This Super Bowl Popcorn Combo Tastes Just Like Buffalo Wings (Minus the Wings)

For me, the Super Bowl isn't about the football most years, nor am I particularly invested in the commercials, or even the halftime show. No, I respect the Super Bowl because it represents one of the biggest mid-winter snacking opportunities that we have going in America, and I plan to bring my A-game to it. The Super Bowl staples, like buffalo wings, chili, chips and an array of dips, are worthy additions to any spread. But I love the challenge of bringing some of those classic flavors to other forms of snacking. Which is why this year, I'm going to make buffalo and blue cheese popcorn.

The strategy comes from Deputy Digital Editor Adina Steiman, and it's a smart way to bring the buffalo wing vibes to the party even if you'd rather not spend your time deep-frying and coating chicken wings. Steiman's methodology is to make a big batch of popcorn, divide it in two, and toss one half with a buttery buffalo sauce and the other with blue cheese powder and celery salt. Mix them together and you get the flavors of buffalo wings dipped into blue cheese dressing in an entirely new format.

To make this concoction, you're going to want to pop your own corn kernels on the stove. It's only a little more effort than the microwave kind, and the flavor payoff is worth it. (If you need a primer on how to make stovetop popcorn, you can find one in our recipe for Rosemary and Sea Salt Popcorn.) For this version, we used 1/2 cup of corn kernels, which yields 8 cups of popcorn, but you can adjust the proportions as you prefer. While the popcorn is popping, melt 4 tablespoons butter with 2 tablespoons of your preferred hot sauce—we used Frank's Red Hot.

Divide the freshly popped corn into two roughly equal batches. Drizzle on half with the buffalo sauce, tossing to coat the popcorn evenly. To the other half, add 4 tablespoons of good quality blue cheese powder (we used Blue Heaven from Rogue Creamery) and half a tablespoon of celery salt. Mix at will, or keep in separate bowls to make your own popcorn proportions. I'm not saying it'll make you forget about chicken wings entirely, but it's definitely a compulsively snackable (and incidentally vegetarian) option for your football festivities.