Question: My microwave is broken and I can’t replace it right now. I have a bags of microwave popcorn. Can I take the popcorn out of the microwave bag and pop it on the stove in a pan? How do I do this? Will it work or will it burn and be awful?
Answer: Yes, microwave popcorn is a mixture of popcorn and oil with some added ingredients to increase the oil’s shelf life inside the bag. If you purchased microwave popcorn with butter flavor, the rest is butter flavoring. For example, here are the ingredients in Pop Secret Homestyle Butter Microwave Popcorn:
Popcorn, Palm Oil, Salt, Natural Flavor (Milk), Rosemary Extract (For Freshness), Lactic Acid. Contains: Milk
Palm oil is solid at room temperature so there is no liquid oil sloshing around inside the bag. The popcorn in the bag is embedded inside the solidified oil.
You can remove the popcorn and everything else from the bag and pop it the old-fashioned way, in a metal pan with a good lid. However, you must be aware that some of the ingredients in microwave popcorn may easily burn and create bitter flavors.
If you are wondering how to pop microwave popcorn on the stove then I assume you’ve never popped regular popcorn on the stovetop! Here are the basic steps.
Stovetop Popcorn Instructions
You need a good heavy-bottomed steel saucepan with a handle and a good lid. Do not use a skillet, it’s too shallow to allow room for the popcorn to pop. An aluminum steel-clad pan is the best choice for its superior heat conductivity. A pan with a long handle is best but as long as there is a good, sturdy handle you can easily grip, you’ll be fine.
You also need a very large bowl that will allow room for you to toss the popcorn to mix in seasonings. A steel mixing bowl is a great choice for its light weight. You can always transfer some of the popcorn to a more attractive serving bowl.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons oil (olive oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, any good cooking oil)
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
- Salt as desired
Steps
- Heat the oil over medium-low to medium heat. Do NOT turn up the heat too high or you’ll burn your popcorn.
- Put the popcorn kernels in the pan and cover the pan. Allow the popcorn kernels to gently heat until you hear the first few kernels pop. This should take a little while. If the kernels pop very quickly, go ahead and turn down the heat a little.
- Once the kernels begin popping, hold onto the pan lid with an oven mitt and place the lid askew on top of the saucepan, allowing a small gap at the edge of the pan. The gap is to allow steam to escape. This keeps the popcorn crispy.
- While the popcorn pops, hold onto the lid with one hand and use the pan handle to gently shake the pan back and forth with your other hand. Continue shaking the pan occasionally as the kernels continue to pop.
- Continue this process until the popping slows to about one pop every few seconds and then STOP. Do not continue just because you think a few kernels may be unpopped because the already popped kernels will scorch while you’re waiting for these late poppers (they may never pop anyway).
- Pour the popcorn into a large bowl and salt immediately. Toss the popcorn to mix the salt. You can add other seasonings and ingredients at the same time as the salt.
Now that you know the basic methods for stovetop popcorn, you are more prepared to pop your microwave popcorn on the stove. Before I get into the simple instructions for how to pop microwave popcorn on the stove, I want to list a few things not to do.
The Alton Brown Method
Pretty much everything Alton Brown did on his show Good Eats is taken as gospel, but many of the things he did were just made up and not thoroughly tested and predicated on the idea that he needed unique content that “scientifically” improved ordinary cooking. The way he popped popcorn on the stove is one of them. It’s one of the silliest things I’ve seen on a cooking show.
Brown used a metal mixing bowl covered with aluminum foil. He poked holes in the aluminum foil to let the steam escape. Do NOT do this. A thin steel mixing bowl will heat up very quickly, it’s hard to hold onto, and you could seriously burn yourself. The steel will not heat up evenly so you could likely scorch some of your popcorn and you may find yourself turning up the heat to get the darn thing to be hot enough.
As well, you will ruin the bottom of your steel bowl. It will get unsightly scorch marks on it and they may be very difficult, if not impossible, to remove without some kind of heavy machinery. The reason I mention this is because Brown’s “recipe” for stovetop popcorn is still on the Food Network and you can easily find it when searching for stovetop popcorn instructions. Frankly, in my opinion, this ridiculous instruction should be removed for basic safety reasons. Use a proper pan to cook anything on the stove.
Brown’s reasoning for using a steel bowl is that a rounded cooking vessel may work better for popping popcorn. If you want to try this, then use a lightweight wok. Unless your wok has a lid you can hold onto, you will have to cover it with aluminum foils and poke holes in the top. Frankly, it’s a bit precious. People used to pop popcorn on the stove in regular cheap pans all the time. It’s not rocket science.
How To Pop Microwave Popcorn on the Stove
So, here we go. To pop microwave popcorn on the stove, follow the basic instructions for stovetop popcorn above, except using the contents of the microwave bag. As I said before, the bag already has oil in it but you will probably need a little extra oil. You will also need another small bowl.
- Cut open the microwave popcorn bag and remove the contents into a bowl so that it’s ready to go. It can be difficult to get out all of the oil and kernels so use whatever method you’d like to scrape most of it out. You may not be able to get all the oil out, and that’s okay.
- Heat your saucepan over medium-low heat. Place the contents from the bag, along with one or two teaspoons of extra oil, into the pan. Stir the contents around to encourage the oil to liquify.
- Now, place the lid on and allow the contents to gently heat. Do not be tempted to turn up the heat too hight. For microwave popcorn, slow and steady is best.
- Once the kernels begin popping, slant the lid, and shake the pan as per the instructions above. I would advice more frequent shaking for microwave popcorn to discourage scorching of ingredients that may be less tolerant to direct heating.
- Finish popping the popcorn exactly the same way as for regular stovetop popcorn. Pour the popcorn into a bowl and remember, it’s already seasoned and ready to eat!
Unflavored microwave popcorn will generally work better than butter flavor for stovetop. But with patience, you can successfully pop any kind of bagged popcorn.
