One pot—your Instant Pot—cooks the entire meal of this simple pasta dish. The recipe makes 8 servings, so it’s ideal for a crowd. Alternatively, you can freeze the leftovers and use them for lunches over the next few days.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 cups |
Ingredients
- 1 cup unpopped popcorn
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F(150 degrees C).
- In a large pot, heat oil over high heat. Add the unpopped popcorn. Moving the pan constantly, pop the corn. Remove from heat, place in a large baking pan, and keep warm in the preheated oven. Discard unpopped kernels.
- Mix sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt into a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture starts to boil. Continue cooking for 5 minutes without stirring.
- Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour over the popped popcorn. Stir popcorn until evenly coated. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from pan and put into a large bowl to cool.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 300 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 185 mg |
| Sugars | 22 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Perfect recipe as written. I made 1/2 a recipe cause I only needed enough to cover a little over 1/2 gallon ziplock bag of popcorn. Perfect amount!
Followed the recipe and it was awesome.
It’s very good, but you definitely need to double the caramel.
This was so Delicious! I meant to take a photo and post it but I ate the entire bowl within an hour! I made some changes, I wanted to make this with whole foods plus whatever i found in my cabinet so this is what I did: 1) Used organic maple syrup instead of corn syrup 2) Used raw brown sugar for the brown sugar 3) used sea salt instead of regular salt 4) Used Extra Virgin Olive oil instead of butter 5) Used an air popper for the popcorn, this is quicker and the popcorn was able to pop easily. 6) I had kept it in the oven for only 20 minutes. It smelled so good I had to attack it! Unfortunately I had to use imitation vanilla extract but i used a lot of it, Like i wasnt even measuring it! With the cooking I used a teflon covered stainless steel pan so there was no mess by the time I was finished. I also saw some complaints about the mess in the pan so I used a disposable aluminum pan. While boiling the mixture I did not measure well and i added a lot of maple syrup. I got nervous because I thought it was burning so I added water to the sugar mixture. It came out pretty grainy and a bit watery but I added vanilla and baking soda and it tasted wonderful. I poured it over the popcorn and kept stirring it every five to ten minutes in the oven. It smelled so good! You have to let it sit though when its finish so that it could get nice and crispy. I intend to make this into a Christmas gift it was that good, and usually I am very shy about sharing my cooking.
I used maple syrup instead of corn syrup great stuff.
So delicious Im so glad i found your website Thank you Barb George
make it a lot and I make it with just one 5 qt. dutch oven and at least a 16 or 20 qt. metal bowl so after I do fill the bowl with the popcorn about 2/3 rds full I cook the butter sugar mixture in the ratio I want I do let it come to a full boil and the just barely turning it down I let it boil for five mins unstirred and then take it off add the baking soda and stir quickly and add to the popcorn carefully mixing well then I place in a 200 degree oven for thirty min. I take it out of the oven every 10 min. and stir carefully and place it back in untill time is up. then let cool and finish breaking large chunks up for a more cracker jack style sub
not enough Caramel and the caramel burned very easily. I would suggest making 2x the caramel and watching it carefully when boiling.
II love the reviews on this site! I always read quite a few before I try a new recipie. A Lot.of people doubled or tripled the sauce, I went the other way and reduced the amount of popcorn! I only used 1/4 cup of unpoped kernels and air poped them. This was the perfect amount of Carmel sauce the recipie provided. The next modification I followed was to lower oven temp to 275 degrees and stir every five minutes, it was perfectly done in ten minutes. I also buttered the bottom of my roasting pan and preheated it before I put the poped corn in, this prevented a sticky mess of a clean up, Sew Crazy
Doubled the sauce, but was short 1/2 c of brown sugar so I substituted that with 1/2 c white sugar and it turned out fab! 275 degrees for 20 min!
I noticed a descrepancy in the ingredients and the total end result…1 cup of unpopped popcorn would make a lot more than 8 cups of finished product, so I used only 1/2 cup of unpopped corn. It turned out perfect! Plenty of sauce, it all fit on a half sheet sized baking sheet. Oh, and I added cashews and pecans! YUM!
It’s very tasty (once I got the recipe right). The first batch of popcorn I messed up by not using enough oil. The next batch I increased to 3 T of oil, and it seemed to work. I didn’t keep the popcorn warm, and it clumped, so I tried again and on the 3rd try, it was perfect. Reminded me of many fall evenings growing up in the Midwest.
My kids love this recipe…It works fabulously…You do need to make sure you double or even triple the sauce for the amount of popcorn called for… or just use less popcorn…I believe the person who put this recipe up typo’d on the 1 cup and probably meant to say 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn… I use 1 cup and double the sauce add a few peanuts and viola you have cracker jacks…. (it tastes just like them)
I make this often. One of my families’ favorite fall snacks!
Very good recipe, but should be stirred more frequently than every ten minutes in the oven. More like after 10 minutes, then after five, then after five. At that point it should be good, but you can probably put it in for another five. For easier cleanup, allow the pans to soak in plain water…all or most of the caramel will dissolve away.
Turned oven temp down to 275 , as mine runs hot , and used one bag of micro corn . Skipped mixing in the bowl , and poured the popped corn into a turkey roaster. ( catch the ” duds ” , of course. ) Threw some dry , roasted , salted peanuts into the sauce , before coating the corn. Baked , and stirred , as directed . Cooled on waxed paper . Very easy , and good.
This recipe is awesome. I used 4 quarts of popped popcorn, followed recipe to the letter, turned every 10 minutes for 25 minutes in oven. Voila! It tastes just like Cracker Jack!!
Excellent recipe. Easy to make and delicious result. Just one recommendation: Do NOT use microwave popcorn. People, you seriously do not want those cancer causing ingredients in your family’s systems. Truly, the less processed food your children get the better off they’ll be. Pull out a pan, some corn and oil and make yourself some good old fashion popcorn!
SO good! I would use about two times of the caramel sauce though….
I double the caramel and LOVE this recipe!
I really love this recipe–easy, makes a LOT of caramel corn. I did change a couple of things–I used half white sugar and half brown sugar to give a lighter taste my family preferred. I used air popped popcorn. And, as others have noted, doubling the topping makes it even better.