‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond Cheese on a Stick Recipe
The Pioneer Woman is a big fan of cheese. Ree Drummond recently showed home cooks how to make her recipe for cheese on a stick. Read on for instructions on how to make this popular state fair snack.
Ree Drummond’s cheese on a stick
Drummond starts by making a batter to dip the cheese in. “What better thing to use than pancake mix?” asks Drummond during The Pioneer Woman show. She adds one cup of yellow cornmeal to two cups of pancake mix. She also adds a pinch of salt, three cups of cold water, and one beaten egg.
“Whether you’re frying chocolate sandwich cookies, or cheese, or hot dogs, and making corn dogs, this is such a great batter to use,” says Drummond.
Preparing the cheese sticks
For the next step, Drummond sticks a wooden skewer all the way through a small block of cheese. She says pushing the skewer to the end of the block of cheese provides “plenty of structure.”
Before Drummond fries the cheese, she checks the temperature of the oil that she has heating in a pan. She scoops a small amount of mixture into a spoon and dips it in the oil. Once she sees the oil bubble up, she knows she can start frying the cheese sticks.
Drummond starts by dipping the first cheese block into the batter, making sure to get as much of the mixture on the cheese as possible. “I’m going to bring the bowl over because this needs to go straight into the oil immediately,” says Drummond. She then drops the entire cheese and stick into the pan of hot oil.
“I just use a spoon to start spooning [the oil] to the other side,” she explains. “Just so that the batter doesn’t escape because that batter tends to want to escape and go elsewhere.”
Drummond says you don’t have to worry about how the cheese sticks look because each one will look different. “No cheese on a stick is supposed to look like the others. They all have a unique look about them.”
Once the first side of the cheese stick is fried, Drummond takes a pair of tongs and flips it over to the other side. She says you want to make sure you don’t keep the cheese in the oil too long because the cheese will start to melt.
“You want to get them fried before the cheese starts to melt,” says Drummond. “So, you want the batter to be done on the outside before the cheese starts to ooze out. At the state fair, they have huge vats of oil, and they just drop it in, but we have limitations here on the Drummond ranch.”
The finishing touch
Once the cheese sticks are fried on both sides, Drummond places them on a paper-towel-lined sheet pan. The paper towel helps soak up the oil from the cheese sticks. Paige was impressed with the way the cheese on the stick recipe came out. “Mom, you really outdid yourself,” she says.
For the next step, Drummond places marinara sauce in a small bowl. This serves as the dipping sauce for the cheese sticks. You can find the ingredients list and directions on the Food Network website.
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