Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

My husband loves Mozzarella cheese sticks and he’s been requesting them lately.  Mozzarella, dipped in breading and then deep fried into melty goodness.  Definitely not an every day, or even every month calorie splurge, but something that when I’m pregnant, I can really get behind.

This was my first attempt at them (I got a deep fryer for Christmas and have been going crazy with it, experimenting with homemade doughnuts and apple fritters and fried ice cream) and they turned out pretty well.  I have some perfecting to do with the frying part.  At first I turned the oil up way too high; it should be at about 325 degrees so they can cook low and slow so that the cheese will melt.

I used a recipe from the Food Network from Giada De Laurentiis, who is arguably my LEAST favorite Food Network star, aside from Sandra Lee. (I’m more of a Barefoot Contessa/Paula Deen kind of girl: You know what they say, never trust a skinny cook-  But she does have some good recipe ideas, and hers, in this case, looked best.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Italian-style dried breadcrumbs
1 1/3 cups freshly grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon salt
2 (16-ounce) blocks pasteurized mozzarella cut into 4 by 1/2-inch sticks (I used string cheese, cut in half- also, if you use a block, two blocks may be excessive, unless you’re cooking for a lot of people)
4 large eggs, beaten to blend
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
Marinara sauce for dipping

Directions

Stir the bread crumbs, 1 cup of Parmesan and 1 teaspoon of salt in a medium bowl to blend.

 Dip the cheese in the eggs to coat completely and allow the excess egg to drip back into the bowl.

Coat the cheese in the bread crumb mixture, patting to adhere and coat completely.

Repeat dipping the cheese sticks in the egg and bread crumb mixture to coat a second time. As you can see, this is messy business.

Place the cheese sticks on a baking sheet.

 Cover and freeze until frozen, about 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.

Working in batches, fry the cheese until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Transfer the fried cheese to plates. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve with Marinara Sauce.