I used to love fried cheese sticks in high school and college and would even just order these as my meal in restaurants. Now that we don’t eat grains or vegetable oils, I decided that we needed to find a healthy version that we could make at home (and much cheaper too!).
In my many attempts to create an amazing cheese stick, I discovered that it’s important that the cheese is frozen to start (cut it into sticks and freeze it the day before) and that you layer enough egg and seasoned almond flour on these to make sure that the cheese is well-sealed inside and doesn’t leak out.
I typically use tallow to fry these in. I like it’s mild flavor and healthy fat profile. Not familiar with tallow? I write more about it in my post for parsnip fries (which are delicious!) and buy it from Thrive Market. You can re-use your tallow or lard several times — just store it in the fridge.
If you don’t want to fry (and potentially eat!) a whole batch at once, you could also bread the cheese sticks and then freeze them to fry a couple at a time as needed.
After some trial and error (and lots of burnt cheese), I’m happy with this recipe …
Fried Cheese Sticks Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese cut into sticks
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp water
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp Himalayan salt
- 1-2 cups of tallow lard, or coconut oil for frying
Instructions
- The day before you are planning to make, or at least 3-4 hours before, put cheese sticks in the freezer on a plate.
- Once cheese is completely frozen, put the tallow, lard, or oil in a small pan so that it is about an inch deep and bring to medium high heat ... it needs to be hot before the cheese goes in.
- While the fat is preheating, crack the eggs into a medium bowl and beat with water until creamy.
- Combine the almond flour, Italian seasoning, and salt on a medium plate.
- Remove the cheese from the freezer and dip each stick first in the egg mixture, then in the almond flour mixture, then back in the egg mixture and repeat if necessary until well coated. They need to be coated completely so they seal and the cheese can't escape.
- Drop 3 or 4 at a time into the heated oil for a couple of minutes until they are starting to brown.
- Carefully remove. I removed them with a flat pasta scoop (finally, a good use for it), but a slotted spoon will work too ... you just don't want to squeeze them with tongs or poke with a fork, as the cheese will escape and make a big mess.
- Repeat these steps with the remaining cheese until they are all cooked.
Notes
Nutrition
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These are great! thanks for the recipe.
Yum! I made these tonight to have with supper! They were delicious! I fried them in lard…can I save the leftover lard and use it again? Should I just put it in a glass container? Thanks for the great recipe!
Yep, just save in the fridge for re-use.
These look absolutely delicious! I’ve never fried cheese before and am eager to try these!
Where can I find tallow? Does the tallow have to come from organic cows?
Preferably from grass fed cows… We get it from us wellness meats… The link is in the resources page 🙂
Did you use like a regular block of mozzarella or fresh mozzarella?
A regular block, though fresh could work, as long as it was well frozen, i think.
Making tomorrow…
Thanks! My wife WILL be trying these.
I would use my deep fryer… I melt the tallow in the removable pan in the oven then put the element in and it works! Not supposed to use it with solid fats, but I do anyways 🙂 I have been looking for a mozzarella stick recipe, thanks so much!
I’ve been thinking about putting tallow in my deep fryer. Good to know it can be done!
Do you think the almond flour can be substituted for something else? Maybe coconut flour?
I tried with coconut flour and it worked, but the texture wasn’t nearly as good, and it tasted different. You could do it, but the almond flour tastes a lot like the regular ones.
I may have to surprise my husband with these. He will flip 🙂 Thanks!