Homemade cheese popcorn is the ultimate snack or movie-watching finger food. Our recipe for cheesy popcorn recipe is made on the stovetop with corn kernels, coconut oil (the secret ingredient!), a little melted butter, and cheese powder.
Have you ever bought or received a tin of popcorn full of cheesy popcorn for Christmas or during the holiday season? It’s so cheesy, salty, and crunchy. This homemade cheese popcorn takes less than 15 minutes to make and tastes just like that delicious and nostalgic popcorn from the tin!
Ingredients You Need for Homemade Cheese Popcorn
- Coconut oil- we melt and pop the popcorn in coconut oil because it gives the popcorn amazing flavor that is similar to movie theater popcorn. Trust us when we say coconut oil is the BEST oil for popping popcorn.
- Popcorn kernels- you can use your favorite brand of popcorn kernels.
- Butter- before we toss the popcorn with cheese powder we shake the popcorn with melted butter to make sure the cheese powder sticks to the popcorn.
- Cheese powder: it wouldn’t be cheese popcorn without the cheese powder. We used this cheese powder by Kraft, but we’re sharing other options below!
- Salt- a little salt brings this recipe to the next level.
It’s All About the Cheese Powder
How do you get popcorn so cheesy? It’s all about the cheese powder. There is no alternative for using a cheese powder for this recipe so don’t even try! Cheese powder offers the best cheesy flavor for cheese popcorn.
Is it real cheese? Who knows. We just know it’s finger-lickin good. There a few different ways you can go about buying cheese powder.
- Kraft (and other brands) makes a cheddar cheese powder that comes in a little canister that you can add to snacks, mac and cheese, etc. You can usually find it near the macaroni and cheese or in the spice isle or popcorn aisle at your grocery store.
- Otherwise Amazon sells lots of different brands.
- Sometimes you can find cheese powder at specialty food stores.
- We use a cheese packet from a box of mac and cheese when we are running low on cheese powder and it works like a charm.
The beauty of using a pouch from a mac and cheese box is that you can use yellow cheese powder, white cheese powder, or whatever cheese powder comes with your favorite boxed mac and cheese.
How to Make Cheese Popcorn at Home
We use the stovetop method to make popcorn for this recipe. If you need to cut your time in half you can use microwave popcorn and skip to step 3. However, we do prefer stovetop popcorn for this recipe.
Melt the coconut oil. Heat a large saucepan over medium/high heat and add coconut oil. Melt the coconut oil in the saucepan.
Add popcorn + pop. Add the popcorn to the saucepan and shake the saucepan so that the popcorn kernels are covered in oil. Cover the saucepan and let the popcorn heat in the oil. It will take 3-5 minutes for the kernels to pop. The popcorn will begin to pop and fill the saucepan. Pour the popcorn into a large brown paper bag as it pops to make room for more popping corn and to be sure the popcorn doesn’t burn.
Shake it. Drizzle the butter over the popcorn in the paper bag. Roll the top of the bag so that no popcorn kernels escape. Shake the bag.
Add cheese powder. Sprinkle the cheese packet to the bag and add the salt to the popcorn. Roll the top of the bag and shake again. You may need more butter if the cheese powder isn’t sticking. Shake the bag until all the popcorn kernels are covered in cheese powder.
Enjoy. Enjoy your popcorn while watching a movie or doing whatever you do when you eat popcorn. 🙂
Flavor Variations for Homemade Cheese Popcorn
If you want to take this cheddar cheese popcorn recipe to the next level, below are some other fun spices you can add to the mix.
Make it spicy cheese popcorn and add 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Make it chili cheese popcorn and add 1-2 teaspoons of chili powder.
Cheesy ranch popcorn would be delicious. Just add 1 teaspoon of ranch seasoning.
Add 1 teaspoon of garlic powder for a delicious cheesy garlic popcorn.
Fun Ingredient Add-Ins
Another way that you can take this popcorn to the next level is by adding in other ingredients to add different textures and flavors. Just add any of the ingredients to the brown paper bag and shake.
- Sliced almonds
- Caramel popcorn
- Peanuts
- Candied nuts
- Doritos
Storage
Store this cheese popcorn in a dry place in an airtight container. Nobody likes soggy popcorn.
Homemade Cheese Popcorn
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- ½ cup popcorn kernels
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- ½ cup cheese powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan over medium/high heat and add coconut oil.
- When the coconut oil is melted, add popcorn kernels to the saucepan and cover. Shake the kernels a few times every minute so that they don’t burn.
- The popcorn will begin to pop after 3-5 minutes. Continue to shake the kernels every so often.
- Once there is more than 3 seconds in between pops, you know the popcorn is done popping. Transfer the popcorn into a paper bag.
- Drizzle melted butter over the popcorn and roll the top of the bag so that no popcorn can escape and shake the bag.
- Open the bag and sprinkle the cheese powder and salt over the popcorn. Roll the top of the bag and shake again. Continue to shake until all the popcorn is covered in cheese powder.
- Enjoy!
Tips & Notes
- Sometimes it is helpful to shake the saucepan with the cover on it to make sure no kernels are burning to the bottom of the saucepan.
