Bacon Cheddar Popcorn Recipe
Bacon cheddar popcorn is better than nachos, and here’s why. Imagine the perfect blend of popped popcorn, crispy smoky bacon, and shredded cheddar cheese. With its delightful crunch and irresistible flavors of smoky bacon and sharp cheddar, this popcorn takes snacking to a whole new level.
Unlike nachos, which become soggy immediately, bacon cheese popcorn maintains its delightful crunch from start to finish, making it the perfect snack for movie nights and game day. So go ahead, try this bacon and cheddar cheese popcorn recipe, and forget why you ever doubted its superiority.
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Ingredients
Use your favorite bacon and popcorn for this recipe. In our house, we love Hempler’s bacon and Orville Redenbacher!
Mr. Ugly Duckling Bakery originally thought a cheddar popcorn would work better with powdered cheddar cheese. But this bacon cheese popcorn is a perfect combination of crispy bacon, crunchy popcorn, and oozy melted cheese that holds it all together.
Plus this way you don’t get all that powdered cheese residue on your fingers.
Variations and substitutions
- The best cheese for this cheese popcorn is the one you have on hand. So feel free to sub in any other cheese that melts easily, like shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack.
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Recipe tips and tricks
Pop your favorite popcorn, crispy your favorite bacon, and shred some cheddar cheese. Toss it all together and broil until the cheese has melted.
Other game night favorites
Serve this bacon cheddar popcorn on game night with other favorite appetizers and snacks like:
- Chips and an easy 4-ingredient guacamole or mango pico de gallo.
- Spiced roasted chickpeas.
- An ice cold beer or dry martini.
Recipe FAQs
Mr. Ugly Duckling Bakery would agree with you. Your future cardiologist might not. But you could double the amount of add ins without impacting the crunch of the popcorn.
The bacon can be cooked ahead of time, but you will want to be eating the rest of this right out of the oven.
You could, although I might consider subbing a non-meat bacon before you left it out completely. The MorningStar bacon was always my favorite, but it’s been a while since real bacon became my gateway back to eating meat. Please leave a comment if you have a fake bacon you love!
Related bacon recipes
Enjoy a bacon kale frittata or other Ugly Duckling Bakery bacon favorites like:
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Bacon Cheddar Popcorn
Ingredients
- 2 strips bacon
- ⅓ cup popcorn kernels
- 3 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler of your oven with a rack about 4 to 6 inches away.
- Cook the bacon in a cast iron pan on the stove or in the oven on a broiler pan until crisp. Blot with paper towels and then chop finely. Reserve the bacon fat in a jar.2 strips bacon
- Use 2 teaspoons of bacon fat to pop the popcorn in a small saucepan on the stove top or whatever way you prefer to pop popcorn.⅓ cup popcorn kernels
- Mix the cooked popcorn, bacon, and half of the cheese in a bowl and then spread out in a thin layer in a 9 by 13 inch broiler-safe oven dish. Top with the remaining cheese.3 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
- Broil 2 to 3 minutes until the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
This bacon cheddar popcorn recipe was first posted April 19, 2021 for the reddit 52 weeks of baking challenge, Week 16: Crispy Crunchy. I had been thinking about making bacon cheddar shortbread. But then Molly Yeh and her popcorn salad started some trouble. The post was last updated for clarity on June 17, 2023.
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Previous challenges:
Week 1: New Year new recipe – blueberry galette
Week 2: seasonal – Smitten Kitchen’s grapefruit pound cake
Week 3: Great British Bake Off – Kate’s sticky toffee apple caramel cake
Week 4: Australia – sausage rolls
Week 5: bite sized – cookies
Week 6: Chinese New Year – mushroom bao
Week 7: new tool – baguette baker
Week 8: chocolate – chocolate peanut butter bonbons
Week 9: timed bake – under 1 hour! chocolate chip scones
Week 10: allergy/diet restriction – macarons
Week 11: quick breads – kale bread
Week 12: signature bake – purple cow bread
Week 13: enriched breads (kale and cheese babka fail)
Week 14: childhood favorite –fudgy triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting
Week 15: decorating challenge – purple velvet cake
next week: p52 of your favorite cookbook
I absolutely love the idea of this popcorn. So fun!
Thanks, and so easy to make too!