the best food ideas every single day! I had just been thinking about going to the movie theater to get some popcorn and bring it home — we all love movie popcorn!
One question, though — what is imitation saffron powder? Are there different kinds?
I love the idea of making ghee too, the whole popcorn idea is making my mouth water!
Big hugs to Dozer, he looks so happy on vacation with you!!!
OMG this made me laugh! I LOVE movie popcorn but not even I thought to buy takeout from the cinemas!!! N x
Love the happy photo with you and sweet Dozer!
WOW – To work out how to make movie popcorn and make it last for more than one day is BRILLIANT!! Thank you, Nagi. My hubby & I love popcorn with lots of butter but I only make enough for one sitting since it goes to mush overnight. Bleh. Making this as a surprise for my husband on our Saturday home movie night.
I’m hitting the road shortly for a road trip and I have a giant bag of this to keep me company!!!
That popcorn looks delicious! I had no idea using ghee would solve the soggy buttered popcorn dilemma. You have the best ideas, and I can’t wait to show this one to my hubby.
Love the picture of you and Dozer. Y’all are just too cute!
I can’t take credit! I read about it somewhere, or saw it on TV 🙂 It works 100% perfectly! N x
Haven’t had popcorn in years, but you take on it has me remembering a good bucket of buttered popcorn. I think you could make M&Ms. Just call then N&Ds.
You guys look great in the image.
N&D’s!!! BA HA HA! But more importantly – do you do the salty/sweet thing? Popcorn + M&M in one bite = 👌🏻
Nagi, Thank you for tackling the popcorn. I as well had problems with soggy popcorn for years. Even went through a few popcorn makers trying to get that perfect movie popcorn. You and I have both been experimenting to get the best results at home. I achieved by different means and would like to share with you. But, am aware, the ingredients may not be available to you. Have not measured. This popcorn is as good 1 and 2 days out as it is after popping. Great Northern Popcorn..movie theater. Golden Barrel butter flavored coconut oil, and Flavacol, a butter flavored salt made by Gold Medal. All available on Amazon. Add generous amount of the butter flavor coconut oil to pot, then add Flavacol to oil, then popcorn. When popped, make sure and allow all steam to escape by dumping popcorn in large bowl. Sprinkle more Flavacol, to taste, to popcorn, as you would salt. The end product is that beautiful yellow color and flavor tastes like the movie theater. I poo pooed these ingredients because they weren’t the real deal butter. But, results are better. And, found that friend with a terrible lactose intolerence can also eat the popcorn. I will never go back to my old way of
Making popcorn. Now I don’t have to go to movies for the popcorn!
I read about Flavacol! I am curious to try it, I should order it. Apparently it makes it smell like real deal movie popcorn! I wonder what’s in it>>
Brilliant Idea! I’m so addicted to popcorn – and here I’ve had that can of ghee in my cupboard all this time! We also have the half price movie tickets on Tuesdays in Virginia and Dubai. We didn’t give it such a cute name though 🙂 And yes, we always pay more for the popcorn than for the tickets. Love the pic of you and Dozer – so adorable!
Ghee is the BEST secret ingredient ever!! I use it in place of butter all the time 🙂 N x
The coolest recipe! I love this. Totally saving this for my next movie release!
YOUR next movie release?? Is there a movie star in our midst here?? 😂
Haha, not me. I’m just the screenwriter! =) =)
Nagi, you’re a genius. I can’t believe you cracked the movie popcorn code. This is a great post
Ah, I can’t take credit. I’ve known about it for years, I read or saw it somewhere. The only thing I figured out is the yellow colouring! N x