The main ingredients: Southern Comfort and popcorn for the popping.

Kernels in the pan. 

The popped corn: pretty and white and fluffy.

The good, Southern stuff: SoCo, vanilla, a whole lot of sugar and butter. Now, if that doesn’t sound like the makings of some good caramel, I don’t know what does!

On the baking pans. I wish I could have had pictures of the caramel forming and me pouring the liquid lava caramel on the popcorn and stirring it all together before the caramel hardened, but it really is a frantic 45 seconds. You’ll see what I mean.

The finished product which we brought to a friends’ potluck. It didn’t last long, even with some stuff competition from THREE different mac-and-cheeses.

Here’s the recipe:

Southern Comfort Caramel Corn

1/2 cup of popcorn kernels

3 cups sugar
3 tbsp butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup Southern Comfort whiskey
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Pop the popcorn and place in a very large bowl with room for stirring. If necessary, separate into two large bowls so that you have room for stirring without spilling over. Line a large jelly-roll pan with foil.

In a large saucepan, heat the sugar, butter, vanilla, salt, and Southern Comfort on medium heat, stirring often. Continue to stir until the sugar melts and a deep caramel color is achieved. Double check that you have everything ready, because the addition of baking soda to the caramel will cause it to double in size quickly and bubble up. When you are ready to coat the popcorn, add the baking soda to the caramel and stir quickly. Remove from the heat and pour over the popcorn (eyeball about half the mixture into each bowl if you’ve had to split into two).

Stir the popcorn quickly and immediately after covering with the warm mixture so that every piece gets some coverage by the caramel. Spread the caramel-coated popcorn onto the foil-lined jelly-roll pan and allow to cool for approximately 10 to 20 minutes.

Peanuts or cashews would also be an excellent addition to this caramel corn.