Caramel Bacon Popcorn

Bacon adds a salty layer to sweet caramel-flavored popcorn. It’s the perfect sweet and salty combo. The first time I ever tried it was at the Bacon and Beer Festival and it's pretty simple to make at home. There are many ways to cook bacon these days. It doesn’t matter how you prepare it. Use the oven or cook it in your air fryer. Just have it already prepared before making the caramel popcorn so it’s easy to assemble. 

This recipe has been updated on 6/16/2021. If you love easy recipes please check out the other recipes below and be sure to leave a review if you’ve made this recipe. 

What Ingredients do I need? 

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into ¼-inch pieces
• Vegetable oil
• Unpopped popcorn
• Unsalted butter
• light brown sugar, lightly packed
• light corn syrup
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Vanilla extract

How to Make Caramel Bacon Popcorn 

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
2. Line a large baking sheet with tinfoil and place the strips of bacon on it. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until desired crispiness. 
3. In a large sautte pan over medium heat, Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved drippings, plus the vegetable oil, to a large stock pot over medium heat.
4. Add the popcorn to the pot and cover it. Once you hear the first kernel pop, remove the pot from the heat for 1 minute. Return the covered pot to the heat, shaking it over the flame until all of the kernels have popped. (It may take up to 5 minutes for all of the popcorn to pop.) Transfer the popcorn to a large bowl, sprinkle in the cooked bacon pieces, tossing to combine, and set the bowl aside.
5. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Then allow the mixture to boil, undisturbed, for 4 minutes. Remove the caramel from the heat and carefully stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract. (The caramel will bubbly vigorously once you add the vanilla.)
6. Immediately pour the caramel over the popcorn, stirring to coat the popcorn and bacon.
7. Transfer the coated popcorn into two 9x13-inch shallow baking pans.
8. Bake the caramel corn for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
9. Remove the caramel corn from the oven and spread it onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet to cool completely before breaking it into pieces and serving.

Other Recipes to Try 

3 Ingredient Cherry Sobert 

3 Ingredient Fudge Pop 

Oreo Ice Cream Cake 

Healthy 3 Ingredient Chocolate Muffins 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge 

If you’ve tried these Caramel Bacon Popcorn  recipe or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. Snap a picture and upload it to share on Pinterest

Caramel Bacon Popcorn

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• Author: Jenna
• Yield: 6 to 8 1x

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Ingredients

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into ¼-inch pieces
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• ¾ cup unpopped popcorn
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

2. Line a large baking sheet with tinfoil and place the strips of bacon on it. Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until desired crispiness. 

3. In a large sautte pan over medium heat, Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved drippings, plus the vegetable oil, to a large stock pot over medium heat.

4. Add the popcorn to the pot and cover it. Once you hear the first kernel pop, remove the pot from the heat for 1 minute. Return the covered pot to the heat, shaking it over the flame until all of the kernels have popped. (It may take up to 5 minutes for all of the popcorn to pop.) Transfer the popcorn to a large bowl, sprinkle in the cooked bacon pieces, tossing to combine, and set the bowl aside.

5. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Then allow the mixture to boil, undisturbed, for 4 minutes. Remove the caramel from the heat and carefully stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract. (The caramel will bubbly vigorously once you add the vanilla.)

6. Immediately pour the caramel over the popcorn, stirring to coat the popcorn and bacon.

7. Transfer the coated popcorn into two 9x13-inch shallow baking pans.

8. Bake the caramel corn for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

9. Remove the caramel corn from the oven and spread it onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet to cool completely before breaking it into pieces and serving.

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Notes

not WW friendly 

• Category: Medium
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: caramel bacon popcorn