MOZZARELLA STICKS

This snack will always remind me of my daughter Rachel and her friends hanging around the kitchen island going crazy for these. Needless to say I have made millions of them. You have to freeze them for anywhere from 4 to 24 hours before you can cook them so you need to plan ahead. Just serve with your favorite marinara sauce for a crunchy cheesey treat!

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup italian breadcrumbs
1 cup parmesan cheese grated
5 eggs
2 (16 oz) whole milk mozzarella cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups canola oil
Marinara sauce

Cut the mozzarella cheese into sticks about 1/2 wide. In a shallow bowl combine both kinds of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. In another shallow bowl beat eggs. Working in batches, dip the mozzarella sticks in the egg mixture. Drain excess egg off and then put sticks in the breadcrumb mixture. After you coat them all over, lay them on your counter over wax paper or on a baking sheet. After you coat the sticks once, repeat by putting them back in the egg mixture and an additional coating of the breadcrumbs. Place the twice coated sticks in a covered container and put in the freezer.

When you are ready to cook, heat the oil in a saute pan. Make sure the oil is really hot. Fry the sticks for about a minute a side until they are golden brown. Drain them on paper towel. I like to sprinkle them with a dusting of parmesan cheese and serve while warm with your favorite marinara sauce.

Since my family loves these, I make big batches of them and freeze them in freezer paper in groups of about 10. Make sure you keep them separated from each other in the freezer paper so they don't freeze together. So when someone has a craving I can just pull them out of the freezer and they are ready within minutes. A big crowd pleaser.
ENJOY!