This yellow, intensely buttery homemade Movie Popcorn stays crisp FOR DAYS! Save a fortune at the cinema candy bar – just remember to take a giant bag so you can smuggle in loads of your own homemade popcorn….
Today’s 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 popcorn!!!
* 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!
THE SECRET TO HOMEMADE POPCORN
Pop some kernels in oil, sprinkle over salt and drizzle with melted butter. I’ll still scoff that down even though the popcorn goes a bit soggy from the butter.
But if you want truly crispy, ultra buttery, YELLOW popcorn, here’s what you need:
- Homemade Popcorn Salt – just finely grind or blitz salt in a food processor
- Clarified butter / ghee, not plain melted butter (see section below)
- Saffron and tumeric powder for the yellow colour (see section below)
POPCORN BUTTER – CLARIFIED BUTTER / GHEE
Normal butter and popcorn are not great mates. It’s made up of butter fat, milk solids and water, so the smoke point is too low to cook with, and if you douse the popcorn with melted butter, it goes soggy within minutes.
The solution is to make clarified butter which is super easy – just melt butter and keep it on the stove until the water cooks out, then strain to remove the milk solids (the brown bits in the photos below).
Once you do this, the butter is now pure butter fat which has a high smoke point so the popcorn can be cooked using it + it stays crispy once doused in the butter.
Alternative: Use store bought ghee. That’s what clarified butter is!
This stuff is also known as liquid gold. The buttery smell is just insane!
And if that isn’t enough, another miracle of ghee is that it 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!
MOVIE POPCORN YELLOW – OPTIONAL
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!!! There are also some teeny orangey specks on some of the the popcorn.
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
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Recipe video above. It's buttery and yellow, just like the buckets you buy at the Candy Bar! The yellow colour is optional, the butter is not. Bonus: The popcorn stays crisp for several days, thanks to the clarified butter (aka ghee). If you skip making the Popcorn Butter, see notes for recipe amendments.
- 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
- 1 tbsp salt
- 250 g / 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 tsp warm tap water
- 1/4 tsp saffron powder , imitation (Note 2)
- 1/8 tsp tumeric powder
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Place 3 tbsp Popcorn Butter in a large 10L/10qt lightweight pot over medium heat (medium high if weak stove).
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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.
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Add kernels, shake quickly to spread across the base, then clamp lid on. The kernels will start popping after a minute or so.
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Shake briefly once after 30 seconds or so. When the popping stops, immediately pour popcorn into a large bowl.
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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.
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Place in a mortar and pestle and grind into a fine powder. OR use about 1/2 cup salt and blitz in food processor.
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Place butter in a silver saucepan over medium low to medium heat.
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Leave to melt, it will start to sputter and spit, then foam.
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When you push the foam aside and you see brown bits on the bottom of the saucepan, remove from heat. Takes about 10 minutes.
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Line a strainer with 2 paper towels, then strain butter through - discard brown bits.
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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).
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Mix ingredients in a small bowl until spices dissolve.
1. Popcorn Butter - Can be substituted with store bought Ghee. Recipe makes more than you need because it's easier to make this quantity, and it keeps for months. We're making ghee here which is clarified butter, which is butter where milk solids and water has been removed, so it's 100% butter fat. Because it's 100% fat, it has a far higher smoking point than butter (you can't cook popcorn in normal butter), and it also means it can be stored in the pantry without spoiling.
The removal of the water from the butter is also the reason why the popcorn stays crispy for days - unlike when you douse it with normal melted butter.
If you skip making Popcorn Butter, you MUST use normal oil to cook the popcorn, do not use normal butter. Then douse the popcorn with normal melted butter - but it does soften, and is certainly no good the next day.
Use leftover ghee in Daal, Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken, or any other recipe that calls for ghee, or in place of cooking oil for any Indian recipe.
2. Saffron Powder - Found in the herbs and spices section of supermarkets. Get the cheap saffron powder which is not 100% saffron and has colouring added - it's about $1.20 to $1.50 in Australia. Don't get the expensive saffron powder which is pure ground saffron!
3. STORAGE: Stays crisp for 2 to 3 days in an airtight container. It can even be kept for 4 days if you have a super airtight container.
4. Nutrition per serving.
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…..
Hello, this weekend is nice for me, since this point in time
i am reading this impressive informative paragraph here at my home.
Hi Nagi,
So happy you posted this, I love popcorn and although I’ve been happy with my stove-top popcorn I wanted to take it up a notch and try your recipe. I was also very excited about the ghee recipe but unfortunately that’s were I struggled. The melted butter wouldn’t properly strain through the paper towel. I first tried two paper towels as specified in the recipe and then just one. It was dripping really slowly so I left it on the kitchen bench but when I came back it had gone hard in the paper towel…
Do you have any ideas what I could do differently? Maybe use a nut bag instead of paper towel? Or a different brand of paper towel (I’m in Australia)?
Cheers, Anna
P.S. The popcorn was delicious, my favorite seasoning is cinnamon and a bit of sea salt.
Such a beautiful photo of you two. x
(woops forgot to say yummm again – he IS a gorgeous distraction)
😂 I’ll take Dozer compliments over food compliments anyday!
It IS a great picture of you two! He’s cute, but you are adorable!!! Oh, and whether you like them or not, ! can’t give you enough food compliments! I LOVE your site! As others have said, your recipes are straightforward, delicious and full of all the details that make me feel comfortable trying something new. I never have questions after reading or trying one of your recipes because you have anticipated the questions and provided answers!! I have learned so much from you – THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
I just bought ghee and I’m ready to go! This butter popcorn recipe is a treasure.
LOVE the pix of you and the Doze, too!
DO IT DO IT!!!
Thank you for this photo – it’s made my week. Gorgeous!
I love this recipe and will be making it with ghee as I’m too afraid to try to clarify butter myself.
I do a nice caramel popcorn but can’t ever do a proper butter one so this is awesome, thank you!
I hope you get a chance to try this Brigette! It really is SO GOOD! N x
Hello HAPPY couple!! Beautiful PHOTO. AS for popcorn I WOULD NOT BE WITHOUT IT, true. Comes a winter comes popcorn and am HAPPY Chapy !! No color for me. Ala Natural! Love, love IT! MY MUM use to make for us on New Years Eve. HAVE great day.
You’re a popcorn lover too!! I LOVE THAT!!!
That’s a great picture of you and Dozer. Completely natural. You’ve got such a happy expression. Dozer on the other hand doesn’t look too impressed. Does he not do mornings? Lol. x
Hugs for Dozer xx
He mustn’t have had his breakfast yet…. either that, or he’s thinking “Woman! Just let me run freeeeeee!!!”
Hi Nagi
Any idea on how to make a Sweet and Salty version love them mixed together.
The colouring is a very clever idea – can’t wait to try it
I have a caramel popcorn recipe I was planning to share one day! It’s lightly coated and I add salt to make it sweet/salty. But after I saw this message I wondered if it would work to add sugar into the clarified butter!
OR just use icing sugar!!! Oooh… I think I’ll try that tomorrow! N x
I do have to laugh… the movie theaters are going to be impressed with you aren’t they… “so you can smuggle in loads..”
Before you know it they will be doing bag checks after they keep on seeing vivid coloured popcorn on the floor 😉
Blame it all on Nagi. ha ha
Beautiful photo of the 2 of you.
YES! YES YES!!!!
That’s a beautiful photo of the 2 of you. .who needs make up! !! I was fainted with the yellow add no for the pop corn must try. .love pop corn! Thanks
I barely ever wear make up anymore!! Hate the feeling of my pores being clogged up 😂
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.
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.
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???
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!!!