Sweet and Salty Popcorn

This Sweet and Salty Popcorn truly is the best of both worlds! Simple to make by tossing freshly popped popcorn with melted butter, brown sugar, and salt; this snack is perfect for those times you just can't decide between salty and sweet.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍿 How to make sweet and salty popcorn
• ⏲️ How to store
• 👩‍🍳 Alternative methods
• 🎉 Popcorn add-ins
• 🍫 More popcorn recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

No matter how many crazy and cool snacks come on the market, popcorn will always be my favorite.

You can browse the shelves of your local grocery store and likely find hundreds of different flavors and varieties of popcorn- everything from buffalo spice to white chocolate to low-fat cheddar.

But there's nothing quite like homemade popcorn. I love it so much, I have an entire popcorn recipe category here on my blog where I share all kinds of flavors and fun mixes. This s'mores popcorn is one of my favorites!

This sweet and salty popcorn is one I've been making for a long time now and I'm excited to share the recipe with you today!

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

If you love making homemade popcorn, but are a little bored of the standard butter and salt, I highly recommend making this sweet and salty version!

It's especially great for anyone who enjoys kettle corn, though it's not exactly a kettle corn.

While many sweet and salty popcorn recipes will have you add granulated sugar to your popcorn kernels as they're popping, I find that technique to be a little temperamental as the sugar can burn easily.

This version is much easier and tastes amazingly delicious!

🗒 Ingredients

Of course, you don't need many ingredients to make sweet and salty popcorn! Here's everything required (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Popcorn kernels
• Vegetable oil or coconut oil
• Unsalted butter
• Light brown sugar
• Salt

🍿 How to make sweet and salty popcorn

This recipe is as simple as whipping up a batch of freshly popped popcorn, drizzling melted butter over it, and tossing with brown sugar and salt.

The butter helps the sugar and salt adhere to the popcorn and also adds a great flavor (that's so much better than the artificial butter you get at the movie theater!).

Everyone has their favorite way of popping popcorn, but here's the technique I use for my stovetop popcorn...

Put the vegetable oil (like canola oil) or coconut oil and popcorn kernels in a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high. When the first kernel pops, cover the pot and remove it from the heat for about 30 seconds.

Then, place the saucepan back on the stove and once the rest of the kernels start popping, vigorously shake the pot back and forth, keeping it on heat.

Once popping slows, take the pot off the heat and remove the cover. Discard any unpopped kernels.

Put popped popcorn in a large bowl.

Melt your butter and drizzle it over the top of the popcorn and toss popcorn to coat.

Get your brown sugar and salt ready. I typically use about 3 tablespoon brown sugar, which makes the popcorn quite sweet (and how I like it!).

And I use about ½ teaspoon salt, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it does make the popcorn quite salty.

Toss the popcorn to coat in the sugar and salt and the perfect movie night snack or game day snack is ready. And couldn't have been easier!

Of course, you can use more or less sugar or salt depending on your preferences.

This sweet and salty popcorn is seriously addictive.

In my opinion, brown sugar is much more delicious and practical on popcorn than granulated sugar is. Not only does it have a richer and more complex flavor thanks to the molasses, but the moisture content also helps it stick to the popcorn better than white sugar would.

I also happen to think the butter and brown sugar combination is one of the best ever!

I made this popcorn for movie night, but ended up eating most of it while standing over the counter immediately after I took these photos. Oops.

⏲️ How to store

While I think freshly popped popcorn is always the best, you can also feel free to store the leftovers for later.

Make sure the popcorn is completely cooled before storing it. Then, you can simply pop it in an airtight container and store it in a cool dark place.

When stored properly, the popcorn should keep for 2-3 days.

👩‍🍳 Alternative methods

There are lots of different ways to make sweet and salty popcorn, but this is my personal favorite way.

• If you have an air popper, you can pop your popcorn in that instead.

• If you prefer, you can use a bag of microwavable popcorn. I recommend getting a plain variety instead of any flavors. Once popped, add the hot popcorn to a bowl and toss with melted butter, sugar, and salt.

• If you want to make more of a caramelized sweet and salty popcorn (kind of like caramel corn!), you can add butter and granulated sugar the pot you're going to pop the popcorn in and stir it until the sugar dissolves and starts to caramelize (turns a light amber color).
  
  Then coat the popcorn kernels in the melted sugar and pop. When you cover the pot, be sure to leave a little gap for steam to escape and shake the pot occasionally to prevent burning. Toss with salt.

• If you have a bag of already popped plain popcorn, I recommend putting it in a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzling melted butter over it, and sprinkling on granulated sugar and salt.
  
  Since the popcorn won't be warm out of the bag, I recommend baking it at 250 degrees for about 10-15 minutes so the sugar and salt adhere to it.

• Instead of mixing in a bowl, you can also feel free to add everything into a paper bag and shake it up!

🎉 Popcorn add-ins

While I absolutely love the simplicity of this sweet and salty popcorn, I also like that it can be made in so many different delicious ways.

Here are some ideas for fun and tasty add-ins:

• Chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, or butterscotch chips
• M&Ms: flavor of your choice, but I'm partial to peanut M&Ms and peanut butter M&Ms
• Toffee bits
• Mini marshmallows
• Nuts: almonds, pecans, and peanuts would be especially delicious, but candied nuts would also add to the sweet and salty flavors
• Shredded coconut
• Pretzel pieces
• Dried fruit like cranberries or cherries
• Crumbled bacon
• Cheese: powdered cheese is especially good for popcorn
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla extract

From sweet to salty to a perfect combination of the two, there's no end to the different popcorn recipes you could make!

Simple and perfect for all kinds of cravings; I hope this sweet and salty popcorn gets made over and over again in your home!

What are your favorite add-ins for popcorn?

📖 Recipe