Spicy Buffalo Popcorn
Semi-Sweet & Spicy Goodness
Today I want to show you how to make Buffalo Popcorn. This snack blends the spicy tangy flavor of a buffalo chicken wing with the slightly sweet crispiness of kettle corn. I have to warn you, this stuff is addictive. This sweet spicy salty popcorn hits all of the taste buds and is sure to be a great hit for guests. You can even make this stuff as a gift for the holidays. I honestly don’t know why they don’t make this stuff commercially.
Detailed Instructions:
Popping the Corn
Thee first thing we are going to need to do is pop some popcorn. There are many ways to do this, but this is how I do it, but the easiest is to begin by heating up a pan over medium heat, adding enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. After about 90 seconds the pan should be heated at which point we can add a test kernel of popcorn and place the lid on. We should see it slightly bubble, if not, the oil isn’t hot enough yet. Once our lone kernel has exploded, we are in business. You can pour your popcorn in at this point. In my case I am adding ½ cup of popcorn kernels. You should immediately see the popcorn begin to bubble and fry in the oil. Place the lid on watch it go.
Keep an eye and an ear out, once you hear the popcorn popping slow down turn the heat off and let the residual heat do the rest of the work. Once we hear the popping stop we can remove the lid and let the trapped moisture escape. At this point we should have some beautiful albeit plain popcorn. Scoop this stuff out using your favorite scooping method we can move on.
Preparing the Buffalo Wing Coating
To make the sugar coating which will hold our Buffalo sauce coating on the popcorn we will need ¾ cup of granulated sugar and we need 2 tablespoons of butter.
We will also need the buffalo part of the sauce, so we can start with ⅓ of a cup of Frank’s red hot sauce, if you are feeling a little adventurous, feel free to add a little garlic powder, and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Give this all a good mixing and we can move on. Lastly we are going to need one teaspoon of baking soda, so it’s good to have that at the ready.
Before we cook any of this, we should have everything in place since it goes super quickly. Go ahead and get a baking tray out and something to line it, either a silicone mat or wax paper. Due to it’s eventual stickiness I don’t think aluminum foil would be advisable here. Lay your popcorn out and we are ready. At this point it doesn’t hurt to preheat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit or 120 Celsius, since things will begin to move quickly once they start.
We are now ready to make our buffalo coating. Start by placing a small saucepan over medium heat, adding ½ cup of water, and add our sugar mixture. Again when making syrups and candies, it is inadvisable to mix, which can cause crystallization and heartbreak. It’s best just to let it do it’s own thing and keep a close eye.
We are just going to let this go for 5 minutes, at which point our sugar mixture should be near 250 degrees Fahrenheit and we can add our ingredients starting with the butter butter and then Frank’s hot sauce mix. Give it a good mix, then lastly we want to add a pinch of the baking powder. Give that a stir and it will start to foam up, this is what we want. We gotta move quickly from here.
Coating the popcorn
Go ahead and coat each piece of popcorn in as much of the sauce as possible. Moving quickly before the coating begins to cool too much. It should seem semi-wet, and soggy, and it may in this moment seem like you somehow screwed up, don’t worry it’s fine. Once we have coated as well as we can, it’s time to place this into our oven.
We are going to let this slowly dry out and harden in the oven for about 45 minutes, giving the popcorn a flip about halfway through. Once our 45 minutes are up, they should still be quite pliable. At this point, if you want to try for your bonus points and add some extra buffalo powder, this would be the time.
Let the popcorn cool down for about 10 minutes, at which point, it will harden up beautifully.
This nice mix of a sweet spicy popcorn is sure to blow anybody’s mind, and I sure hope you give this beauty a try!
Condensed Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup [60 grams] - popcorn kernels
1 cup [200 grams] of sugar
2 Tablespoons [30 grams] of butter
1/3 cup [100 grams] of Frank's red Hot
1 teaspoon [4 grams] baking soda
few dashes of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Pop the popcorn using whichever method suits you. Sift out any poporn kernels that didn’t pop.
Preheat the oven to 250 F (120C), and lay out a large baking try lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Place popped corn on the baking tray.
Mix the hot sauce, Worstershire sauce and get the rest of the ingredients to hand, once started the process will go quickly.
Over medium heat, place a saucepan and add 1/2 cup of water along with the granulated sugar. Heat til it reaches 250 F. Avoid stirring the mixture as it heats as this can cause crystallization of the sugar!
Once the sugar has reached 250 F, add butter and hot sauce mixture. Once butter is melted add the baking soda. The mixture will foam, keep stirring briefly then pour over popcorn.
Coat popcorn with the sauce using a rubber spatula. Once every piece is coated, place the popcorn into the preheated oven.
Allow the popcorn to dry out in the oven for 45 minutes, flipping the popcorn once.
Once 45 mintes is up, pull the popcorn out and allow to cool to room temperature, once done the popcorn should be hard.
Enjoy!