Five Ways to Make Buttered, Cheese, Tandoori, Chatpata Mint, and Caramel Popcorn

So you pay movie-theatre prices for a sorry-looking bag of buttered popcorn and feel like you could do better; well, you can. Flavoured popcorn at home can be addictive once you realise how easy it is to do. And when you start experimenting beyond buttered popcorn with layers of authentic cheese powder, smoky tandoori seasoning with live charcoal, zesty chatpata mint and chaat masala sprinkles, and a brittle caramel coating, it only gets better.

I started cooking flavoured popcorn several years ago when I was planning a Super Bowl party. I wanted a snack people could eat easily throughout the game, but I did not want to spend my entire evening cooking. Popcorn sounded like the ideal choice — a large batch of classic butter popcorn as a base and five small bowls with different types of toppings to serve on the side. Everyone loved the caramel, and my tandoori popcorn disappeared before halftime. Ever since then, I make one form of it or another almost every weekend. This recipe will take you through five seriously good popcorn recipes, with enough cheese powder and mint powder left over to enjoy them throughout the week.

What You Will Need

Ingredients for Classic Butter Popcorn (Base)

• Popcorn kernels – 100 g (about ½ cup)
• Butter – 2 tbsp (30 g)
• Neutral oil – 1 tsp (5 ml)

Ingredients for Homemade Cheese Powder

• Process cheese – 100 g (about 3.5 oz); blocks of process cheese cook and crisp up much better than slices
• Breadcrumbs – even layer over a microwave-safe plate (approx. 2-3 tbsp/15-20 g)
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp (1 g)

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp (3 g); Kashmiri chilli gives vibrant colour without the heat – do not substitute with regular chilli powder.

• Salt – ½ tsp (2-3 g)

Ingredients for Tandoori Spices

• Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tbsp (8 g)
• Coriander powder – 1 tbsp (8 g)
• Cumin powder – 1 tsp (3 g)
• Dry mango (amchur) powder – 1 tsp (3 g)
• Garlic powder – 1 tsp (3 g)
• Garam masala – 1 tsp (3 g)
• Black salt – ½ tsp (2 g)

Live charcoal + ghee – for dhungar (smoke treatment); this step is optional, but it really changes everything

Ingredients for Chatpata Pudina Popcorn

• Fresh mint leaves – 20-25 g in a generous handful
• Chaat masala – good pinch (1/2 tsp/1-2 g)
• Amchur powder – pinch (1/4 tsp)

Ingredients for Caramel Popcorn

• Sugar – 1 cup (200 g)
• Butter – 1 tbsp (15 g)
• Baking soda – 1 tsp (5 g)

How to Make the Classic Butter Popcorn

This is your starting point, so let’s make it right. Get yourself a large microwave-safe bowl; preferably a bit bigger than you would expect because your kernels will expand tremendously in it. Place the kernels, butter, and oil inside and toss them briefly to coat everything evenly. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film or a lid.

Place the bowl in a microwave and cook on high for 7 minutes. The bowl will rattle furiously for the first three minutes and start slowing down, and you will smell the delicious aroma of warm butter. Stop cooking when the popping stops altogether, or you hear pops every 2-3 seconds. Take the bowl out and allow it to sit for 30 seconds before you uncover it –the steam is hot.

Pro Tip: The first time I made this, I did not choose my bowl big enough, and popcorn just flew everywhere when I uncovered it. Choose a bowl that is at least twice the size of your popped kernels.

How to Make the Cheese Powder

What surprised me about this recipe was how easy it was, and the result was significantly better than any bag of cheesy popcorn I have ever tried.

Take a microwave-safe plate and line it with a thin, even layer of breadcrumbs. You need them to ensure your cheese powder is dry and crisp, not moist and soft. Grate process cheese in an even layer on top of the breadcrumbs; do not stack them.

Place the plate inside a microwave and roast on 50% power for about 6 minutes. Your cheese should turn from pale to golden tan colour and dry up when you gently tap it. It should resemble a cracker by now. Take it out carefully and wait for it to cool. You will notice it smells similar to toasted Parmesan.

Break it roughly into chunks and transfer both – cheese and breadcrumbs – into a spice grinder. Add turmeric, Kashmiri chilli powder, and salt. Grind everything into an orangey powder. Taste it and make sure it is savoury, with a touch of acidity, spiciness, and a brilliant colour.

Pro Tip: Store the cheese powder in an airtight jar in the fridge. It should keep for up to two weeks and is fantastic with roasted vegetables, pasta, and scrambled eggs.

When it comes to your cheese popcorn, just pour some butter popcorn into a separate bowl and sprinkle plenty of powder over it. It sticks to the popcorn perfectly due to its residual warmth. Be generous with your cheese powder – the first time I made it, I was stingy with the amount, and the taste was too bland.

How to Make Tandoori Spice Blend

Mix all the powdered spices in a jar or bowl – Kashmiri chilli, coriander, cumin, amchur, garlic, garam masala, and black salt. The smell when combining them all resembles a fantastic kebab restaurant – complex and aromatic, slightly sour thanks to amchur.

Sprinkle tandoori spices over the butter popcorn and toss it well to distribute evenly.

Now comes the best part – a smoked treatment with live charcoal, which is entirely optional. Prepare your live coal by putting a small piece on top of your gas flame and roasting until red-hot, fully covered in grey ashes. Put a small steel bowl in the middle of the popcorn bowl, place the hot coal inside, pour ghee on top of it, and cover everything with a lid. Smoke should start coming out around the lid’s edges in a couple of minutes. Leave it there for 3-4 minutes, and when you open the bowl, you will get amazing smoky popcorn.

Pro Tip: If you cannot get live charcoal, just put a few drops of liquid smoke into the melted butter before tossing your popcorn – 80% effect for 10% effort.

If you prefer your tandoori popcorn unsmoky, you do not have to worry about the last step, but the difference is huge.

How to Make Chatpata Pudina Popcorn

This recipe yields the lightest and freshest popcorn, and yet it is very easy to prepare.

Take a microwave-safe plate and lay a generous handful of fresh mint leaves on it in a single layer. Do not overlap them, or they will dry unevenly. Put the plate inside a microwave and roast for 3 minutes.

Once the time is over, check if your leaves dried properly. They should become brittle and darker than they were, feel paper-dry to the touch. If you notice they are still moist, give them an additional 30 seconds.

Leave the leaves on the plate to cool down completely and grind them either in a mortar and pestle or in your palms over a bowl. You will get a beautiful, grassy green powder that smells of fresh mint. Put the powder in a dry, airtight container in the fridge.

To flavour the popcorn, take a portion of butter popcorn and sprinkle it with mint, chaat masala, and amchur powder. Toss it all together and check the taste – it should remind you of chaat.

How to Make Caramel Popcorn

I must admit, this recipe scared me a bit the first few times, but once you figure it out, it is actually quite meditative.

Set a heavy-bottomed pan or wok on low heat. Pour sugar inside and leave it there for a few minutes until the sugar around the edges starts melting, turning pale yellow. This is the moment when your caramel will develop bitterness – resist the temptation to do anything. Once about half of it has melted, you can gently nudge the unmelted sugar crystals into the melted sugar.

Watch the colour carefully. It should reach a light amber, as dark as honey. Do not wait for it to go any darker, or else the caramel will be bitter. Once you notice the colour and the smell of caramel, pour melted butter and whisk the mixture. It will bubble up violently – this is okay.

Once it settles, pour baking soda inside and whisk vigorously. It should start bubbling furiously again – you have to be quick now. Immediately pour butter popcorn inside and fold it all together until every kernel is coated with caramel. You will get maybe 1 minute to do this properly.

Transfer the caramel popcorn to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Spread it into an even layer – it will be very hot, and it will burn you if you do not wait a second longer than you should. Wait until the caramel has hardened completely – this may take 15-20 minutes.

Then you can pull it off the tray and break it into pieces. It should crack under your fingers – each kernel covered in a shiny, brittle layer.

Pro Tip: The first time I tried making this recipe, I took too long adding popcorn, which resulted in a caramel lump that would not break apart. Have popcorn ready in a bowl next to the pan, so you can add it immediately.

How to Avoid Common Mistakes

Not covering the bowl tightly. If the lid or the cling film is too loose, you will lose steam pressure and end up with a lot of unpopped kernels inside. Make sure your lid fits tightly or press the cling film down securely.

Roasting cheese for too long in the microwave. If you go for a higher power setting and rush the process, the cheese will start burning quite fast. Cook it on 50% power until dry and golden tan – nothing darker than that.

Interfering with the melting of sugar in caramel. Do not touch sugar with anything – if you do, it will start crystallising and turn bitter. Once it starts melting naturally, nudge the unmelted parts gently on low heat.

Putting the popcorn in too slowly into the hot caramel. Caramel will start hardening right after being poured on room-temperature popcorn, and you will have about 60-90 seconds to coat everything properly. Have the popcorn ready before even turning the burner on.

Making powders with wet leaves or cheese. Moisture left in mint leaves or fresh cheese can result in sticky and crumbly popcorn, not crispy powder. Leave everything dry for this step.

How to Change Things Up

Spicy honey popcorn. Take a portion of popcorn coated with butter, then drizzle some warm honey and red chilli flakes over it. The sweet-spicy mixture is highly addictive.

Dark chocolate caramel popcorn. Once caramel popcorn is broken into clusters, pour warm melted dark chocolate over them and store in the fridge until the chocolate hardens. Dark chocolate balances perfectly with sweet caramel.

Lemon pepper popcorn. In this case, you skip the tandoori spices and mix lemon zest, ground black pepper, and salt instead. Pour it over warm butter popcorn, and you will get zesty popcorn to serve with cold beer.

How to Store and Serve

Classic butter popcorn should be served and eaten while still warm – within an hour after making.

Both cheese and tandoori popcorn should be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to two days. After this period, the coatings will soak in some moisture and become softer.

Chatpata pudina popcorn will stay nice for a day at most if kept in a closed container, but you will notice the freshness of its taste decreases significantly the following day.

Unlike the previous recipes, caramel popcorn stays crispy and fresh for up to a week if stored in a tight tin jar at room temperature. Its taste improves the second day – caramel gets some time to settle.

Cheese powder and mint powder can also be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Try out these recipes the next time you have guests, watch a movie, or want something yummy to snack on. All in all, this popcorn will take you no more than 10 minutes to make. I hope you find at least one of these popcorn recipes worth repeating regularly, and my caramel popcorn deserves special attention.