Old Fashioned Homemade Kettle Corn Recipe
Love Old Fashioned Kettle Corn? Try the best homemade kettle corn recipe you can make right in your own kitchen! The perfect blend of sweet & salty popcorn!
This Homemade Kettle Corn Recipe originally published Oct 24, 2012. It has been updated with new tricks and images for your convenience.
I am a complete popcorn fanatic as I mentioned a while ago when I posted my Old Fashioned Popcorn recipe. But my absolute favorite snack is homemade Old Fashioned kettle corn recipe!
I discovered that I’m rather picky when it comes to kettle corn! My favorite store purchased Kettle corn is Indiana Popcorn Kettle Corn.
But in our area, I usually only see it in the stores around the Holidays. Plus buying it each time I get a craving can get rather expensive when you have a family full of popcorn fanatics. One bag barely lasts us one movie!
And no, I can’t be happy with other brands, because far too often they are far too sweet and not enough salt for my liking. The Indiana Popcorn is just right. I love the perfect balance between sweet and salty.
Thankfully for my sanity and pocketbook, this homemade kettle corn recipe provides all that but at a more frugal price!
Sweet & Salty Old Fashioned Kettle Corn Recipe
This Kettle corn recipe is quite simple. There is no need for fancy gadgets, pans or the sort. Although, it is a little easier to make if you have a whirly pop pan. It’s very simple, wholesome and full of natural ingredients that anyone can make it at home!
Old Fashioned Homemade Kettle Corn Recipe
Love Old Fashioned Kettle Corn? Try the best homemade kettle corn recipe you can make right in your own kitchen! The perfect blend of sweet & salty popcorn!
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
- 1/2 Cup popcorn kernels
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Sea salt to taste.
Instructions
Cooking in Stove Top Regular Pan
- Combine all the ingredients into a large pot onto the stove.
- Cover with a good lid
- Turn the burner to High heat.
- Once you hear the first pop, gently shake the pan back and forth over the burner.
- Keep gently shaking the pan back and forth until the popping sound slows down.
- Turn off the heat and wait for the popping to stop.
- As soon as the popping has stopped, dump all popcorn from the pan into a large bowl and sprinkle with Sea Salt to taste.
Cooking on Stove Top in Whirly Pop Pan
- Combine all the ingredients into Whirly Pop onto the stove.
- Close the lid tightly
- Turn the burner to High heat.
- Once you hear the first pop, Start turning the handle to prevent popcorn from burning.
- Keep turning until the popping sound slows down.
- Turn off the heat and wait for the popping to stop.
- As soon as the popping has stopped, dump all popcorn into a large bowl and sprinkle with Sea Salt to your preferred taste.
Notes
- I use glove hot pads to keep my hands from burning from the steam that escapes while cooking.
- The great thing about the coconut oil is that is has a lower melting point, so it not only tastes better, but it also cooks up into kettle corn a lot faster than other oils.
- You can use Brown sugar instead of white if you prefer
- You can also add cinnamon to taste.
For me, the oil makes all the difference. I’ve tried this recipe with regular oil, butter, and olive oil. None of them taste half as good as when I make it with Coconut oil.
Not only does it have more health benefits, but also the coconut oil gives it the perfect flavor without tasting greasy. And believe it or not, it does not add a coconut flavor!
You can also add in some cinnamon or brown sugar if you prefer, but we prefer the simple white sugar at the present.
In our kettle corn recipe, you simply combine all the ingredients into a large pot or whirly pop pan onto the stove. While you can easily make this with just a standard pot on the stove, I really do love my Whirly Pop pan.
It makes it easier to keep the kernels moving to prevent burning. And it also makes it easier and safer if kids want to help make the Kettle Corn!
You want to make sure your pot has a good lid, so it will keep the popcorn from flying everywhere and burning you. I also use glove hot pads to keep my hands from burning from the steam that escapes while cooking.
The great thing about the coconut oil is that is has a lower melting point, so it not only tastes better, but it also cooks up into kettle corn a lot faster than other oils.
You can use regular table salt, but we prefer the flavor of the sea salt and you use a lot less with the sea salt.
Get Old Fashioned Kettle Corn recipe to fit your tastes
The great thing about making your own homemade Kettle corn is that you control just how sweet or salty you want. I can get the perfect blend of sweet and salty that I can hardly ever find from a store purchased kettle corn.
The other great thing is that with making your own homemade kettle corn recipe, you can add in things like spices, cinnamon, brown sugar or other fun things.
You also have the luxury of knowing that your kettle corn is made from all natural ingredients and doesn’t have any processed ingredients.
Use Homemade Kettle Corn recipe for gifts
Use Homemade Kettle Corn recipe for giftsKettle corn also makes delicious goody treats! It’s a lot more cost friendly to hand out kettle corn in treat bags when you make it yourself versus when you buy from a store. It doesn’t take much effort either.
You can portion into treat bags and use for Birthday Parties, Halloween treats, Party treats and favors, and even Holiday gift/treat plates!
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Interesting and informational.
I love Kettle corn as long as it is pretty sweet. I have a major sweet tooth! I also love cinnamon popcorn!
Yum! I love kettle corn! Those Halloween bags are so cute 🙂
Thanks. This will make a great treat to share with the kids at school
I love kettle corn but had never thought about making my own! This is a fabulous idea!
I have ALWAYS wondered if it’s possible to make yummy kettle corn at home! Thanks for the tips-can’t wait to try!
I will have to try the Coconut oil. I didn’t realize that the sugar was added as the corn popped!
Just wanted to say I LOVE the Kleenex brand sanitizer I got in my goodie bag. A hand sanitizer that moisturizes is such a good idea, because regular hand sanitizers make my hands chapped. This one left my hands so soft!
I don’t think I’ve ever made popcorn that didn’t come from a microwave but it would be fun to try this recipe. Last time I made popcorn, I looked over half way through the movie and my 10 year old daughter had eaten an entire bag herself!
Hmm how fun! I never knew this!
We already make popcorn at home like this but I didn’t know kettle corn was this easy to make as well! Guess who’ll be making this next week for our Halloween party? This girl!
Great Halloween treat! Thanks for the recipe!
That is so awesome. Pinning it!!
I love these in the little bags! So cute!! And yummy too I bet!
oh oh oh I love Kettle Corn! This is a great idea!
I love kettle corn, but I’ve never made it at home. Now I’m dying to try!
I am not a kettle corn fan but my husband lives off of it. Going to try and make it homemade! Thanks for the recipe!
We love getting kettle corn at the fair. But I’m always so sad when its gone for another year. I can’t wait to try this at home!
I have made this kettle corn before & love it! I have another favorite for anyone that likes cinnamon red hots candy. I have a Whirly Pop pan that has a manual crank on the handle for stirring the popcorn while it pops. You put in the pan: 1/3 cup popcorn, 1/3 cup red hots, & 2 Tbsp oil. The red hots melt & coat the popcorn as it pops. Super easy & delish!
My kids would love me if I made this for them.
oh yum!! i’m definitely making this!! i love that it’s made with coconut oil- for some reason i never thought to use it in popcorn even though that’s what used to be used all the time! this sounds fantastic- thanks!! i wonder if i could find carrot powder to sprinkle on it for coloring! 😀
usually i just put some flax oil, salt & nutritional yeast on my popcorn.
WE love kettle corn, so great to now have a recipe to make it at home (and with ingredients we already have-bonus) bookmarking this for later.
This looks like a great recipe. I had no idea how kettle corn was made and I like that this does not use corn syrup. I always have coconut oil on hand, so here I go!
I love kettle corn. I will be using your recipe soon. Yhank you
OMG I will soooo be doing this and giving as gifts for the holidays! Yay! Thanks so much, I love kettle corn.
Change out the Holloween bags for Christmas bags, and you’ve got easy to make treats to share!
My daughter loves kettle corn!!!! Will try this recipe!
I’ve gotta make this! I absolutely love kettle corn! I didn’t know it was so easy to make! Thanks for the recipe!
I was looking for a great and easy kettle corn recipe for tomorrow…and managed to come across yours…awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!
i make kettle corn quite often. my daughter and i love popcorn and kettle is our favorite. i will be using the coconut oil from now on, though. i also use a whole lot more sugar. i had no idea you could use such a small amount. i will certainly be adjusting the amount i use. now that i will be making mine with the coconut oil and reducing the sugar amount i will feel a lot less guilty about eating it. 🙂
I tried to make this today, and failed miserably! I am out of coconut oil, so I used canola oil. I use canola oil on a weekly basis to make homemade popcorn. The mixture stuck to the bottom of the pan, and I ended up with popcorn coated in scalded sugary salty goo. And that goo was solidified in the bottom of my pot. My kitchen was filled when smoke when all was said and done. I have no idea what happened!
I’ve never made it with Canola oil so I’m not sure if that makes a difference or not. But the trick is that you can’t stop shaking it across the burner at all while popping. It has to have the constant motion to keep the popcorn from burning to the bottom of the pan. Try with a different oil and see if that makes a difference. I haven’t had it stick unless I didn’t keep the pan moving while popping.
I have been making this for awhile….if the heat is above medium it will definitely BURN! I keep my heat a notch below medium as it is a gas stove and it comes out perfect. I use vegetable oil. Just adjust your heat and you will have delicious popcorn!
Your website is annoying or at least this page. I am trying to look at the ingredients & the instructions & it either jumps to the bottom or the top, even as I am typing this. Please fix that.
Thank you for letting me know! I have my tech guys scouring to find what is causing the problem. It is definitely annoying, and it is top priority to get fixed. Thank you again!
Do you preheat the pan or start everything in a cold pan?
I start everything in a cold pan. 😉
SOooOOO SCRUMPTIOUS! I’ve never even thought about trying to make Kettle Corn, however it’s an absolute must have when I go to fair’s and carnival’s. This will save me at least a couple of 20’s. Thank you for sharing!