How To Give Regular Popcorn A Kettle Corn Taste With 3 Ingredients From Your Pantry

Part of the fun of going to fairs and carnivals is the food, and kettle corn is one of the classics, like cotton candy, corndogs, and whatever new food someone's dreamed up to deep fry. The sweet and salty snack that draws fairgoers with its enticing sugary smell is just as deliciously good when you make it at home. But instead of doing it the usual way, you can use a simpler method to turn regular popcorn into kettle corn with three pantry ingredients: granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt.

The standard way to make kettle corn is popping the popcorn in a pot with oil, granulated sugar, and salt. The salt can be sprinkled on after popping, instead. It was traditionally done in cast iron kettles, which is where it got its name. One of the drawbacks is there's a risk of the sugar starting to burn before all the popcorn is popped. It can also leave melted or burned sugar behind in the pot that's hard to get off.

You can get kettle corn flavor without either of those worries by sprinkling a blend of sugar and salt on regular popcorn. Combine equal amounts of granulated and brown sugars, and add table salt or finer, better-clinging popcorn salt in small amounts until you like the sweet-salty balance. Make the popcorn and immediately sprinkle the mixture on the hot popped kernels. Blend a small batch of the flavoring and store it in an airtight container for whenever you're craving kettle corn.

This simplified kettle corn method can be made even easier by microwaving popcorn kernels without the bag needed for your popcorn. You could even sprinkle the flavoring on store-bought microwave popcorn; just look for an unsalted kind so the kettle corn isn't too salty. Or go the traditional route and pop the popcorn on the stove, steering clear of the oil mistake that derails perfect popcorn. This gives you an opportunity to add another layer of flavor by using an oil lightly infused with spicy chili flakes or even an herb like rosemary or thyme. Introduce buttery flavor by popping the kernels in clarified butter (follow tips to tell when butter is fully clarified), which can withstand the heat without burning.

Kettle corn generally gets its sweetness from granulated sugar alone. Using the 50-50 mix with brown sugar brings a deeper, caramel sweetness. You can try blending with other sugars too, like maple sugar, turbinado, coconut sugar, or demerara.

Switching up the popping oil and sugars isn't the only way to introduce other flavor elements. Mix warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, or pumpkin pie spice, or spicy cayenne or chili powder into the blended sugars and salt. Experiment with stirring in other spice and seasoning blends like chai spice, Chinese five-spice powder, Old Bay, or others whose taste could go well with kettle corn's sweet saltiness. Bring smoky flavor to the snack with a smoked salt, or try a flavored one like truffle or lemon salt.