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Seasoned popcorn is an easy movie night snack and this homemade jalapeño popcorn is especially good. Made with cilantro, cheese powder, butter, and pickled jalapeños, it’s a truly full-flavoured snack. Whether it’s movie night or you simply crave a savoury snack, you have to try a jalapeño flavoured popcorn recipe.
Movie night just isn’t the same without seasoned popcorn or, better still, homemade jalapeño popcorn. The savoury, spicy flavour and crunch are so satisfying and this is an easy popcorn recipe to make too.
Also try steak and shitake mushroom bruschetta crostini appetizers, a Polar Express dessert board, or marinated olives with feta. And Grinch Crumbl cookies too!
Homemade Jalapeno Popcorn Ingredients
Along with the popcorn kernels and pickled jalapeño slices, you will need butter, cheese popcorn powder, chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, and a sliced fresh jalapeño.
If you aren’t so keen on spice but you still want to make seasoned popcorn, you can sub a pinch of chili powder and/or a milder chili variety for the jalapeños.
Or, if you are a spice lover, use serrano peppers instead. Be careful how much you use, since serrano chillies can impart some fierce heat and perhaps not everyone you’re making this for likes that much spice! You can also let people add their own chilies and seasonings later, making the batch mild to start with.
Anyway, it’s easy to tweak the heat of this easy movie night snack. Also bear in mind some fresh jalapeños are pretty mild and others have some serious heat, so perhaps taste a little of the fresh one before adding it to the popcorn.
You can also omit the cilantro or change the white cheddar popcorn powder for another variety.
How to Make a Jalapeno Flavoured Popcorn Recipe
Heat a Dutch oven or large heavy pot then add butter. Add the pickled jalapeños and cook for a few minutes. Next you can add the popcorn kernels and some salt and pepper. Stir the mixture then cover the pot.
When you start to hear popping, you can lift the pot a little and shake it a few times to promote even cooking. Keep cooking, shaking the pan every 30 seconds, until the popping slows down. This should take around 4 minutes. Now toss the cooked popcorn with the cheddar cheese powder, cilantro and sliced fresh jalapeño and serve hot.
Tips for Perfect Homemade Popcorn
It is easy to make popcorn yourself and even making it the old-fashioned way in a pan, rather than using microwave popcorn, only takes a few minutes. Since it’s such a quick recipe, it’s best to prepare all the ingredients and make sure you have everything at hand before you begin.
It’s also easy to add whatever flavours you want to your seasoned popcorn. This homemade jalapeño popcorn is especially good or you could try a sweet popcorn recipe by adding chocolate candies or similar. The sky is the limit really since popcorn has a neutral taste to begin with.
The popcorn is ready when almost every kernel has popped. You will hear the popping slow down and then you know this easy movie night snack is just about ready to enjoy. And remember it will keep popping once you take the pan off the stove because of the heat inside.
If you keep going to get every last kernel popped you run the risk of burning the popcorn. So don’t worry about a couple of unpopped kernels. That’s the price you pay for perfect popcorn!
So grab all your ingredients, prepare this tasty snack and think about which movie you’re going to watch. I love travel movies and there are certainly a lot to choose from!
Homemade Jalapeno Popcorn FAQs
We all know and love freshly prepared popcorn but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it ahead of time. As long as you store it in airtight containers it should stay fresh.
However, this advice is only for plain popcorn. Once you add seasonings, such as jalapeno slices, it will start to get soggy very quickly. So for this particular jalapeno flavoured treat, I’d say make it just before you need it for the best result.
Spicy popcorn is amazing by itself but you can add a soda to tone down some of the spice. If you also want something sweet to munch in front of that new movie you’re so excited to see, consider ginger molasses cookies or even some fresh fruit.
Homemade Jalapeño Popcorn Recipe
Homemade Jalapeño Popcorn
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoon butter
- 1 Can pickled jalapeno, slices
- ½ Cup popcorn kernels
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- ½ Teaspoon black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon popcorn powder, white cheddar such as Kernels white cheddar
- 3 Tablespoon cilantro, chopped
- 1 jalapeño, sliced
Instructions
- Place a Dutch oven over medium low heat.
- Once hot, add the butter.
- Next, add the pickled jalapeños to the melted butter. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Pour in the popcorn kernels, salt and pepper. Stir and spread the kernels in an even layer and Cover.
- Once the popcorn starts popping, lift the Dutch oven just slightly off the burner and shake back and forth to evenly distribute the heat.
- Cook until the popping slows, be sure to shake the pan every 30 seconds. All together this should only take 3 to 5 minutes.
- Toss popcorn with white cheddar powder, chopped cilantro, and sliced jalapeños.
Nutrition
Homemade jalapeño popcorn is a mouth-watering and easy movie night snack which you’re going to love. This addicting treat features jalapeño flavoured seasoned popcorn and you can adjust the spice level to suit your palate.
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This was a total hit with our guests! Excited to make this again. 🙂
My kids will love this! Making it tonight.