Selena Gomez Once Shared This Unexpected Topping She Loves To Put On Popcorn

We've all had it buttered and salted. You've maybe even tried it sprinkled with nooch, the vegan staple that packs surprisingly cheesy flavor. But with pickle juice? That's pop star and business mogul Selena Gomez's popcorn topping of choice according to an interview with Jimmy Fallon (via YouTube), where Gomez shared her love of the tangy liquid on popcorn kernels.

Way back in 2010, Gomez shared with Fallon that the dilly vinegar brine was her favorite way to flavor popcorn. She explained she dresses up popcorn "Texas-style" at home with her family. Lest you're envisioning soggy, wet kernels drenched in juice, Gomez has a very specific way of marrying salty popcorn with acidic pickle juice. She demonstrated this to Fallon, adding generous dashes of salt and hot sauce directly into a bag of popped popcorn, then shaking it together. She then dips each individual popped kernel into a dish of pickle juice for the perfect salty, tangy bite.

It might sound odd, but we're hearing the star out because, frankly, what can't pickle juice do? The briny liquid is having something of an extended moment as a once-oddball but now pretty mainstream add-in to all sorts of sweet and salty snacks (including the recent Sonic x Grillos pickle collab). Adding pungent tang, garlicky kick, and a bit of sweetness, there are many ways to use leftover pickle juice. This is just one more reason to keep a jar on hand.

Mixing popcorn and pickles is, for some reason, not yet mainstream. But this basic flavor pairing isn't so different from the delicious practice of dousing salty potato or tortilla chips with squirts of lemon or lime juice and spices (a delicious combo especially popular in Mexican cuisine). This unique pairing is hardly Selena Gomez's first or only documented example of her love for the briny juice. She's gone on the record before stating her love for pickles, even musing about releasing a pickle-focused cookbook. She told interviewers at the Mirror back in 2015 that she regularly takes pickles with her popcorn at the movies, though didn't explain if she was referring to her juice-dunking method or simply eating whole pickles along with handfuls of the definitive movie snack. A true pickle lover, she also shared she regularly drinks the juice straight from the jar (don't knock it 'til you try it).

Gomez's enthusiasm for pickles is nothing new, nor is her love for food in general. The multi-hyphenate star had a show, "Selena + Chef," on the Food Network for four seasons. However, you need no kitchen chops to appreciate this simple and unexpected flavor pairing. Frankly, in the current pickle-crazed era we're living in, with pickle-flavored just about everything on grocery store shelves, we'd be surprised if a bagged version of dilly kernels isn't already in the works — if not, you heard it here first!