Ultimate Sweet-N-Salty Bacon Caramel Popcorn Recipe
I love popcorn. I eat it almost every day for my afternoon snack; some days it’s even lunch. Drizzled with unsalted butter and Old Bay is best …. I know, I know; living on the edge. And since I live in a house where there is always a hunk of BD’s home-smoked bacon in the freezer, it was kizmet that eventually I was going to find a way to get those two crazy kids together. And that’s how Sweet-N-Salty Bacon Caramel Popcorn came to be.
One day, I was having a hankering for a snack but had very few options in the pantry and no druthers for hitting the grocery store. I decided to make caramel popcorn but that’d just take care of the sweet side of things. It needed … something. What? Something salty but maybe another texture to throw into the mix. Caramel corn’s crunchy but maybe it needs something chewy. Hmm. What about… bacon. [The heavens opened; the choirs sang.] Not sure what the scientific term for the phenomenon is, but my entire mouth went happy before ever having a taste.
Since that fateful day, I’ve made this caramel corn for friends, family, road trips, and just munching around the house. And I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t gobble it up. I’ve actually seen a person go full monkey tilt when they went to get a nibble only to find it was gone. That’s a testimony. It’s also affirmation of that old adage “the early bird gets the worm.”
Enjoy this fun treat and find a few someones to share it with. Otherwise, you may find yourself sitting with an empty bowl and nobody but yourself to blame. Enough chitter chatter. Go have at it!
For my ultimate recipe, I use slab bacon and cut it into pieces just slightly smaller larger than a popped piece of corn (it will cook down). This size keeps a bit of chew to the bacon once it’s cooked which is a lovely contrast to the crunchy corn. If you use sliced bacon, buy it as thick as you can and cook it to the doneness you like before crumbling or chopping to add to the popcorn. In either case, make sure you drain on several changes of paper towels. You want the bacon; not the grease.
Using an air popper, pop 4 quarts (16 cups) of popcorn. Make sure you remove the unpopped kernels. They are not pleasant to bite into. I pop the corn into a very large bowl, measure it onto my baking sheet, and then dump all the bits and kernels at the bottom of the bowl out.
At this point, very lightly spray the inside of the mixing bowl with no-stick spray and put the measured popcorn back into the bowl for the next step. The spray will help immensely with mixing and clean up. As a side note, I do not cook popcorn in oil so I can’t vouch for how the recipe would work if you went old school and popped the corn in oil in a covered pan. My first thought is that it would be way too greasy. If you try that method, please let me know how it works out. And I’m not even entertaining the idea of store-bought popped corn. Get to the big box store and you can get a right proper air popper for under fifteen dollars.
This caramel recipe is no fail. Okay, well, don’t take that as a challenge. Please follow the instructions. Let’s just say that if you put the ingredients into a sturdy pot, turn the heat to medium, stir occasionally until it starts to boil at which point you will stop stirring, set the timer to five minutes and let it boil without bothering it, and then remove from the heat, you will have success. Seriously, this is just that easy. Do NOT be tempted to taste at this point. You are welcome.
After the caramel comes off of the heat, quickly add the baking soda and then [USING POT HOLDERS … I recently had an ER-visit-necessary bad kitchen burn so apologies for yelling but seriously, heed the warning] carefully pour it over the popcorn and bacon. Using a long-handled wooden or silicone spoon/spatula, stir it in thoroughly and quickly. Do NOT taste at this point either. You are welcome.
Pour the thoroughly combined mixture onto a foiled-lined and sprayed baking sheet and spread it evenly. It will be a generous full pan (or two if you’re using smaller pans). Put into the preheated oven for one hour and remember to stir every 20 minutes. Do NOT taste at this point either, however, if you find a few bits of popcorn and bacon that didn’t make it to the baking sheet, give them about five or six minutes to cool and then have a taste. Now you are really welcome [slow knowing wink].
Cover your counter or kitchen table with aluminum foil, parchment, or waxed paper. When you remove the bacon caramel popcorn from the oven, take if off of the pan and spread it out onto the covered surface and let it cool for 10 minutes. NOW you can eat it with abandon. As it cools, it will crisp up more. You can actually hear it crackle as it cools. Do not store – if there’s any left – until it is completely cooled, about an hour.
As I’ve been typing, I’ve been nibbling on the latest batch. Alas, I just reached in and found the bowl empty. I guess that means I’m done. Thanks for reading.
Now please go enjoy!
SWEET-N-SALTY BACON CARAMEL POPCORN RECIPE
Ingredients
- 6-8 oz bacon slab or thick slice preferable but really any cut will work
- 4 quarts air-popped corn approx 1/2 cup unpopped kernels
- Non-stick cooking spray
- 1 cup butter unsalted
- 2 cups light brown sugar packed
- 1 tsp kosher salt I use Diamond Crystal
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp sea salt I use Maldon for sprinkling, completely optional
Instructions
- If using slab bacon, cut into 1/2 inch dice. If using sliced bacon, leave in strips (you can crumble it later).
- Cook bacon in a large frying pan over medium-low heat until cooked through, chewy not crisp (it will be in the oven for an hour with the popcorn so will crisp a bit then).
- Put the cooked bacon onto paper towels to absorb excess grease.
- If you used bacon slices, coarsely crumble it. Change the paper towels once or twice to make sure the bacon is not sitting in its own grease. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200º F.
- Put the popped corn into a generously large bowl that you have spritzed with a bit of nonstick cooking spray. Make sure to remove any unpopped kernels.
- Add the chopped (or crumbled) bacon to the popped corn. No need to stir it in yet. Set aside.
- Cover a half-sheet baking sheet (or two smaller baking sheets) with foil and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Into a heavy-bottomed medium pot (I used a 4 qt), combine the butter, brown sugar, kosher salt, and corn syrup. Over medium heat, stirring occasionally, bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda.
- Carefully pour the caramel over the popcorn and bacon and stir quickly to incorporate.
- Dump the caramel-coated corn and bacon onto the baking sheet(s), spread out as evenly as possible, and place in the oven. Bake for one hour, stirring every twenty minutes, switching racks if you've used two baking sheets.
- When you take the bacon caramel popcorn out of the oven, spread out on aluminum foil, parchment or waxed paper laid out on the counter to cool. It can be stored in an airtight container once all the way to room temperature and not sticky (about one hour).