Fried Cheese Curds Recipe
Cheese Curds
The most popular flavor: Plain Cheddar, in white or yellow.
Want to know how to make cheese curds? While the process of making the actual curds is too difficult for a home kitchen, you can make scrumptious fried curds at home—our guests have become addicted to fried jalapeño cheese curds with a cold beer, although we fry up the plain ones for the less spicy-minded. Here’s a recipe for authentic Fried Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese curds. You can make them with the freshest curds, but deep-frying is also a good way to use up curds that are beginning to dry out.
Fried curds can be served with a ranch dressing dip, Wisconsin-style or with a marinara sauce—but they are absolutely heavenly by themselves (by which we mean, with a beer). This recipe serves 4.
Ingredients
* 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
* 2 teaspoons cornstarch
* 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 4 eggs, well beaten
* 1 pound Wisconsin cheese curds, 1" to 1-½" wide
* Oil for deep frying (high smoke point oils include avocado [520°F], safflower [510°F], soybean, corn, peanut and sunflower [450°F])
Directions
1. Combine bread crumbs, cornstarch, cayenne pepper and chopped thyme in food processor. Process until bread crumbs are finely ground. Place in a pie plate.
2. Place beaten eggs in another pie plate and flour in a third pie plate. Dredge the cheese curds in the flour, then the egg and lastly the bread crumb mixture.
3. Place battered curds on a baking sheet. Set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
4. Heat 3 inches of oil to 365°F to 375°F. Fry the cheese curds in batches until they are crisp and warmed all the way through. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
If you don’t want to do all the work, you can buy the cheese curd kit below