Brown Butter & Black Pepper Popcorn

I don’t know if anyone here is a fan of Scandal, but I used to love the show.

Aside from the Olivia and Fitz affair, something I loved about the show was that Olivia always ate a huge bowl of popcorn and a big glass of red wine for dinner. I know I shouldn’t need a TV show to validate my dinner choices, but if an uber-successful woman in Washington D.C can have popcorn for dinner, surely it’s ok for me to do the same?

I don’t always have the wine, but popcorn for dinner is a favourite of mine, so I’ve played around with a lot of flavour combos over the years.

It used to be just straight-up butter and some salt, but I’ve since evolved.

After I got bored of the classic butter and salt combo, I started playing around by adding different flavours and spices to my popcorn. For a long time, I used to take fajita seasoning and sprinkle that on my buttered popcorn for a spicy, slightly sweet combo which is also insanely good.

Another great idea is grating some parmesan cheese on top of your hot popcorn – very Italian 🙂

My new go-to is brown butter black pepper popcorn. This has been my top favourite popcorn flavour for the last couple of years, so I decided it was time to share!

There’s something about brown butter that just layers in the flavour and makes anything it touches so much more complex. Offset the rich, nutty brown butter with spicy black pepper and a generous pinch of salt and you’ve got a surprisingly amazing, yet delicious popcorn flavour. I often associate brown butter with fancy pastry or pasta dishes, but it works surprisingly well on this low-brow snack!

I use popcorn kernels and pop them on the stove to make this popcorn and I highly recommend that you do the same. After moving out of my parent’s house I’ve always lived in apartments that didn’t have microwaves so I was forced to start popping popcorn on the stove. Turns out, this was the best thing that could have happened to me because stovetop popcorn is so much better! While you could do it with popcorn from a bag that you make in the microwave, I find that it just doesn’t taste as fresh, plus you have all kinds of chemicals and additives in there. If you do it on the stovetop you can control all the ingredients that go in your popcorn as well as the amount of salt which I know is a big one for a lot of people. Also, I know microwave popcorn is labelled as “buttered” but nothing beats real butter so please please take the time to make this on the stove. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

As most great inventions do, this came about by accident. I was melting butter and left it on the stove too long so it started to brown. I don’t remember when I decided to throw the pepper in there, but it’s a welcome addition to this popcorn.

I highly recommend trying for your next movie night – or meal if you also believe that popcorn is acceptable for dinner – it just might become your new favourite too!

My only word of caution is to make sure that you keep an eye on this popcorn when you’re making it. The butter is one of those things where you’ll feel like you’re watching it and nothing happens and then as soon as you turn your back it’s turned black. So just keep an eye on the butter and pay special attention when it starts to foam!

Actually, I have 2 words of caution. I use salted butter in this recipe because that’s what I always have on hand in the fridge. So, the first time you make it maybe be a little more conservative with the salt and taste as you go. Start with a little and add more as needed. There’s nothing worse than something that’s too salty to eat!

If you make the popcorn, please let me know what you think in the comments, or let me know what your favourite popcorn flavour is!