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Margarita Popcorn

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make!

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make! #SundaySupper

Welcome to the #SundaySupper Summer Corn Recipes event, hosted by Ellen from Family Around the Table.

Though I'm well-known for my sweet tooth, popcorn has always been my favorite salty snack. I love going to one particular chain of movie theaters because I love that they have a dispenser where I can slather my bag of popcorn in extra "butter" topping (I'm sure it's fake). I'm sure it's totally unhealthy, but for the two to three times a year I go to the movies, I have no regrets indulging.

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make! #SundaySupper

For a long time, I was a popcorn purist. Most often, the topping on my popcorn was butter and salt. At Christmas, we'd usually receive one of those tins with three flavors of popcorn, and I'd eat the cheddar-cheese-coated popcorn, too (but not the caramel).

Later, I was introduced to popcorn topped with parmesan-and-garlic-flavored butter. Yum! I started to seek out more savory popcorn flavors, and even sweet flavors. I was late jumping on the sweet-and-salty combination of flavors.

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make! #SundaySupper

Margarita popcorn is a really easy adults-only snack. I used plain microwaveable popcorn. If you prefer air-popped or stove-popped, go ahead and use that.  A standard bag of microwaveable popcorn yields about 13 cups of popped popcorn. Don't worry about getting exactly 13 cups if you use another method of popping popcorn. It's fine to have a little more or a little less.

While the popcorn is popping, melt the butter in a saucepan with the tequila, lime juice, sugar and kosher salt. It's adults-only because the alcohol will not cook out when the tequila is mixed with the warm butter. Definitely use kosher salt instead of table salt. The larger crystals won't dissolve in the warm butter, and it has a purer salt flavor.

Pin this recipe for Margarita Popcorn for later!

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make! #SundaySupper

Indulge in an adult snack — margarita popcorn, coated in butter flavored with tequila and lime juice. It's so easy to make! #SundaySupper

Margarita Popcorn

Yield: 4 (3 ¼ cup) servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoon freshly squeeze lime juice
  • 2 tablespoon tequila
  • 2 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 13 cups plain popcorn, still hot, 1 bag
  • 1 ½ teaspoon lime zest, plus more for garnish, if desired
  • slices lime for garnish, if desired

Instructions

  1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the lime juice and tequila. Add the sugar, salt and lime zest, and stir just until the sugar dissolves.
  2. Place the hot popcorn in a large serving bowl, and pour the butter mixture over top. Toss to coat.
  3. Garnish with additional lime zest and/or lime slices and serve.

Did you love this recipe?

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Slightly adapted from Food Network

Discover more #SundaySupper Summer Corn recipes

Appetizer

Breakfast

Salad

Main Dish

Side Dish

Dessert

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Debbie

Saturday 8th of May 2021

Waste of good tequila. Soggy. Even tried putting them in a low heat oven to crisp up. No luck.

Lauren @ Sew You Think You Can Cook

Sunday 14th of August 2016

I'm glad someone made popcorn for this event! What a fun preparation.

Cindy

Wednesday 10th of August 2016

Sounds like a great way to kick popcorn up a notch!

Mimi

Monday 8th of August 2016

What fun!!! And so unique! I much prefer savory over sweet, so this popcorn is right up my alley!

Liz

Sunday 7th of August 2016

I eat popcorn almost every day---one of my favorite snacks! Now I need to try your margarita flavorings!!

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