Easy Homemade Caramel Corn

Preheat oven to 250 ºF. Place a large stock pot over medium heat and add the vegetable oil. Add the popcorn to the pot and cover it. Once you hear the first kernel pop, remove the pot from the heat for one minute. Return the covered pot to the heat, shaking it over the flame until all of the kernels have popped. Reserve the popcorn. 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 stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract. Immediately pour the caramel over the popcorn, stirring to coat each kernel. Transfer the coated popcorn into two 9x13" shallow baking pans. Bake the popcorn for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove the caramel corn from the oven and spread it onto parchment paper to cool completely before breaking it into pieces.