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Mozzarella sticks in an air fryer

From frozen — the short answer

180°C (356°F) for 8 min

For
125g in total, 5 pieces, From frozen
In
Basket air fryer
Published for
Tefal Easy Fry Classic EY501827 4.2L Air Fryer & Grill
Preheat
Not needed
Part way
shake the basket at about 4 min
Check
The crumb is golden and unbroken
Safety
Food cooked from frozen must reach the same core temperature as the same food cooked fresh — the frozen centre is the last thing to get there. Full rule below.
High confidenceSupported by authoritative or independently tested sources, and consistent across them.

Eight minutes from frozen in two manufacturers' charts, one at 180°C and one at 200°C, and there is no second attempt.

Questions people ask about mozzarella sticks — 3 answered further down this page.

From frozen

Before anything else

From national food-safety authorities, not from us. These take precedence over any cooking time below.

Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)

Food cooked from frozen must reach the same core temperature as the same food cooked fresh — the frozen centre is the last thing to get there.

Target: 70°C in the thickest part.

How to tell, without a thermometer

  • No ice or cold spot at the centre when the thickest piece is cut open
  • Steaming hot throughout, tested in the middle rather than the edge

If it has not got there: Reduce the temperature by 10–20°C and give it longer. A lower set point lets the centre catch up before the surface passes the point of no return, and it is the single most useful adjustment for cooking from frozen.

Important: If the packaging says the product must be thawed before cooking, follow it. That instruction exists because the manufacturer has tested cooking it from frozen and it did not reach temperature reliably.

The quick answer

180°C (356°F) for 8 min

A single published figure of eight minutes for five pieces totalling 125g, not a range.

Assuming
125g in total, 5 pieces, From frozen
In
Basket air fryer
Published for
Tefal Easy Fry Classic EY501827 4.2L Air Fryer & Grill
Preheat
Not needed
Result
Crisp outside, moist inside
High confidenceSupported by authoritative or independently tested sources, and consistent across them.

Preparation

Frozen cheese sticks, straight from the freezer.

While it cooks

  1. At about 4 minutes: Shake the basket

    The manual instructs shaking halfway through.

How to tell it is done

  • The crumb is golden and unbroken
  • The cheese pulls when one is torn but has not escaped

Other figures for this state

  • Cookworks 9L Dual Air Fryer — dual-basket air fryer: 200°C for 8 min

    A single published figure for a stated 310g. There is no useful tolerance on this one: past it the cheese leaves.

  • Panasonic Air Fry Combination Microwave Oven NN-CD88QS — combination microwave with air fry: 220°C for 16–20 min

    Published range for 450–1200g on Air Fry 3.

  • Tower T17023 2.2L Air Fryer (under a safety recall: check the recall before using this machine) — basket air fryer: 180°C for 8–10 min

    Printed against a 100–400 g band, with the remark 'Use oven-ready'.

Where these figures came from — from frozen

High confidenceSupported by authoritative or independently tested sources, and consistent across them.
Applies to
Specific to this model
Why this rating
A published row with a min-max quantity band from the manufacturer's own cooking guide. No preheat appears anywhere in this appliance's air-fry table, which is notable because the same document requires fifteen minutes for its grill mode.
Last reviewed
2026-08-13

What this does not cover

  • Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
Sources (1)

Questions people ask about mozzarella sticks

Should I defrost mozzarella sticks first?
No. They go in straight from the freezer. A stick that has started to thaw bursts, because the cheese inside turns liquid before the crumb has set hard enough to hold it. Every row on this page is for frozen sticks.From the figures on this page.
Why do some charts cook mozzarella sticks cooler than others?
Two of the four charts here set a lower temperature than the other two. These fail by bursting when the cheese melts ahead of the coating, and a gentler heat gives the crumb time to firm up first. If yours have been bursting, start with the cooler rows.From the figures on this page.
Can I reheat mozzarella sticks?
This page has no reheating section, on purpose. Once the cheese has melted and set again inside the crumb, a second heating empties the shell and leaves a hollow crust. Cook only as many as will be eaten.From the figures on this page.

What usually goes wrong

Burst, with the cheese gone and a hollow crust left. Mozzarella liquefies at a lower temperature than the crumb needs to set at, so if the coating is thin or damaged the cheese leaves before the shell is strong enough to hold it. Cooking them straight from the freezer rather than letting them soften is most of the answer, and they must not be reheated.

Running the appliance safely

The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.

Frozen snack products in fast-moving hot air

These products are par-fried before freezing, so the coating already contains the oil it needs and the only requirement is enough dry heat to drive off the surface moisture and re-crisp it. That is precisely what an air fryer does and why times are short across everything in the group. The interior is the risk rather than the coating: mozzarella sticks fail by bursting when the cheese liquefies before the crumb has set, which is a reason to run them at the shorter end and not to reheat them twice.

More on frozen snack products

Where to go from here

The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.

Easily confused with