BBQ Popcorn

I brought some BBQ popcorn to a party last night and it was a hit, so I thought I'd explain how to make it because it's really easy. It's basically just regular popcorn with my BBQ rub that I use on pork and chicken. And popcorn I guess.

Ingredients for Gabe's Smoky BBQ Rub:

1/2 C brown sugar
3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp chipotle powder
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp ancho chile powder
1 tbsp dry mustard

Haha I made you eat mustard last night Ryan.

Anyway, mix all of those together and you've got the rub. You can sprinkle this on any kind of popcorn you want as long as there is butter or oil for the rub to stick to and it will be delicious.

If you want to make it like I did then you start with air popped popcorn. While corn explodes in the background, melt some butter. You want enough butter so that each kernel will have at least a little bit on it because it's our glue. One batch in my air popper needs about 3 tablespoons, but it makes quite a bit of popcorn. Once the corn is popped and the butter is melted, you add them together, but you need to be tossing the popcorn while you add the butter. That helps make sure butter gets on all of the kernels.

You may have noticed there isn't salt in the rub, that is intentional. It's hard to tell how much salt you're putting on your food when it's in a spice mix like the BBQ rub, so I always season with salt first then add the spice mix. I avoid premixed spice blends for the same reason. They usually have salt in them, but you don't know how much. Salt rant over.

After you coat the popcorn with butter, add popcorn salt to until it is sufficiently salty to your taste, and toss the popcorn as you add the salt. Popcorn salt is just really fine salt. You can buy it at the grocery store, or you can pulse some kosher, iodized, or sea salt in a food processor.

When it's salty, sprinkle on the rub. Again how much you add is totally up to your taste buds. Now you're ready to enjoy this tasty treat. I had one person think it was bacon flavored...so yeah it's pretty delicious.

Note: some of those spices may not be in your pantry, but you should be able to find them in the bulk spices section of your grocery store. Bulk spices are usually in the produce section in bags rather than in the spice aisle.