Hot baked mozzarella sticks – I can’t think of a more popular finger food for both kids and adults alike. My oldest daughter Karina LOVES them and these never disappoint!
Baked Mozzarella Sticks
Baked Mozzarella SticksMade lighter and healthier with part-skim mozzarella then coated with crispy seasoned breadcrumbs and baked (not fried!) until hot and golden. Serve them with my quick marinara sauce and you have yourself an appetizer everyone will love! This would go great along side Mini Burger Bites for a party!
Baking them as opposed to frying and using part skim cheese doesn’t effect how good these are. The cheese still melts, see for yourself! See here for more Super Bowl party food ideas.
Of course, you’ll want to serve them hot right out of the oven, because like any cheese, as they cool they harden fast.
It actually took me several attempts to get these perfect. I played around with different brands of light string cheese to see which yielded the best results. The winner was Sargento part-skim, low-sodium. Although it’s not the cheese with the least amount of fat compared to some other brands, it had the best flavor and wasn’t as salty as I found some brands to be.
Freezing Mozzarella Sticks
These are freezer friendly, in fact these MUST be frozen before you bake them or you will have one big cheesy mess in your oven so it’s best to make them at least a day ahead! The good news is you can bread them all ahead of time then place them on a tray with wax paper and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag, so anytime you want to bake a few I just pop them in the oven!
How To Make Baked Mozzarella Sticks
More Easy Appetizers You’ll Love:
- Pizza Sausage Rolls
- Cheesy Baked Mexican Layer Dip
- Chicken Nuggets
- Air Fryer Bacon Burger Bites
- Jalapeno Popper Nachos
Baked Mozzarella Sticks
Ingredients
- 12 sticks part-skim, reduced sodium mozzarella string cheese (Sargento)
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp flour
- 5 tbsp Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, or GF breadcrumbs
- 5 tbsp panko crumbs
- 2 tsp parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- olive oil cooking spray, I used my misto
Instructions
- Cut cheese in half to give you 24 pieces. Place cheese in the freezer until cheese is frozen.
- In small bowl, whisk the egg. Place the flour on another small dish.
- In separate bowl, combine bread crumbs, panko, parmesan cheese and dried parsley.
- Dip the frozen sticks in flour, shaking off excess, then into the egg, then coat with the crumbs.
- Repeat this process with the remaining cheese placing them on a tray with wax paper.
- Place cheese back into the freezer at least 1 hour until ready to bake (this is a MUST or they will melt before the crumbs get golden).
- When ready to bake preheat oven to 400° F.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with oil. Place frozen cheese sticks on baking sheet. Spray the tops of the mozzarella sticks with a little more oil and bake in the bottom third of your oven until crisp, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Turn and bake an additional 4 - 5 minutes watching them closely so they don't melt.
These came out great for me and I am no chef!!! Made them in batches in my air fryer on 370 for 5 minutes, flipping them halfway. Agree with Gina that you have to keep an eye on them, but totally worth it in the end! Thank you, Gina! I love all of your recipes and this one did not disappoint!
They MUST be baked from a frozen state and you have to watch them.
Love all your recipes, but this was did not fare well. Froze them for three weeks & they were still a cheesy mess. 🙁 Good flavor, but did not hold shape
CAN these be made in the air fryer?
I made these for a snack! My kid loves them! Put some in freezer bag for another day! Thanks again Gina!
These were great! I made them in the air fryer (370 for 5-6 min). I did not have regular panko so I just used Italian panko. Served with a salad and my husband devoured them.
Can you air fry these?
Yes I think so, but I would keep a close eye on them as they tend to cook quickly.
how did you get a calorie count of 87 when just the two mozzarella sticks by themselves would be 90 calories? (45 each). that doesn’t even include the 2 types of breading, the parmesan cheese, the floor, OR the egg??
Because you are cutting each stick in half, so a serving is basically 1 whole stick, or 2 of the halves that you cut up.
So good! I did these in the air fryer, I sprayed them with a little Pam, 3 1/2 minutes at 400 degrees and they came out perfect!
loved this recipe. i had to make a few changes so that the mozz sticks wouldn’t turn into a melted mess in the oven though. i suggest doubling up or even tripling up on the breading (flour – egg wash – breading – egg wash – breading), that way, it prevents the cheese from exploding out of the coating. what also helped me was to freeze the unbreaded sticks for 24 hours, then AT LEAST 6 HOURS (another 24 hours would be best) after you’ve breaded them. they came out fully intact and super tasty!
I thought these came out really tasty, thank you. I did have the cheese frozen and took them out when I was ready to flour, egg and bread while I was preheating the oven to 400 but the mozzarella sticks still did not stay in tact. I wonder if I did something wrong, or everyones ovens vary.
The freezing is a 2 step process. Sounds like you forgot to freeze them for an additional hour after breading them.
I question the carbs listed as 666 mg. – 5T. of bread crumbs is 35 g. carbs and 5T panko is also 35g. carb. – please explain.
Carbs are as 7g per serving