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Yes, you are reading that correctly.
You can make mozzarella sticks in your air fryer. And you—and any cheese-loving person you share them with—will be oh-so-happy that you did. It’s not hard, but it does take some careful attention to detail, so that you can have pizza shop-worthy mozzarella sticks in your very own kitchen, whenever you want.
How Does the Air Fryer Work?
So, the air fryer is a bit of magic. It’s basically a convection oven that sits on your countertop. But because it’s small and mighty, it will heat up to temperature faster than your oven, and cook pretty fast, too.
The air fryer works from the outside in, which means if you don’t do your prep work for these mozzarella sticks well enough, you’re going to literally have a hot mess on your hands. The sticks will explode and stick to the inside of your air fryer. (Lining the basket with foil will mitigate a mess, but the sticks won’t cook evenly, because the air doesn’t circulate through aluminum foil. Instead, use a little nonstick spray.)
The Secret for Great Mozzarella Sticks
This is admittedly a bit of a persnickety process, but it’s not for nothing, as my grandmother used to say. TRUST ME. You do NOT want to go through this effort and have these cheese sticks explode all over your air fryer.
Here’s the secret: DOUBLE-COAT your mozzarella sticks.
You need to dip the mozzarella stick in the lightly beaten egg and then the breadcrumbs; freeze it for a short period of time, and then repeat the process again to add a second coating before you air fry. These steps are crucial.
Otherwise, the coating slides right off the cheese stick once you pop it in the fryer. It divests itself of the layer kind of violently, like it’s an exoskeleton or something. The mozzarella stick is rendered edible. And also, messy.
Double layering also makes for extra crunch and extra insurance that all parts of the stick get coated with the egg and panko mixture. (Have you ever tried dipping cheese in egg? It’s a slippery proposition.)
There’s a lot more freezer time than you might expect, but I promise, they won’t taste like ones you make from a box that you buy in the freezer section of the grocery store. It’s worth it.
TIPS FOR MAKING MOZZARELLA STICKS
- Choose your cheese sticks wisely: Not all cheese sticks are created equally. I used regular, full-fat mozzarella sticks. You can also make these with low-fat sticks, but I found the texture slightly rubbery. I cannot vouch for what will happen to nonfat mozzarella sticks.
- Freeze completely before air-frying: Make sure they are frozen before air frying—if they are even a tiny bit soggy in the freezer, they aren’t going to fry evenly. The coating will fall right off. The sticks should feel dry to the touch.
- Use nonstick spray: Hit the air fryer basket and sticks with some nonstick spray oil before you put them in the basket. This way they don’t stick to the basket, and a little extra oil helps them brown.
- Work in batches if need be. I didn’t like the way they sometimes got stuck together if I made all eight of these at once, so I broke the process into two batches.
- If you have a toaster oven/air fryer combo, you may want to place an extra rack underneath the fry basket and line it with foil to prevent mozzarella from dripping onto the heating elements.
Need something to dip these sticks in? Try our basic tomato sauce!
How to Stock Your Freezer with Mozzarella Sticks!
If you want to freeze mozzarella sticks for later, go ahead and coat the sticks as per the recipe, and let the freeze solid after the second coating. Once frozen, transfer them to a zip-top freezer bag and freeze for up to three months.
When you’re ready to bake a batch, reduce the temperature of your air fryer to 360°F and increase the cook time to 8-10 minutes. This will ensure that the solid, frozen cheese sticks cook all the way through and become gooey.
More Recipes to Justify Buying an Air Fryer!
Air Fryer Mozzarella Sticks Recipe
If you want to make and freeze these ahead of time, you can. After the second coating, leave the sticks in the freezer on the tray, and let them freeze completely solid. Transfer the frozen sticks to a zip-top bag for up to 2 to 3 months. Make sure you air fry them at 360°F (instead of 390°F) for 8 to 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 8 whole milk (or low-fat) mozzarella sticks
Special equipment:
- Air Fryer
- Wax paper
Method
1 Do the prep work: Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Lightly beat the egg in a wide, shallow bowl.
Combine the Italian seasoning, salt, and breadcrumbs in a second wide, shallow bowl.
2 Coat the mozzarella sticks and freeze them: Dip a mozzarella stick into the beaten egg and coat it completely. Dip the stick into the bowl with the breadcrumbs and coat completely. This will be messy. It’s okay.
Transfer to a wax paper-lined rimmed baking sheet and line them up so they are not touching. Freeze for 1/2 hour minimum, 1 hour maximum.
3 Coat the mozzarella sticks again, and freeze them, again. Pull the mozzarella sticks out of the freezer, dip them into the egg and then the breadcrumb mix, and then freeze them for another 1/2 hour minimum, 1 hour maximum.
4 Air fry the mozzarella sticks: Set your air fryer to 390°F. Spray the air fryer basket and the mozzarella sticks with a nonstick cooking spray. Air fry the mozzarella sticks (in batches if desired or necessary, as space permits) for 6 to 8 minutes until the exterior is golden and crispy.
5 Serve! Remove from the fryer, cool just long enough to avoid burning your tongue, and eat immediately!
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Carrie Havranek is a former Associate Editor of Simply Recipes and the author of the cookbook Tasting Pennsylvania (2019). She lives in Easton, Pennsylvania and goes out of her way for farmers' markets, new ingredients, yoga, and walks in nature.
Air Fryer Mozzarella Sticks
Question! I have a persnickety eater who loves mozz. sticks but hates most forms of protein, so I try to incorporate things like almond flour where I can to boost her protein intake. Do you think almond flour would work as a coating here? Given how sensitive this seems to be, I’m not sure if it would absorb the egg too much compared to panko. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Hi Rebecca! My concern with almond flour is that it’s got too much fat in it from the nuts and would clump up too much with egg involved. You could try pulsing the almonds in the food processor a few times to break them up into smaller pieces but not a powder, and then combine with the panko to see how that would work. Then you’d have a pretty fancy sounding snack–almond-crusted air fryer mozzarella stick! Barring that, offer her a handful of almonds on the side! Please let us know how it goes!
That’s a great idea and you could add bacon bits too.
Question..at the top of the recipe you say be sure to set temp at 360 but in step 4 you say 390. Please clarify. Thanks!!
Hi, Holly! That’s because the top of the recipe has instructions on how to make these mozzarella sticks if you are making them from completely frozen. That’s why there’s a recipe note there. If you are making the recipe as written in the method steps, you set it to 390°F. Enjoy!