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Fried Mozzarella Sticks have melty mozzarella inside a crispy, seasoned Italian breadcrumb coating.
Restaurant-Quality Fried Mozzarella Sticks
Our Fried Mozzarella Sticks are a great option when you need to make a quick, easy (and delicious) appetizer to serve at a party or impromptu gathering.
You can make them ahead of time and keep a stash on hand in the freezer. Then, it takes just minutes to fry up a crispy-on-the-outside, melty-on-in-the-inside plate of Fried Mozzarella Sticks with our homemade marinara sauce on the side for dipping.
To keep things super-simple, we made our Fried Mozzarella Sticks with mozzarella string cheese sticks, but you can also buy block mozzarella and cut it into sticks if you prefer.
Why You’ll Our Love Fried Mozzarella Sticks
- They taste just like the fried mozzarella sticks you’d order as an appetizer at your favorite Italian restaurant.
- Our recipe uses pre-portioned mozzarella string cheese, making this recipe easy and convenient to prepare.
- When you are ready to serve this delicious appetizer, the cheese sticks only take about sixty to ninety seconds to fry up.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Mozzarella Cheese – For convenience and appearance, we used individually-wrapped mozzarella string cheese sticks for this recipe. They are the perfect size and shape for coating and frying. You can also buy block mozzarella (not the fresh Buffalo mozzarella sold in liquid – that will be too soft) and cut sticks or wedges yourself.
- For Dredging the Cheese Sticks:
- All-Purpose Flour, Salt, Pepper, and Corn Starch
- Eggs and Milk
- Italian Breadcrumbs with dried basil, oregano, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese added.
- Vegetable Oil – For frying.
- Marinara Sauce – For serving. Make our easy homemade marinara sauce or buy your favorite jarred sauce.
Special Tools You’ll Need
- Various Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Cheese Grater
- Three Shallow Bowls or Pie Plates – For coating the cheese sticks.
- Sheet Pans
- Parchment Paper
- Cast Iron Skillet or Dutch Oven – For frying.
- Deep Fry/Candy Thermometer or Infrared Thermometer Gun – To ensure your oil is at the proper temperature.
- Spider Strainer
- Paper Towels – For straining excess oil.
- Serving Platter
- Small Bowl – To serve marinara sauce.
How do I make Fried Mozzarella Sticks?
- Remove the cheese sticks from their wrappers.
- Dredge the cheese sticks in a seasoned flour – egg wash – breadcrumb mixture, then place them on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
- Freeze the coated mozzarella sticks for a few hours.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet to 350 degrees F.
- Fry until golden brown on the outside. (This only takes about 60 to 90 seconds!)
- Serve immediate with some marinara dipping sauce.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Prior to frying these mozzarella sticks, you’ll want to freeze them for about two hours. This allows the outer coating to fry up nice and crispy, but it prevents the inside cheese from getting too melted and oozing out.
Can I make these Fried Mozzarella Sticks ahead of time?
Yes! If you want to keep some on hand, once the coated cheese sticks have firmed up on the sheet tray in the freezer, place them in a plastic bag or container for longer-term storage.
Then fry them up anytime you’d like – following the same steps in the recipe.
You can even keep some of the marinara sauce on hand – jarred, store-bought varieties, or if you made our homemade marinara sauce, keep portions of that in zipper seal bags in the freezer.
This Fried Mozzarella Sticks recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in December 2019. We’ve updated the photos and post, but the delicious recipe remains the same.
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Fried Mozzarella Sticks
Fried Mozzarella Sticks have melty mozzarella inside a crispy, seasoned Italian breadcrumb coating.
Ingredients
1 pound string-cheese mozzarella sticks, removed from wrappers
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons corn starch
4 whole eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups Italian breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dry basil
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Vegetable oil, for frying
Marinara sauce, for dipping (make our homemade marinara sauce or use your favorite store-bought variety)
Instructions
- Before you begin, note that this recipe requires the breaded cheese sticks to be frozen before frying so leave yourself at least two hours of freezer time. You can do this step days ahead of time.
- Remove wrappers from string cheese and keep refrigerated.
- Line up three wide bowls. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper, or any pan that will fit into your freezer compartment.
- In one bowl mix flour with salt, pepper and corn starch. In the second mix eggs and milk and in the third mix breadcrumbs, basil, oregano, garlic powder and grated Parmesan cheese.
- Dip the cheese sticks a few at a time into flour mixture, shake excess and dip in egg, shake excess then roll in the breadcrumb mixture.
- Shake off excess, then back into egg then finally again into breadcrumb mixture to fully coat.
- Lay out onto the parchment lined pan and repeat for the remaining cheese sticks.
- Freeze for at least two hours or longer. Discard breading mixtures.
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F to be able to keep the cheese sticks hot between batches.
- In a heavy bottomed pan, such as a cast iron skillet, place about an inch and a half of oil and get the oil to 350 degrees F. Make sure the temperature is at that temperature throughout. Cooler than 350 and they will be greasy and higher than 350 and they will get too dark before the inside melts.
- Cook 4-5 at a time for about 60-90 seconds until golden brown in color. Remove to paper towels with a spider or strainer to drain then hold in the oven while you cook the remaining cheese sticks.
- Serve with marinara sauce.
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