Pizza Popcorn

What are two of the most popular foods you want on hand if you're having a movie night in or a day of couch time and football on TV? For us the two would be pizza and popcorn. So of course we had to try to combine the two to make pizza popcorn. And with spectacular results, if we say so ourselves.

We wanted all the ingredients of a great pepperoni pizza because that's our favorite. But we switched the crust for popcorn. It's all about the toppings anyway, right? You can make pizza sauce or just buy your favorite brand but we recommend baking it on the popcorn so that it adheres and stays crisp. Because the liquid will cause the popcorn to shrink up some we opted for our mushroom kernels. The largest of our popcorn types, mushroom kernels pop up fat and round with a classic corny taste and big crunch.

Once we baked on the sauce layer we topped it with mozzarella, Parmesan and lots of crispy pepperoni. The final touch was dried oregano, just like what you find in the canisters at a good pizza parlor. 

It smells amazing, tastes amazing and has all that good pizza flavor in a great big bowl of crunchy goodness. Having friends over to watch the Super Bowl? Trust us and make lots and lots of batches of this. It will all disappear.

Pizza Popcorn

Servings

4

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

10 minutes

Our recipe for pizza popcorn combines the best of two favorite savory treats. Crunchy popcorn, flavorful pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese and more cheese. We love pizza popcorn for game days, movie nights and all around delicious snacking.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons canola oil

• ⅓ Cup Dell Cove mushroom popcorn kernels

• ¼ Teaspoon salt

• 2 Tablespoons pizza sauce

• Sliced pepperoni

• Mozzarella cheese

• Parmesan cheese

• Dried oregano

Directions

1. To make the popcorn, add the vegetable or canola oil and 2 to 3 of the mushroom kernels to a large pot with a lid. Heat on high until the kernels pop. That will let you know that your oil is hot enough.

2. Add the remaining kernels and the salt. Cover, continue cooking on high, shaking the pot often, until the popping stops. Remove the popcorn to a large bowl.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

4. Toss the popcorn with the pizza sauce and spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Add the sliced pepperoni to the side of the parchment to crisp up.

5. Bake for 7 minutes and transfer the popcorn and pepperoni slices to a bowl. Toss with a handful of mozzarella cheese and top with Parmesan cheese and dried oregano.