I'm convinced that a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn can make all sorts of miserable situations at least a tiny bit better.
I like to douse my buttered popcorn in Frank's Red Hot, which yields soggy popcorn that kind of tastes like chicken wings. I know you're thinking it's weird, but trust me, soggy chicken-wing-flavored popcorn is pretty awesome. Just do it and thank me later.
Then there's chili lime flavored popcorn. I struggled a lot with how to get this one right. Obviously the easy way to make chili lime popcorn is to just take your buttered popcorn and sprinkled with chili powder, salt, and sprinkle with lime juice. This totally works, but again, this yields damp popcorn. Recently, my new strategy is to omit the lime juice and use citric acid instead. It's a powder, and it's how many chip companies impart that tangy citrus flavor to snacks without the water. It works, and when combined with a little lime zest, lots of chili powder and salt, it's winning. For more recipes to make with popcorn, try this popcorn brittle and popcorn brittle brownies.
Chili lime popcorn
Ingredients
- 8 cups popped popcorn
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter or even more, melted
- 1 teaspoon chili powder or more
- ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt optional, if you find your popcorn isn’t salty enough from the butter
- 2 pinches citric acid or the juice of a lime
- ½ lime or more, zested
Instructions
- Toss together the popcorn with all the ingredients and thoroughly mix. Taste it and adjust your seasoning accordingly.
Notes
- for this recipe, I used Stirling Creamery whey butter
- find citric acid on Amazon
Medeja says
I haven't seen such interesting popcorn before! Sounds very intriguing.
Jenni says
Great idea about using citric acid plus lime zest! Love it!
And I'm sorry some of your labmates kind of sucked. 😉
musingmar says
This sounds addictive!
Anonymous says
Why don't you mix your ingredients into the butter and then drizzle it on. Works great with hot sauce, siracha, etc. You can also put fresh rosemary into the butter while you are melting it to flavour it up. But then it's just sprinkled on the popcorn like butter and it's not so damp!
ps. i'm out of popcorn right now. totally thinking of driving 6km to the nearest town to get some. It's seven at night and mid winter, but it would be worth it.
carmel
ohshellsbells says
this is brilliant!
Anonymous says
I like to use something called True Lime which is a brand of crystalized lime juice. I get mine from the spice section at Fred Meyer. They also make True Lemon.
Janice Lawandi says
That is an excellent idea! Thank you for the recommendation! I am going to look for that product 🙂