Let me show you how to make perfect homemade popping popcorn in your instant pot pressure cooker. I have included a video recipe to show you how easy and quick it is too.
You would say no to microwave air-popped popcorn with this easy and failproof recipe. This pressure cooker popcorn is delicious, healthy and only requires 2 main ingredients, popcorn kernels and coconut oil.
I love popcorn especially with peanuts when I eat this snack, I go overboard as it can be addicting but hey why not, we are allowed to live once in a while if not all the time. There are many ways to flavour and enjoy popcorn but today's post is just showing you one of the basic recipes you can make in your pressure cooker.
Homemade popcorn is very easy, fun and quick to make, It is one of the snacks you can make from scratch without breaking an arm and a leg as it takes less than 11 minutes to make.
Why This Homemade Instant Pot Popcorn Recipe Works
- It is a cheap pressure cooker snack, I mean very affordable for the popped popcorn you would get from 500g popcorn kernel, you will get your money’s worth. Here in the UK, 500g kernels is about £1, common you can’t hate on it. ⅓ of popcorn kernels would yield about 4 cups of popped popcorn. Happy days hey!
- Homemade popcorn is better than store-bought or microwave ones, they contain chemicals and other preservatives you cannot pronounce. It is healthy, full of fibre and you can choose to flavour it either sweet or savoury.
- When you make your own popcorn at home from scratch, you have control over what goes into it. You can adjust the sweetness to your preference, and you can even have them plain. I do this when I am craving for some snack and I want to keep it healthy. Talk about having your cake and eating it at the same time.
- This instant pot pressure cooker popcorn has been tried and tested many times with different types of oil and I can tell you which works best.
- Follow this recipe and tips in the post and you would be left with beautiful, crunchy and fresh popcorn with 99.9 kernels popped with no burnt offering.
- This popcorn remains fresh for up to a week when stored properly.
- Don’t own a pressure cooker, make this popcorn on the stove top by replicating this instant pot recipe
Some interesting fact about popcorn kernel: each kernel contains some tiny water molecules in them. When you heat them up, the energy in the shell (due to the water molecule) builds up and pops when they can no longer contain their joy.
Now you know why they pop like they do whether they were air-popped or in popped in oil, butter, ghee and the likes.
You don’t need oil to make popcorn, air-popped popcorns are made without oil and they only use heat from the pan or in a microwave to work.
Best Oil For Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Popcorn
You can make popcorn with different types of oil like olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, butter, avocado oil, canola oil etc. Also the type of oil you use for your popcorn can also affect the taste and outcome.
So far for my experiment in choosing the best oil for instant pot popcorn, I have tried coconut oil, butter, olive oil and vegetable oil and I found extra virgin coconut oil to be the best of them all.
Popped popcorn with coconut oil produces flavourful popcorn that doesn’t require additional flavouring, you could eat it on its own without adding salt, melted butter or sugar. It doesn’t smell funny like the other types of oil it was tested with. Coconut oil has a high smoking point which works well in a pressure cooker.
Results From The Test
Olive oil and vegetable oil test: Oil started smoking before the instant pot saute function became hot. Popcorn popped ok but you could smell the burnt oil on the popcorn. Most kernels popped and popcorn did not burn.
Butter: when you heat butter, the water and the fat content separate, and this is what happens when it is heated in the pressure cooker. It burns quickly and smoky too. There is a positive, the kernels popped more quickly in the butter than it did with rest of the oil but I was left with a burnt pot
Extra virgin coconut oil: what can I say about it, one word BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT POPCORN! No funny smell, not entirely bland, No burnt pot and 99.999% of the kernel popped.
What You Will Need
Popcorn kernels, make sure it is fresh
Extra virgin Coconut oil
Butter
Salt and sugar
Glass lid: you would either use instant pot glass lid. This is an additional accessory you purchase separately when you buy your IP or use a fitting glass lid you have at home. I used one of the glass lid from my pots.
How To Make Homemade Instant Pot Popcorn
Turn on the saute function of your instant pot and adjust settings to “more”, add coconut out and leave to melt until the IP becomes hot.
Add popcorn kernels and mix to combine so they are fully coated with the melted coconut oil
Cover the with a glass lid, it takes the kernel some few minutes to start popping so don’t worry if nothing happens after about 3 minutes. Once it starts popping, it takes about 3 minutes for the whole kernel to pop.
Once the popping starts slowing down, turn off the heat. You can give the pot a little shake in between but this is not necessary with the quantity of kernel used for this recipe.
Carefully remove the IP inner pot making sure you are protected and tip the popped popcorn into a bowl. Enjoy!
How to flavour popcorn
There are many ways to skin a cat here, you can either go sweet or savoury. I am more of a sweet popcorn kind of girl. I will share more of this in another post but let me just leave you with a few options
I love toffee, caramel, honey and cinnamon, sugar flavoured popcorn or just a drizzle of melted butter
Savoury flavouring Includes cumin, paprika, spicy, salty and many more to explore.
Do you have a favourite popcorn you love and not already mentioned, do leave a comment as I am curious?
How to store popcorn kernels
Once opened, store dried kernels in an airtight container in a cool place and use within 6 months, if you would be storing it in another container other than the original packaging, make note of the best before dates.
Other Easy Appetiser Recipes On The Blog
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Instant Pot Popcorn (Homemade Popcorn)
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Instant pot glass lid
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup dried popcorn kernels make sure it is fresh
- 1 ½ tablespoon extra virgin Coconut oil
Instructions
- Turn on the saute function of your instant pot and adjust settings to “more”, add coconut out and leave to melt until the IP becomes hot.
- Add popcorn kernels and mix to combine so they are fully coated with the melted coconut oil
- Cover the with a glass lid, it takes the kernel some few minutes to start popping so don’t worry if nothing happens after about 3 minutes. Once it starts popping, it takes about 3 minutes for the whole kernel to pop.
- Once the popping starts slowing down, turn off the heat. You can give the pot a little shake in between but this is not necessary with the quantity of kernel used for this recipe.
- Carefully remove the IP inner pot making sure you are protected and tip the popped popcorn into a bowl. Flavour as desired and Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional data: Please note that the nutrition label provided is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients and brands you use. Under no circumstances will thedinnerbite.com be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information.
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