Food Addicts 101: Ultimate Mozzarella Sticks and Sriracha Mayo

As a college student I am often tempted to go down the street to the McDonalds to get some fries or some other greasy food to feed my craving. While different factors tend to (thankfully) inhibit me from doing this for every craving, we thought it would be nice to find a tasty, easy, food to satisfy that greasy food itch without leaving the house. Going to school in the land of cheese (On Wisconsin!), it seemed the perfect thing to fry up for our yummy snack.

After putting our heads and taste buds together, along with the help of Jenna’s parents, brother and grandma, we came up with the ULTIMATE mozzarella sticks recipe (Jenna’s mom even tried one before it was cooked so you know the breading was THAT good, the raw egg was only a minor setback; you should definitely cook them…). And to compliment them, instead of a typical marinara sauce, we decided to shake things ups a bit and make a sriracha dipping sauce! We love spicy foods, so the sauce was perfect for us! If you are a little cautious when it comes to spice we gave this sauce a 4 on a scale from 1-10 (1 being water and 10 being WHOLEY MOTHER MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE GIVE ME A GALLON ON MILK, STAT!).

ULTIMATE mozzarella sticks:

12 pack of mozzarella cheese sticks [We used low fat (not fat free, eww)], cut in half

½ cup of flour

2 eggs

1 Tbs. milk

1 cup bread crumbs

½ cup parmesan cheese

½ tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (officially called a tad, fun facts learned in Eureka Springs, AR!)

¾ tsp. rosemary, chopped

¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

Pinch of salt (which officially 1/8 tsp. but we just eye balled it)

Vegetable oil for frying

Cover the bottom of a frying pan with vegetable oil. Heat the oil and pan on medium heat; you want to get the oil to about 190°. It is important to get the oil hot so the sticks can get brown but not stay in the oil too long where all the cheese leaves the scrumptious breading.

Place flour in a bowl and set aside. Beat eggs and milk together in a bowl, set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in bowl and set aside.

Cover the already sliced cheese sticks in flour, followed by the egg mixture, and then the bread crumb mixture, set aside.

Now that you have all these bowls set aside and have the oil heating up, grab a coloring sheet and make a beautiful picture. Then hang it up on the fridge.

Now back to cooking.

(The coloring is optional… But fun.) Place the breaded cheese in the hot oil. Cook the sticks for 30 seconds on each side. For safety and convenience purposes, flip the mozzarella sticks with a pair of tongs. If they stay in the oil too long the cheese starts oozing out and makes a bit of a mess. The oil should be hot enough to get the mozzarella sticks brown during the minute.