How To Make the Best Buttery, Movie-Style Popcorn

Hot, buttery, salty, crunchy — movie theater popcorn is as much a part of the cinema experience as the movie itself. The aroma beckons moviegoers toward concession stands, but the pay-off to this seductive smell is all too often disappointing, with greasy kernels loaded up with fake butter flavoring.

The fantasy of movie popcorn deserves better. Today, we fulfill the promise of super-buttery, crispy popcorn with the recipe it deserves.

There are a few surprising keys to making the best, buttery, movie-style popcorn and all of them add up to the best bowl of popcorn you can make at home.

The popcorn at the movies isn’t made with butter at all. The corn kernels are cooked in coconut or canola oil and sprinkled with a concoction of salt, butter flavorings, and bright-yellow food coloring.

Now, as a person trained in the food science field, I’m not scared of scientific terms found on the back of the box, but that also means I know when back to basics is the way to go. Yellow food coloring doesn’t belong in popcorn!

Having said that, back to basics doesn’t mean all butter. Coconut oil is my oil of choice when making stovetop theater-style popcorn. And there’s some authenticity to this choice: Some movie theaters also use coconut oil to cook their kernels. I like the flavor this fat adds, so this gives us one piece of the popcorn puzzle.

So, what about the butter, then? When does that come in? Clarified butter is the best bet for coating your kernels. Regular butter contains water and milk solids, which lead to a soggy snack. Clarified butter gives you a clean, rich, buttery flavor.

I like to pour half of the butter, toss, and then pour the remaining half so that you get more even coverage.

You can make your own clarified butter or purchase ghee, a type of clarified butter with even more of the water content removed, for your popcorn.

More on clarified butter: How To Make Clarified Butter and Ghee

Movie theaters use popcorn that pops into large, irregular snowflake shapes, which come from “butterfly” or “snowflake” kernels. White and yellow popcorn are standard, but heirloom varieties of popcorn come in just about every color of the rainbow. Still, no matter the hull’s color, the starch is always yellow or white.

I prefer yellow kernel snowflake popcorn because it replicates the fluffy popcorn from the movie concession stand and because I like the variety in shape and size. Snowflake-style popcorn might sound exotic, but it’s the kernel most common to most grocery store brands, including Orville Redenbacher and even Bob’s Red Mill.

A popcorn kernel has three basic parts: the pericarp (hull), the endosperm (starch), and the germ. Popcorn pops when the kernels are heated and the moisture within the endosperm turns to steam, causing the hull to burst under pressure, flipping the kernel inside out.

Since the moisture of the kernels is vital to the pop-ability, be sure to stash your unused kernels in an airtight container in your pantry or cabinet so that they do not dry out.

Popcorn salt is a finely textured salt that adheres to buttered kernels more easily than a coarse salt, like kosher salt. You can buy a container of popcorn salt rather inexpensively, but it is just as easy to make your own. I grind 1/4 cup of kosher salt in a mortar and pestle, small food processor, or clean coffee grinder until it is very fine. I stash it in a spice jar and label it for future use.

Season the popcorn while it is still hot. The steam from the freshly popped kernels and the warm clarified butter will help the salt stick. I like to use a relatively light pot (my stockpot), rather than a heavy cast iron Dutch oven, so that I can shake the pot while the kernels are popping and to coat it evenly in the clarified butter and homemade popcorn salt.