BYMany people have commented that we should write a cook book containing nothing but popcorn recipes. Heaven knows we could fill it! We’ve got Kettle Corn, Caramel Corn, Fruit Flavored Candy Popcorn, Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn, Cinnamon Cookie Crunch Popcorn, Peppermint Bark Popcorn, Cinnamon Bun Popcorn, and more. But one thing we haven’t posted? Savory popcorn. Which is actually quite surprising since I make savory popcorn mixes as often as sweet. Okay, not really as often. Sort of often. Only when I’m out of sugar. But still. Parmesan popcorn in particular, reminds me of my Dad. I grew up in a movie family; we loved watching movies, my Dad in particular, and no home movie night was complete without a giant bowl of air-popped popcorn drizzled with melted butter, and often sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. I used to rummage through the big bowl and try to pick out all of the butter-soaked pieces, the way my kids rummage through the Lucky Charms for the marshmallows. My husband and I love movies too, and lucky for me, I have a mother-in-law who buys almost every new release the day it comes out and is kind enough to share them with us. So pretty much every night is movie night around here. And movies are so much more fun with popcorn. It’s true. If you’re craving something crunchy and savory, this is a fun snack that just takes a few minutes to whip up.
Just put a few pats of butter and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a pan with fresh garlic. I let it sizzle for a few minutes so the garlic softens and infuses the butter, which will in turn coat the popcorn. Then sprinkle in a few herbs.
Make sure you stir it right before you pour, and then gently drizzle it over the popcorn (while stirring if you can manage) so you don’t end up with all the butter and/or herbs in one spot.
After it’s tossed together, sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese. You can finely grate it (I use a microplane) or used crumbled (store-bought or crumbled in a food processor.) Just avoid big thick shreds, or the pre-shredded Parmesan in bags. It’s best to use a crumbled or freshly grated. If your popcorn is still a little warm, the tiny cheese shreds will melt onto it and stick.
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If you’re craving something crunchy and savory, this is a fun snack that just takes a few minutes to whip up.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large clove garlic, pressed through garlic press
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- 8–10 cups popped popcorn (or 1 bag natural, unsalted microwaved popcorn)
- ¾ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, more if desired
Instructions
- Place butter, olive oil, and garlic in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Heat until butter melts and starts to lightly simmer. Cook while stirring with rubber spatula for 1-2 minutes, until garlic is softened and fragrant. Add thyme and basil and stir to combine. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
- Prepare popcorn if you haven’t already. Place popcorn in large mixing bowl. Drizzle butter mixture over popcorn while stirring with large spoon or spatula. Quickly toss to coat. Add Parmesan cheese and toss until well distributed. Top with additional Parmesan if desired and serve immediately.
I came up with this recipe for Whole Foods, who is all about Parmesan this month! Catch a live streaming event, tonight (2/27) at 6pm central here!
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.
holy moley this looks absolutely amazing!
Oh my gosh! My mother-in-law does the same thing. So sad we’re living far now so we can’t go over to borrow the new movies 🙁 The popcorn looks yummy, will have to try it on our next movie night.
I don’t believe I have ever tried savory popcorn. I guess I’m missing out! I hate missing out!
I adore this idea!
I LOVE savory popcorn! I have been doing this same thing for our movie nights lately… I add dried dill and dried chives as the herbs and add a little splash of white wine vinegar to the butter mix.
My husband is a popcorn fanatic & keeps talking about wanting to try different seasonings (he’s not a fan of the chocolate drizzles or candy coatings). More posts like this & he will be your biggest fan 😉
We love popcorn, too, and I cannot wait to try this. Happy Friday!
Looks delicious. For a much quicker similar version, I have been using your garlic bread seasoning on my popcorn. I made the stuff and I use it on everything now!
This looks DELICIOUS! I don’t know if you have ever had Harry & David’s Moose Munch? It’s fantastic and available in a variety of flavors. Then they went out of business at their ONE store in Arizona, so I am going to have to attempt to make my own! Your recipes will help. They make a sweet & savory Moose Munch with ranch and it sounds disgusting but I swear it is fabulous…I don’t suppose you have a recipe for something like that?!
mmm, never had that particular one- but it sounds good!
For the last little bit, I’ve been making my own popcorn in a brown paper bag in the micro (instead of on the stove top)… maybe I’m way behind, but this is where I got the idea: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/plain-brown-popper-recipe/index.html I just roll the bag over 3 or 4 times instead of using a staple. It’s so nice b/c I can flavor it however I want! I just do 1/2 a cup, a tad bit of olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, then high for 5 minutes and it’s ready (to season however I like).
Yep- we do it too 🙂
https://ourbestbites.com/2010/10/brown-paper-bag-microwave-popcorn/
I so needed to find you guys earlier in my life =)
Oh my word, your timing is impeccable! I’m having my sister over for movie night tonight because my hubby is out of town. I had been trying to come up with something beyond butter and salt to put on my popcorn. Lo and behold. Garlic, butter, Parmesan……how could it be wrong. Luckily, my sister won’t eat butter (gasp!) so I get this all to myself. 🙂
Wow Sara, you sure do take popcorn another level. Great work. We’re fans!
Ben @ GH Cretors
I love popcorn with garlic salt (yes, I’m lazy, lol), but this sounds so much better! And totally appropriate since my director is forcing me to watch Star Wars this weekend…
Can’t wait to try this! Do you think I could put the oil and seasonings in my whirly pop and then pop the corn in there, all together?
Check out the rest of the comments- people have had success doing that 🙂
Yum! Parmesan popcorn brings me back 🙂 thanks!
I’m drooling.. maybe I’ll make this for dinner. LOL
Yay! I have been on a popcorn kick recently and have been looking for a savory recipe. I can’t wait to try it!
We are popcorn fanatics at my house, so when I saw this post I knew exactly what the after school snack was for today. It did not disappoint, we all loved it! I have a stove top popper, so I heated the popcorn with the oil and then added the butter/garlic/herb mixture just when the popcorn started popping and it beautifully coated the popcorn while it popped.
ooh, good to know- I love my whirly popper!
Thanks for the idea! I am also going to try popcorn made with your garlic bread parmesan cheese mix from your cookbook (which I have almost cooked my way through, and LOVE btw).
Oh, and I also recently tried jalapeno popcorn in my whirly popper and it worked and tasted great!
The hubby is a huge jalapeno fan.
I just love your blog…. and I adore popcorn, so keep em’ comin’! Thanks so much for the great ideas & recipes. You are very talented 😉
You’re so sweet- thank you!
Our family is popcorn loving. I really want to get away from microwave popcorn so I can save money. Do you use the brown bag method (that was a great post! I’m going to try it!) or is there an air popper you recommend buying?
Either/or Mary. The brown paper bag method is great for small amounts, but if you want to pop a big giant bowl, an air popper is better. I just have a cheap one I got years ago and it’s worked great!
This looks amazing. I have all the ingredients except the popcorn because we finished the last of that the other day. Added to my grocery list!
We’re huge popcorn eaters at our house (air popped only, of course).
When I married my husband, he shared with me a family secret that I’ve used ever since.
Put the popped corn into a large brown paper sack. Shake the bag vigorously as you slowly drizzle the butter on top. Roll the top of the bag down and give it another good shake.
Continue shaking as you add salt, parmesan cheese, etc.
Dump into a large bowl and toss the bag.
Aside from the easy cleanup, it’s a great way to recycle/repurpose an old shopping bag …I’m from Portland, what do you expect??
Can’t wait to try this savory cheese popcorn!
Oh. My. Gosh.
THANK YOU!
I’ve been searching all over my part of Idaho to find Pop Weaver’s Parmesan Garlic and Herb microwave popcorn and NO ONE sells it. SO…needlesstosay…this recipe is a rescue to my most recent craving!!!
After school snack for the kiddos, and let’s be honest…for me!!! Looks so yummy!
Can’t wait to try the popcorn…I can’t stop making your Chewy Choc Chip Cookies…so easy and fast…
This sounds perfect for our next movie night!! Yum 🙂
I had this for dinner last night. And the night before.
Sara,
My husband and I made this the other night. Great idea! We were confused with the proportions though. We popped 8-10 cups of popcorn which seems like a lot more than one bag of microwaved popcorn. So the butter/oil mixture didn’t really come close to covering all of the corn that we air popped. Maybe I just like it really drenched because I added a lot more butter and oil 🙂 It was delicious either way!
Same here. I ended up doubling the herb/garlic/butter recipe, but it was awesome!!
I’ve just been pouring melted butter over my popcorn and sprinkling on your garlic bread seasoning. Yum! But I’ll have to try this too.
I made this popcorn with asiago and posted about it on my blog (here’s the link to the post: http://cheesewithnoodles.blogspot.com/2012/03/asiago-garlic-herb-popcorn.html ) It was so good!! Yum yum. Can’t wait to have it again.
We add butter and taco seasoning to our popcorn…so nummy 🙂
This sounds so good. I’ll probably be the only one eating this flavor, but @ Kelsea the taco flavor is a must try because my family loves tacos and I’m sure they will like this one.
I see at the end that it says to serve immediately. Does this have any kind of shelf life? I’d really like to include it in our Christmas baskets this year but I’d need it to last a little bit between the time I make it, the time it’s gifted, and the time it gets eaten…
Have to share my happy accident. In a container mix 3 dip packages; one ranch, one Italian and one brown gravy… After melting butter over popcorn shake this over it. This mix rubbed on a beef roast in the crock-pot and cover with water for 8 hours on low make an awesome French bee dip!
Hey
I made this popcorn and absolutely loved it, I’m a huge fan of savoury popcorn and this is now on my regular easy meal list!
http://lalangostaymi.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/herby-garlicy-parmesan-popcorn.html
Thanks x
Thank you for this recipe! I took this popcorn to a small get together with friends and it was a hit! Very simple to prepare, inexpensive, and great for party munching.
I am in charge of a Popcorn Bar at my sons school. I am gathering a variety of sweet and savory popcorns and this one is exactly the type I’m looking for, however, what I’m curious about is if needs to be eaten immediately. The way this popcorn bar will work, it will be in the teachers lounge for them to munch on during their breaks. Will this popcorn be good sitting out for a couple hours?
We love trying new popcorn recipes and coming up with new ideas of our own. Have you ever tried melting the butter with a few splashes of liquid smoke. i like this just with some salt but is also good with smoked paprika, cumin and or chilli powder. 🙂