We used to always have Happy Farms Cheese Strings in the house for the kids. We live close to the US border so we could make a trip over and get a couple of packs.
I decided to try to make some homemade deep fried cheese.
I started by opening the cheese sticks.
(Click on the images for higher resolution.)
Next, I cut them into thirds.
I make up three containers. One with flour, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne, one with a couple of eggs, scrambled, and one with panko crumbs.
Each cheese stick gets flour, then egg, then panko before being arranged on a baking pan ready to be deep fried.
Mine kind of exploded. That just means that I get to clean them up for presentation by picking off the exploded cheese and eating it.
When they come out of the oil taste one and salt them if necessary.
You can reduce the explosions by sticking them in the freezer and freezing them then dropping them into the oil frozen to get the outside fried up before the cheese melts enough to ooze out.
Or…just eat the damned cheese.
The sauce can be anything. You can use jarred marinara or you can stick blend jarred spaghetti sauce then boil it down to reduce it. I used homemade spaghetti sauce that my wife froze last summer which I boiled down to the consistence you see in the photo.
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Oh wow, that looks amazing.
I love hand breaded fried food - it’s always infinitely crispier than the prepackaged stuff.
Edit: Those cheese explosions look like happy little accidents to me. :)
I know, right? The low moisture mozzarella that I use gets really chewy and crispy around the edges. I think it’s the best part of the whole process.
Drool…
Looks great! Thanks for sharing. What’s the breading? Any seasonings?
I mentioned the breading in the text. I use flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne for the first layer then adjust the salt when they are deep fried. You can add whatever seasoning you want to the flour, eggs, or panko.
That looks amazing, thanks for posting. Do you have a dedicated deep fryer, or just use a dutch oven or something like that?
You’re welcome. We have a Cuisinart CDF-250C. It’s a small dedicated deep fryer that we use a few times a year.
I don’t know why but “deep fried cheese” sounds so much more gluttonous compared to “deep fried mozzarella”.
Do you have a recipe for panko or are you going with just storebought?
How do you think panela would fry up with breading? It isn’t stringy like mozzarella. I’ve fried it by itself as a meat substitute for tacos, but never with a breading.
Saved, I need to try this when I’m done with my diet at the end of the year
Good luck with your diet. I’m trying too. I was 283 lbs at the beginning of 2019. I got down to 235 but went back up to 265. I’m at 250 now and working my way back down. It’s a struggle.
On the plus side, these really are high in protein. Cheese is one of the things that I eat. You could use a low carb breading, as well.
Because I saw this lemmy post this morning I added “fried mozzarella sticks” to the order when my teenager talked me into taking him to Arby’s. I strongly suspect yours were better but I’m still happy I had them. Thank you.
I’m glad that I inspired you to try deep fried cheese. Homemade is better. Try it some time.
