Home Kitchen Fried Mozzarella Bites

These fried mozzarella bites are flavor-packed! Balls of fresh mozzarella breaded in from-scratch breadcrumbs and fried until crispy on the outside and melty on the inside.

It’s Friday! I have strict plans today that will consist of comfy pants, cups of coffee and reading Colleen Hoover book.

And if my girls and I didn’t already scarf these fried mozzarella bites down yesterday then I’d pop them like bonbons while I read. But I guess I’ll have to suck it up and pop peanut M & M’s instead. Life could be worse.

So I’m genuinely into fresh mozz. That’s nothing new. BUT fresh mozzarella comes in all kinds of sizes; pearl, cherry and a few others I’m drawing a blank on… but I honed in on the cherry size ones and had visions of crispy fried balls of cheese. Oh and this fiery arrabbiata sauce that I made yesterday came in mighty handy for dunking.

Ummm you didn’t think I’d use store bought breadcrumbs did you?? Um, yeah… no way. Especially since making your own is easystreet.

Grab 6 slices of sourdough bread.

Roughly dice it into pieces…

Drop it into your beast of a food processor and whir until crumbs form. You don’t want any big pieces, small crumbs are fine… we’ll be blitzing these a second time so don’t get frustrated that it’s not finely ground at first.

Dump the breadcrumbs onto a rimmed sheet pan.

Shake to spread them in an even layer before sliding into a preheated 325 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Remove, give the crumbs a toss. You’ll notice they’re starting to get a little crispy. Slide back into the oven for 5 minutes, tossing one more time and baking for 3 to 4 more minutes.

Let the toasty breadcrumbs cool on the pan while you prep the mozz and situate the breading station.

Remove the fresh mozzarella out of the fridge and drain off the liquids.

Scatter them onto paper towel and blot them dry.

Meanwhile crack two eggs into a shallow bowl.

Beat them senseless.

By now the bread crumbs have cooled so place them back into the food processor with 3/4 teaspoon of salt and pulse until finely ground.

Like so.

Place a few of the mozz balls into the eggs…

Stir them around to coat…

Allow any excess egg to drip off into the bowl before placing them into the crumb mixture.

Toss. Coat. You know the drill.

And place them onto a large platter while you repeat with the remaining mozzarella.

Heat a deep-sided skillet with about 1/4 inch of safflower oil over medium-high.

Once the oil is hot and glistening, carefully drop in a few mozzarella balls at a time.

The browning happens REAL fast so like 20 seconds max before flipping.

It will take a few to get the feel for it. The trick is that you want the cheese to soften but you don’t want the cheese to bust out of the breading. Trust me, you can still eat them… so nothing will be wasted.

After frying I sprinkle with a pinch or two of kosher salt, fresh chopped basil or parsley and dunk it in that rich spicy sauce I shared with you yesterday. But you could completely make this pizza sauce… either would work splendidly.

Cheers to the weekend! Be warned, these fried mozzarella bites are flavor-packed and PARTICULARLY flavor-packed!

Dip on, friends. Dip on.

Enjoy! And if you give this fried mozzarella bites recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!