I loathe microwave popcorn. I ate so much of it when I lived in a dorm in university that I developed an aversion to it. Someone was always popping up a bag in the kitchen, and it permanently smelled like artificial butter and burned popcorn. Oh yes, we had to evacuate on more than one occasion because someone burned their bag and set off the smoke alarm. I haven’t had it since, and have never been brave enough to try making stove-top popcorn in a big pot with oil. But don’t get me wrong, I LOVE popcorn.

My smarty-pants brother and his family came over a few months ago to watch a movie in the theatre at my condo. He showed up with popcorn kernals and a plain paper bag. He proceeded to add the kernals to said bag, fold over the top and stick in the microwave for three minutes, at which point he poured the bag into a big bowl and added melted butter and salt.

Consider my mind blown. It was honestly one of those foodie moments where I was like – how have I been living in the world and NOT KNOWN that this was a possibility?  No oil needed, no big pot to clean, and you can control the amount of butter and salt you use. Amazing!

Air-Popped Microwave Popcorn

Source: My brother

Yield: 1 medium-sized bowl, you could probably make two bags at once, but I wouldn’t add more than 1/3 cup kernals to each bag since it will overflow.

Ingredients

1/3 cup popcorn kernals

1 plain brown paper bag

+ melted butter

+ salt

Directions

1. Add the kernals to the bag. Fold the top over twice and stick in the microwave, standing up. Turn on for 3 minutes, and remove when popping slows to a few seconds between each pop (just like regular microwave popcorn).
2. Dump into a bowl and dress up with butter and salt, or spices if that’s your thing.