Easy Homemade Cheddar Cheese Popcorn recipe ready in just 5 minutes! Perfect for snacks, family movie nights, or to give as a Holiday gift!
Popcorn makes a terrific Snack any time, and you can use this easy recipe along with Caramel Popcorn to make the most delicious popcorn creation ever, which is made from the amazing mix of the two… Chicago Popcorn!
Sabrina’s Homemade Cheddar Cheese Popcorn
Did you grow up with the tins at Christmas? Every year my dad would bring one home and my mom, brother, and I would fight over the tin. My brother and I would immediately fight over the cheddar and caramel sections and get yelled at by mom to eat them all evenly. Ugh. Evenly. Who actually ever wanted the butter flavor when cheese and caramel were so close by? Now you can make your own Cheddar Cheese Popcorn at home!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
- 6 cups popped popcorn (or ⅓ cups popcorn kernels)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- If popping your own, put a ⅓ of a cup of kernels in a medium brown paper bag.
- Roll the top of it closed.
- Microwave until the kernels stop popping at the rate of at least 1 per second.
- In a large brown paper bag, combine the popcorn and butter by shaking the bag while pouring the butter in a slow stream.
- Once all the butter is in, roll the bag closed and shake it REALLY well.
- Combine the cheddar cheese powder, mustard powder, and salt in a small bowl.
- Sprinkle over the popcorn while shaking the bag.
- Roll it back up and shake vigorously.
- Enjoy immediately!
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
About this Recipe
You’ll love the salty, cheesy taste of this homemade cheddar popcorn. While it might seem like it would take time or be difficult, it is really so quick and easy. This is also customizable so if your crowd would like more or less cheese, or to adjust the amount of salt, you can easily do that! Once you try the fresh, homemade cheese popcorn, you will not want to go back to store-bought.
What to Pair With
Make my Caramel Popcorn and mix it with this recipe to make the most delicious Homemade Chicago Mix Popcorn! This is a recreation of G.H. Cretor’s Chicago Mix Popcorn that I found some years ago. The people at the company were so nice and the taste was fantastic. Plus it took the best parts of the popcorn tin and combined them in one bag which meant my caramel popcorn had a slight layer of cheddar cheese dust. Salty + sweet = YUM.
Variations
- Sour Cream and Cheddar Popcorn: Add sour cream powder to this recipe for a delicious alternative flavor. Try 1 tablespoon at a time and reduce the cheddar by the same amount so there isn’t too much powder for the butter to absorb.
- Cheddar Ranch Popcorn: Add dry ranch seasoning mix to make a cheddar ranch mix. Toss in 1 tablespoon, also reducing the cheese by 1 tablespoon.
- Add-ins: If you want a quick sweet and salty combination, toss some sweet add-ins to your cheesy popcorn. Toss with M&M’s, chocolate chips, crushed cookies, or your favorite candy.
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My husband would love this popcorn! I’ll have to try it out during out next movie night
I love popcorn for an evening snack. This looks delicious!
I want to make this so darn bad! I have shared on FB so I can try to make it for our Family Friday Night sometime soon!
Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing it Brandy!
My mom used to make homemade cheese popcorn all the time when I was younger. She used an air popper and shredded cheddar though. This looks like a fun recipe for movie night.
I would LOVE that recipe! Using fresh cheddar sounds even better than this!
I’ve never tried cheese on popcorn but I’m all for experimenting, I’m definitely going to give this a go, I’ll report back 😀
Family movie night is a favorite! The snacks make all the difference, and I know this one would be gobbled up!
I will be honest…i cant stand plain butter popcorn. I only like my popcorn with some kind of flavor so this is a great recipe to enhance it!
Cheddar cheese popcorn has always been a favorite of mine. We do movie nights often and I can’t wait to give this recipe a try!
I hope you love it Joanie!
Of, deliciousness. I love popcorn so much – can’t make through a movie without it!
Me too!
Oh wow this looks so delicious! I love homemade popcorn so much more
Thanks Christie!
Hello, I am in the university studying and I want to start my homemade popcorn business. Cheese popcorn isn’t popular here in my country, do you have an advice for me?
I don’t eat cheese too often but my husband does occasionally and he would love this!
Going out later to get the ingredients. I will make some this weekend. We love popcorn on movie nights!
Awesome! I hope you love it!
My dad would love this. He loves the flavored popcorn.
We have movie night like every weekend and we enjoy eating popcorn while watching movies. I’ll definitely have to try this over the weekend!
I hope you love it Ty!
yummm that popcorn looks sooo yummy! i would love to try this recipe.
I always loved the cheddar popcorn in the holiday tins. I’ll definitely be giving this recipe a try!
Yup, totally the best flavor of the three!
I will have to try yours. Looks so good.
This sounds absolutely delicious! I love popcorn for a snack and cheesy popcorn sounds even better.
That looks great! I love how easy it is to make! My family would be all over that.
Thanks Autumn!
Pretty sure popcorn was my biggest pregnancy craving! I had at least one bag every day. This looks so yummy and fast!
Oh man, me too!! I had my husband buying bags of kernels at one time for me!
I love popcorn in all ways. This is one I haven’t tried yet but I definitely will! Thanks for the great idea.
My pleasure!
This looks so delicious. I love to snack on popcorn. I will have to make a batch for our next movie night.
For us it was Jiffy Pop! LOL OOPS, probably dating myself! Buying the tins oddly has a very different association for me, we used to buy them as corporate ‘whenever’ gifts at one of my old jobs, not necessarily for holidays, but for corporate account gifting we would sometimes use those super big ones to send to clients at random as a sort of thinking of you throughout the year to keep in touch or as a thank you to some of our vendors.
I LOVE jiffy pop!!! My grandma would cook it on the stovetop for us. It is by far the best prepackaged popcorn!
I admit, I am a popcorn addict. I mean, some love chocolate, and though I do, as well… it is popcorn that I could never live without. I would never have thought of the mustard powder addition but will totally be trying this. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure Shauna! It was so good we ate that entire giant bowl in one night!
Oooh this looks super delicious! You’ve inspired me to make popcorn!
Yay! What a compliment! Thank you 🙂
Wow! Sounds yummy! Popcorn is always fun to eat
My husband is a popcorn fanatic! I bet he would love this.
Me too! I hope you try it and that he loves it!
My favorite part of the Christmas tin was definitely the cheese and we’d always eat it first. Now I can make my own!
Me too!
I am not a cheese popcorn fan, but man would my kids be all over this! I’m saving this for movie night to surprise them with!
Awesome! I hope they love it Mandi!
Oh we’re definitely going to have to try this on a movie night. I’ve never made my own cheddar cheese popcorn before!
Hope you love it Liz!
My family would love this for movie night!! We make popcorn a lot in my house for snack time. The more cheese the better, right?
YES! I loaded it up with twice the cheese of the original recipe. I’m a stinker like that, haha.
I am not a big fan of flavored popcorn, but the kids are. They would love the cheddar cheese popcorn!
Ever since I discovered organic corn kernels, we make our own popcorn. This version looks yummy but I thought I was the only person on the planet that liked savory and sweet popcorn combined?! Love that I was wrong!
Yes! We use organic too and it is so easy to make! Plus compared to the bags it is SO inexpensive!
Yummy! This looks so amazing! We are making this for family movie night this week!
Awesome, hope you love it Aimee!
All I can say is OH MY GOODNESS! You have made my year. Love CHeddar popcorn and didn’t realize i could buy this powder. MMMM
Yup! When I came across it looking for a way to make cheddar and sour cream roasted potatoes I felt like I won the lottery, haha.
I love popcorn. Cheddar cheese popcorn sounds super delicious!
I like sweet and salty but I would for sure try this and maybe add a bit of sugar it in. Love that you found your own way to make something you like.
Thanks Kristi!
I have to try this! We watch movies here all the time and the whole family loves to share a bowl of popcorn.
Cheddar Cheese powder? I need some of that- I bet it’s great on broccoli too! Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!
It most certainly is! We use it on that all the time. The one pound goes a LONG way.
It is this easy?! I make homemade popcorn all the time on the stove top but this seasoning looks and sounds amazing! Why have I never done this?!
Yup, it was as easy as make popcorn, melt butter and toss with powder. I’ve been spoiled from buying it ever again, haha.
I’ve never thought of making my own cheese popcorn before. That looks delicious.
Um, yum! We buy Chicago mix popcorn at Costco, but now that I know how easy it is to make the cheddar kind at home, I can’t wait for Wednesday so I can start making my own Chicago mix at home!
YES! That is where we would get it too! I am posting the chicago mix recipe Wednesday if you want to come back to see it 🙂
We have popcorn several nights a week for ‘dessert’. I’ve always wondered how to make cheddar popcorn! Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure Gwen!
Ok well this is just genius. I am always looking for ways to spice up movie popcorn night, this sounds amazing!
Aww, thanks Des!
I didn’t realize how easy it was to make this popcorn, which I LOVE, btw. Why wait for Christmastime to eat it, right?
Right! Now I need to decode how to make the colorful stuff. That is another kid time memory!
That looks awesome! I love cheese popcorn, so I’m so trying this.
mustard powder makes so much sense. I add it to my mac and cheese.
Yup it adds a great dimension of flavor!
I’ve not added mustard to much of anything. What kind of flavor does it give?
It just adds a great dimension of flavor! A little bit of a tang.
If you like a “bite” as I do (everything like salsa medium) use Colman’s Mustard. (Dble Superfine Mustard Powder).
This would be a HUGE hit in our house. My hubby and son LOVE anything with cheese in it. We try yo have a movie night every once in a while and this would be a great treat with movie night.
This popcorn looks absolutely amazing! I’m going to have to make this ASAP!
We do movie nights every week. I will have to try this.