Homemade Mozzarella sticks

all done, ready to go in the freezer

Got this recipe from the Pioneer Womans Tasty Kitchen Blog.

You’ll need a bowl of flour… A couple of eggs..

A little milk…

And some dried parsley flakes.
Add the parsley flakes to the panko crumbs…

And stir them together with a fork. Now, you could certainly sprinkle in a little salt, garlic salt, or other seasoning mix—even a little cayenne pepper—but I wanted to keep things simple. I don’t think the crumbs really need much help.

Next, splash a little milk into the eggs…

And whip it together with a fork.

Finally, unwrap as many pieces of string cheese as you need…

And just slice them in half with a sharp knife.

Now, this is just a great, basic way to bread basically anything with panko crumbs. Use this method for everything from chicken tenders to zucchini spears. In this case, just set one of the pieces of mozzarella in the bowl of flour…

And roll it around to lightly coat.

Next, dip the flour-coated mozzarella in the egg/milk mixture.

Coat it completely…

Then place it straight into the seasoned panko crumbs.

Rather than roll it around and disturb the coating, I just use my hand to scoop panko crumbs on top of the mozzarella so that it’s adequately coated.

Pat it gently to make sure it’s all coated with crumbs, then gently remove from the crumbs…

And place on a clean tray or cookie sheet.

Repeat until all the pieces are coated.

Now—this is an important step: Place the tray, uncovered, directly into the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes. This will flash freeze the mozzarella sticks (at least partly), which will help them stay together better when it’s time to fry, and will also keep the mozzarella from melted too quickly when it hits the hot oil.

When you’re ready to fry ‘em up, heat a good inch to an inch-and-a-half of canola oil over medium heat. Medium high or high, at least on my stove, proves to be a little too hot for panko crumbs. Medium’s about right, but you can sort of gauge your stove and see what you need to do.

Pull the frozen sticks out of the freezer…

And carefully add a few to the hot oil.

Oh! And I always feel like saying this: be careful with pans of hot oil if you have cute little roly poly kids walking around the house. I always, out of habit—even now that my roly poly kids are getting bigger—keep pans on the back burner of the stove (handles far out of reach) if I’m going to fry with oil. It’s just one of those things that crawled into my brain at an early stage of parenting, and something I’m going to keep bugging you about anytime I share a recipe that involves frying with hot oil.

Hope you don’t mind.

Things will move quickly—be ready to roll them over to the other side when the first side gets brown. The trickiest part of making these is getting the oil to just the right temp in order to melt the cheese without burning the crumbs, but it isn’t difficult to get the swing of it right away. Keep in mind that the cheese will continue to soften/melt after you remove them from the oil.

When they’re nice and golden, remove them to a paper towel-lined plate.

Yum! Look at the yummy panko breading. If I took a bite of this, you could hear the crispiness in Yonkers!

Made them for my girls night out party and they were a hit, everyone liked them and several wanted the recipe, so here it is. Thanks to the Pioneer Woman!

And remember: use this flour-egg/milk-panko breading process on any number of things:

chicken tenders
zucchini spears
raw, deveined shrimp
sweet potato sticks

The list goes on!

Homemade Mozzarella Sticks

Ingredients:

• 16 pieces String Cheese, Removed From Wrappers
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 whole Eggs
• 3 Tablespoons Milk
• 2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs (I Used Kikkomans)
• 1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley Flakes
• Canola Oil, For Frying
• Marinara Sauce, For Dipping

Preparation Instructions

Slice string cheese pieces in half, for a total of 32 pieces.

Place flour in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and milk.

In another separate bowl, combine panko bread crumbs with parsley flakes.

TO ASSEMBLE: One by one, roll mozzarella sticks in flour, then dunk in egg/milk mixture, then place in panko crumbs. Use your hand to sweep crumbs all over the mozzarella stick. Gently remove and place on a tray or cookie sheet. Repeat until all mozzarella sticks are coated.

***Place tray in freezer for 20 to 30 minutes to flash freeze.***

TO COOK: Heat 1 1/2 inches canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add mozzarella sticks 8 at a time. Watch closely and turn over to evenly brown, cooking less than 2 minutes. Do not allow cheese to bubble and leak.

Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

Serve immediately with warm marinara sauce.