Give Mozzarella Sticks A Flavor Upgrade By Changing Up Your Breading

If ska music is what plays in a 13-year-old's head when they get extra mozzarella sticks, then those cheesy bits of breaded gooey goodness are the ultimate food for awakening — and nourishing — your inner child. Here's to mozzarella sticks, the real MVP of any appetizer sampler platter and beyond. Mozzarella sticks are surprisingly simple to make and even more fun to eat with a variety of options for pumping up the volume by breading your cheese with the most flavorful coating you can imagine. With the two main ingredients in mozzarella sticks being the cheese itself and the breading with which you coat your cheese, it's important to select the ideal versions of each to suit your personal preferences and make your tastebuds sing.

First and foremost, when it comes to preparing the perfect gooey stringy mozzarella sticks, you'll want to choose a cheese that comes in block form and has a low moisture content. This will allow for ease of cutting and coating the cheese sticks as well as safety when frying as water and oil are not a good combination. You'll also want to use a high smoke point oil such as canola or vegetable oil for optimal frying. For breading, however, the details are considerably more customizable. While the default coating of choice is typically plain breadcrumbs, there's no limit to what kind of crumbs you choose to use. It's time for a breadcrumb upgrade.

There are many different styles of breadcrumbs to look at when picking a coating that will best suit your mozzarella stick preferences. On the most traditional side, you can switch from plain to Italian breadcrumbs, which feature ingredients like parsley, oregano, basil, and garlic powder, to kick up the flavor in your cheese stick coating. Also, consider crushing up a cheesy chip or cracker like Cheetos or Cheez-Its to maintain a more cheese-adjacent flavor profile. If you're feeling extra spicy, try a "Flamin' Hot" variety of your favorite chips. There's even a sizable selection of gluten-free options to choose from. Verging into more experimental territory, you can try a twist on taste using dried seaweed flakes as your coating.

If you really want to play with flavors, have you considered trying a sweet crumb coating instead of a savory one? Think about how a graham cracker crust works in the context of a cheesecake. Crumb up some graham crackers or Biscoff cookies to coat your mozzarella cheese sticks and taste the wonderfully complex play of sweet and salty flavors. You could even make a "cheater" caramel sauce in which to dip them in lieu of a standard marinara. Want to go even sweeter? Try Oreo cookie crumbs. With these gloriously gooey snacks being such a fun and fanciful treat, it's only logical to play around with a breading upgrade to make the most of your mozzarella sticks.