If you weren’t aware by now, popcorn is one of my favorite snacks ever and I make it often when I don’t feel like making dinner for the night. Unfortunately, chefs and food bloggers alike tend to have a bad habit of eating literally nothing or eating something insanely quick even though we cook amazing stuff all day. It’s true, I surprisingly forget to eat often and often get scolded by friends when they find out I don’t eat much while I’m recipe testing most days. When I’m snacking on popcorn, I prefer making it on the stove instead of heating up some microwave popcorn. The flavor is unmatched, plus you can control how much seasoning and the various toppings you add to it.

I love making my popcorn and keeping it pretty simple. A little bit of butter, kosher salt, and a big shaking of nutritional yeast. If you haven’t tried nutritional yeast, don’t fret. It’s nutty and slightly cheesy in flavor, so it adds a great little punch of umami to whatever you put it on, especially popcorn. When we first moved to Charleston, we had neighbors across the street that grew into lifelong family friends.

They were a big and crunchy granola hippie family, which I loved and didn’t see often with other folks in our neighborhood. Think incense burners, flowers and crystals on the mantles, tons of books, granola snacks, and tie-dye tapestries on the walls. My kind of bohemian vibe that I have going now. When we would go over to her house to play with the kids, Mrs. Pam would always make us a big bowl of popcorn topped with shake-shake (which is what she called nutritional yeast) to hold us over until dinner in the evenings. I still refer to nutritional yeast as shake-shake when I make some for friends and family.

Sometimes I’ll switch it up by shaking some Old Bay, adobo, Nori Furikake, or hot sauce on my popcorn depending on my mood. When I wanna get fancy, I’ll sprinkle in some Buncha Crunch candies or Junior Mints, which always reminds me of being in the movies. I always snag a box or two of movie candies from Dollar Tree just for this purpose. The chocolate gets a little melty with the hot popcorn and you’re left with a mixture of sweet and salty goodness! Add what you like, that’s what’s so fun about popcorn: it’s a blank canvas. This makes a big, big bowl which is perfect for household snacking during a fun, movie night. Let’s get popping!

Stovetop Popcorn

Cook time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6-8

Heaping 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tbsp kosher salt

1 cup popcorn kernels

3 tbsp butter, melted

Nutritional yeast, to taste

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat up the vegetable oil over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, sprinkle with the kosher salt.

Next, add three kernels to the oil and let them pop. Once they pop, your oil is ready for the rest of the kernels. Remove these already popped tester kernels from the pot so they don’t burn by the time the rest of the popcorn pops.

Cover the pot with its lid slightly askew to allow steam to escape and let the popcorn pop away, using a towel or oven mitt to shake the pot on occasion.

Once you hear all the kernels slow down in their popping, turn the heat off and let them finish popping with the carryover heat.

Pour half of the popcorn into a large serving bowl and then drizzle with half of the melted butter. Sprinkle a large pinch of kosher salt and shake the nutritional yeast over the popcorn. Toss to make sure everything is mixed well and repeat with the next layer of popcorn. Serve immediately and enjoy!