There's nothing better than sitting down on the couch to watch a movie with a fresh bowl of popcorn, but if your go-to popcorn of choice is in a bag that you put in a microwave, you're doing it wrong. 

Ever since microwave popcorn came around in the early 80's, I think we've sacrificed taste for convenience. If you want the best tasting popcorn, you need to pop it like it's 1969. On the stove.

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It's really not that hard at all. You just need a pot, some cooking oil, butter, a little salt if you prefer, and some popcorn. Dig deep in the popcorn aisle to find it among the 10 bazillion varieties of microwave popcorn. It's usually on the bottom shelf.

 

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Here's how I make it....

Cover the bottom of your pan with cooking oil. Not a lot, just enough to keep the popcorn from sticking.

Pour about a cup of popcorn into the pan. You can also eyeball it by pouring in enough to cover the bottom of the pan as well.

This seems like an obvious step, but if you've only known microwave popcorn all your life, it might not be as intuitive: Put the lid on! You don't want your popcorn sailing all over the kitchen.

Now wait for it to pop. Once I start to hear a few kernels start popping, I move the pan slowly around in circles to help keep the kernels from sticking. Does it help? I don't know, but my Dad always did it so why not?

Once the popping sounds like its winding down, take the pan off the stove and wait a few seconds for it all to come to an end. Then pour it into a giant bowl.

Melt your butter. That's fine in the microwave if you like. Then pour it over your popcorn. Not so much that it all gets soggy though, even though as a kid I did love butter drenched pieces. Give it some salt too if you like.

I swear this will be so much better than your microwave popcorn. It'll be light and fluffy, with just the right about of crunch to it, and you can flavor it the way you like instead of throwing all you ingredients into a bag, tossing it in a microwave and hoping for the best. I'll also bet you have a lot less unpopped kernels than you'll find in the bottom of that bag. Sure it's a little more work, but isn't it worth it?

Watch this guy who had never made popcorn on the stove before explain how to do just like I did. Amateur.

 

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