20 Minute Microwave Salted Caramel Popcorn

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Did someone say salted caramel popcorn? Crunchy? Salty? Sweet? Oh dear popcorn where have you been all my life?! I happen to luuuv salty sweet stuff – like if you ask me if I want pretzels, I might say sure, but I’ll secretly be wondering where the white chocolate to drizzle over them is. Or if you give me a mug of hot chocolate, I’ll stealthily sprinkle a little sea salt on top when you’re not looking.  Because opposites make everything taste that much better, really, I promise!

I have been making this microwave caramel corn for a long time; it dates way back to my 6th grade home economics class.  I honestly don’t remember the recipe, but I do remember that we made it in brown paper bags in the microwave – and when you’re in 6th grade that is pretty freaking awesome.

Over the years, I’ve come up with my own way to make it and have added a generous sprinkle of salt at the end to take it to the next level.  This is serious snack food, people.

Let’s Make Salted Carmel Popcorn

Here is what you will need to make this oh so addicting popcorn! See that brown paper bag down there? Yep, you will need one of those. You can grab an extra one unused when you’re out grocery shopping 😉

To start off pop approximate 20 cups of popcorn. I use an air popper, but if you don’t own one, you can use microwave popcorn. You will need 2 large bags.

While the corn is popping away, prepare 2 cookie sheets by lining with wax paper. Set aside.

Well, that was fast – the corn is still popping – so spray the inside of your grocery bag thoroughly with non stick cooking spray. Once the popcorn is ready, pour it into the prepared bag. Set aside.

In a large microwave safe bowl add in the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. I use a large, 4 cup Pyrex glass measuring cup, which is just big enough. You can use a glass bowl, just make sure it is large because the hot sugar mixture will bubble up quite a bit.

Microwave on high for 1 minute, remove and stir.

Repeat this 4 times, so you will be cooking the mixture for a total of 5 minutes.  At the end of the last minute your mixture should look like the picture below.  See how much it bubbled up? It’s a deep rich brown color and is SUPER HOT. Be very, very careful.

Now quickly pour the piping hot caramel over the popcorn.

Fold the bag to close and shake it, sha, sha, sha shake it like a Polaroid picture…..hey…..ya……

Now put that bag in the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave, shake it up again and repeat 2 more times for a total cook time of 3 minutes.

Now that all of your perfectly popped kernels have been hugged by sweet, rich caramel they are ready relax, cool off and get showered with salt.

Work quickly to spread the sticky sweet popcorn onto the prepared baking sheets and sprinkle generously with salt.  I use Fleur de sel (affiliate link) also know as fancy French sea salt – it is super delicious, but if you don’t have any, you can use Kosher salt.  You want to get the salt on before the popcorn cools off and hardens up. It may seem like a lot of salt, but a decent amount of it doesn’t actually stick to the popcorn and will end up on the wax paper. You can also use a little less salt and do a taste test to see if you think it needs more.

Allow the salty sweet caramel corn to cool and set up for at least 20 minutes.  Then dig in!!! This recipe will make about 2 gallon size ziploc bags. I don’t actually fill the bags all the way up, as you can see. This will keep for a few days, but I think it tastes best when eaten the same day it’s made. I took this batch to Bunco and we gobbled it up. I don’t think you’ll have any issues with leftovers 😉

I hope you try out this salty, sweet snack and love it as much as my 6th grade self did and my 37 year old mom of 4 still does today! Until next time, happy cooking!

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