Stove Top Kettle Corn

To all of you who are parents--do you remember what life was like before those little bundles of joy arrived? It wasn't all that long ago for me, but I still have to squint my eyes and make my brain hurt to remember that at one point in my life, I didn't have permanent snotty hand prints on the shoulders of every shirt I own. Or that back in the day, a basic trip to the grocery store didn't involve a major strategic battle plan. In fact, it's amazing how different life was back then. For me and my husband it involved a lot of kettle corn. When we got married, we received a Whirley-Popper from a good friend (who, ironically, is Kate's mother-in-law and I didn't even know Kate back then!) along with a bunch of gourmet popcorn and seasoning mixes. It quickly became our favorite kitchen appliance and just about every single night, we'd sit on our LoveSac (the only piece of furniture that would fit in our tiny apartment living room), watch movies, and chomp on bowls of hot, sweet kettle corn. Those were the days when we didn't have to pause movies every 12.5 minutes to take turns dragging toddlers back to bed. Ahhh...kettle corn. For the record, as fun and carefree as those kid-less times were, it's SO much better now, snotty hand prints and all :)

For those of you who love to buy bags of this at the fair, get excited because you can make it at home! And you don't even need the fancy-schmancy popcorn popper. But beware: it's highly addictive!


Stove Top Kettle Corn
Recipe by Our Best Bites

3 T canola or vegetable oil
1/3 C popcorn kernels
3 T granulated sugar
kosher salt

The recipe for kettle corn isn't complicated--it's the little tricks that matter. So I'm going to teach you all of my little tricks!

1. Place a large stock pot on the stove top. Set heat to medium-high. Add oil. While your oil is heating (it won't take long), measure out your popcorn into a small bowl. Add sugar to the kernels. When it's time to cook, everything moves very quickly, so it's important to have it all ready to go.


Now, wait until you see your oil smoke. This is one little trick that a lot of people overlook, but it's important. The smoke is very faint, but if you just stare at the pot (it helps to get down parallel to it), you'll see little billows of smoke coming up. That's your cue!

Pour popcorn kernels and sugar into the pot.


Immediately stir using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, scraping sugar from bottom of pan. This step should only take about 10 seconds because I don't want a lawsuit from someone who got pegged in the eye with a popping kernel. Got that? There's your disclaimer. 10 seconds people!

Cover pot with lid. You will need to shake the pot with your hands and you'll want to make sure the lid stays on, so I get a dish towel and drape it over like this:


Of course I had to let go to take the picture, so normally I would be holding the handles so the towel wouldn't be dangling so dangerously close to the burner. I may be a klutz but I'm not an idiot!

Hold the pot by the handles in a way that you're securing the lid on as well. Shake the pan side to side in all directions and up and down a few times. Do this every 20 seconds or so. It will keep the sugar from burning on the bottom and help the kernels to be evenly coated.

After a few minutes you should start hearing the pops. (If it doesn't start popping after a few minutes, crack the lid to let some of the pressure out. Chances are when you put the lid back on, it will pop away). Continue the shaking every 20 second or so until you can tell almost everything is popped. Remove the lid and stir immediately.


Sprinkle Kosher salt to taste and then keep stirring. You can eat it warm right out of the pan (Disclaimer #2: caramelized sugar it HOT so don't eat it right away.) or let it cool completely. It's great either way!


Did you notice the cool wooden plate in these pictures? I recently participated in a fun little event called "Plate Swap." It was organized similar to a Secret Santa exchange, only all of the participants were food bloggers and the presents were plates! It was so much fun. I received 2 beautiful wooden plates from Joelen at What's Cookin' Chicago? Go check out her blog--she's got some amazing recipes over there and if you're in the Chicago area, she's a great resource as well! Thanks again, Joelen, for the awesome plates! And ironically, I sent plates to Chicago, but to Heather from Bodacious Girl Blog.

Still planning out what to eat for Halloween Weekend?

Surprise the family with a special breakfast! Then go for Chili and Cornbread for dinner. Make sure to sip some Cider, pop some Kettle Corn, and if you're having a party make lots of fun food and plenty of Halloween treats!
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Hope you all have a fun, and safe Halloween!