Stovetop kettle corn
Sweet and salty kettle corn popped in one pot, with a thin crackly sugar coating on every piece. Ready in about 12 minutes from four pantry staples.
- Prep
- 2 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Serves
- 4
- Per serve
- 240 kcal
Ingredients
Method
Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper and keep it right next to the stove. Have oven mitts ready: hot sugar burns badly and sticks to skin, so don't touch the popcorn with your fingers until it has cooled.
Put the oil and 3 kernels in a large heavy pot (at least 4 quarts) with a lid over medium-high heat. Wait for the test kernels to pop.
Remove the popped kernels, add the rest of the kernels and the sugar and stir quickly so the sugar coats them. Cover and turn the heat down to medium.
Using oven mitts, hold the lid on and shake the pot constantly, almost without stopping, so the sugar can't settle and burn. Once popping slows to 2 to 3 seconds apart, take it off the heat straight away.
Immediately tip the popcorn onto the sheet pan (the sugar keeps cooking in the hot pot), sprinkle with the salt and spread it out with a spatula. Let it cool until the coating turns crisp, then break up any clumps and serve.
Tips
- If you smell burning before the popping slows, pull the pot off the heat right away: burnt sugar tastes bitter and you can't save it.
- Soak the pot in hot water as soon as you've tipped the popcorn out and the sugar will dissolve on its own.
- Most US granulated sugar is fine for vegans, but some cane sugar is filtered with bone char; choose organic or beet sugar if that matters to you.
