Mozzarella Sticks

Mozzarella Sticks are an appetizer that you can find at almost any restaurant nowadays. Its cheesy goodness is always a delicious treat to indulge in while eating out or anywhere else, and I wanted to share the recipe that I've been using to make my own. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• Cheese sticks
• Oil
• Breadcrumbs
• 2 - 3 Eggs

(Notes: For oil, either peanut, vegetable, or canola is acceptable. I use canola oil as it's considered pretty healthy. Two to three eggs should cover making any amount of mozzarella sticks.)

Directions

After unwrapping the cheese sticks, get out a small bowl, crack open the eggs, and begin to whisk them in the bowl. Get a new plate and pour the breadcrumbs onto it. Your workstation should look somewhat similar to this. You can use any type of breadcrumbs that you desire, but I find using Italian Style and Panko by Progresso to be a perfect combination. First, I use the Italian Style.

Dunk the cheese stick into the eggs and make sure that it is completely covered. Before rolling it around in the crumbs, I suggest letting the excess drip off so it won't clump up on the stick or on the breadcrumb plate. Do this for the rest of the cheese sticks you'll be making, and when done, place the breaded sticks into your freezer for 45 minutes to an hour. This will help ensure the cheese will not melt out of the bread casing while they cook.

When the time is up, take them out and bread them once more by dunking them again in the egg yolk. This is where I use the Panko breadcrumbs. Once finished with the second breading, place them back into the freezer for the same amount of time. You can either continue to bread them, the more you bread the thicker the crust, or you can begin to fry them.

To fry them, get out a small pot and fill it with whatever oil you'll be using and let the oil heat up. Let it warm up to around 365 to 375 degrees and use a thermometer to check, if you don't have one, I suggest leaving it on the stove at medium heat for ten minutes. Please remember to be careful around the oil!

Begin your frying! I use tongs when placing my sticks into the oil, but you're free to use whatever you'd like. Just remember to be careful as the oil will definitely burn you should it splatter. You can fry the sticks in one by one or a few at a time depending on the size of the pot you're using. I suggest only placing one to three in at a time as the temperature will drop with the more you put in.

For your first stick, I suggest only putting in one as this will be your guinea pig to see how long you should let it stay in the oil. Take it out occasionally to check how it's browning, and when it's as crispy as you'd like, take it out and fry the rest. Once they're done, then you play the waiting game. Let them cool down for about ten minutes or so, serve, and enjoy!