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Hot Honey Mozzarella Sticks: Phyllo dough rolled up with hot honey, pepperoni slices, mozzarella, and provolone cheese, then baked until warm, golden, and crisp. Each stick is topped with garlicky parmesan and extra hot honey. These sticks are perfect for game nights or holiday entertaining, and they’re always so delicious. An easy appetizer that’s loved by all!
My idea was a baked mozzarella stick with pepperoni and hot honey. They came out looking more like rolls. Regardless, this recipe is delish! And since I’m in full-on fall recipe mode, I knew these would be great to share for fall tailgating and game nights at home.
I’m all about a good game day/night appetizer situation!
Once I knew I wanted to make these mozzarella sticks, I got creative. Instead of frying the sticks in oil, I wrapped up slices of mozzarella and provolone cheese in phyllo dough.
Some of the sticks will ooze with cheese, and some will come out perfectly intact. No matter how they look, they’re so delicious. They’ll be a great appetizer for entertaining all season long, whether it is your next tailgating party or upcoming holiday cocktail or dinner party. Everyone finds these scrumptious!
Working With Phyllo Dough
Phyllo dough can be intimidating to work with. But as long as you keep the dough covered with a damp towel while working, it’s not difficult!
Because phyllo is so thin, it tears easily, so just go slowly while assembling. And, as I said, keep the dough covered. When phyllo dries out, it cracks and becomes hard to work with.
Also, you should know that your first roll will not be perfect. But have extra sheets of phyllo on hand. By the end, you’ll have the rolling perfected.
Step 1: make the hot honey
This is honey + jalapeños simmered together until the honey is infused with the heat from the jalapeños. It takes about 5 minutes.
Then, season the hot honey with flaky sea salt. It’s very simple.
Step 2: make the sticks
I use the Pepperidge Farm frozen phyllo dough which comes in rectangular sheets. This phyllo dough is most widely available, and I think it’s the easiest to work with.
I lay the sheet of dough flat and fold it in half to create a double layer. The doubled layers of dough are easier to work with.
Step 3: the filling
Next, layer one slice of pepperoni, one slice of mozzarella, and 1/2 a slice of provolone over the dough. Then add a couple of honey-soaked jalapeños.
Step 4: roll the sticks up
Roll each stick up like a burrito, folding the side of the dough in over the filling and rolling to seal. Your first couple of rolls might be tricky, but stick with it, and you will get a better feel for the process.
As mentioned above, not every stick will be perfect. It’s OK. These can be messy, but they will be delicious no matter what.
Step 5: bake
Now, bake the sticks. They’ll smell delicious in the oven. When they come out, they should be golden brown and sizzling.
About half of my sticks almost always end up oozing with cheese, but I find the escaped cheese to be the yummiest. It gets kind of caramelized and crisp! Snack on this cheese, or scoop it up and serve with each stick.
Step 6: serve
Serve the cheesy sticks with parmesan and garlic mixed together. Then add extra hot honey, of course!
I’m excited to serve these for Sunday night games and the upcoming holiday season! They’re great for Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, and all the holiday parties to come! They’re even festive and pretty. I am excited for it all!
Looking for other appetizer recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Crispy Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad with Goddess Dressing
Cheesy Buffalo Chicken French Bread
Fried Buffalo Goat Cheese Balls
Baked Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls with Cilantro Lime Ranch
Lastly, if you make these Hot Honey Mozzarella Sticks be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Hot Honey Mozzarella Sticks
Servings: 12 sticks
Calories Per Serving: 216 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Hot Honey
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1-2 jalapeños, sliced
- sea salt
Cheese Sticks
- 16-20 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
- 6 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced pepperoni
- 12 thin slices mozzarella cheese
- 6 thin slices provolone cheese, halved
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 clove garlic, grated
Instructions
- 1. To make the honey. In a small pot, combine the honey and jalapeños. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Season with salt.2. To make the sticks. Preheat the oven to 425° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.3. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough flat on the counter and gently fold it in half crosswise. Brush the phyllo with melted butter. On the short end of the dough, layer 1 pepperoni slice, 1 mozzarella slice, and 1/2 a slice of provolone. Add 1-2 honey soaked jalapeños. Roll the phyllo up over the filling, folding the side edges in to seal, burrito style. Place the roll seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet and repeat to make 12-16 rolls.4. Brush the top of each phyllo roll with butter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown on top. The cheese may melt out a bit, but that's ok. Mix the parmesan and garlic and sprinkle the baked sticks with the mix. 5. Serve the sticks warm, drizzled or dipped in hot honey.
Notes
Working with Phyllo Dough: it’s important to keep the dough covered with a damp towel while you assemble. When phyllo dough gets dried out, it cracks and is difficult to work with.
This post was originally published on September 12, 2024
I’m so incredibly annoyed I wasted the time, money, and effort to make this. I usually adore HBH but this was a complete disaster – as she says the cheese melts out of the phyllo dough completely but there is no way to “shove it back in” without destroying the already fragile dough. I’m at a loss why this recipe would be posted without troubleshooting these errors before. Completely inedible. Do not make.
I have not made this recipe yet, but I will be very soon, the 4 stars is simply a place holder. I am mostly commenting to question why there is so much hate and negativity in these comments. If you didn’t like the recipe, fine, why are grown adults attacking Tieghan’s character? You might think she is being condescending because you don’t want to admit that maybe you messed up somewhere in the process. Let’s all chill, if you didn’t like a recipe move on. I’ll be making these very soon and my guess is they will come out pretty good, as most HBH recipes do. Sometimes they don’t, I add in a little adjustment that works for me, and try again, not blame the recipes author because I have nothing else to do.
Why did you leave a rating if you haven’t made the recipe? That’s really misleading to other readers.
Is that misleading to other readers? Because if they actually READ then they my rating would be irrelevant, the content of what I WROTE is the important thing.
Your rating is factored into the overall average whether people read comments or not. Hope that helps you understand why it’s misleading (and it very much is). Have a great day!
No one messed up the process, her own stories in IG show the same problems with the recipe that everyone else is stating.
Yes, they show that, the recipe itself actually mentions those issues. Stop complaining and come up with your own solutions.
Made these tonight & they were delicious! Did cheese spill out?..yes but they were still great! I used the thin sliced mozzarella, the “real” kind, not the super thin slices from the deli. The light flaky layers of the phyllo dough were a hit as well.
Hey Heather,
Happy Friday! Thanks a bunch for making this recipe, love to hear that it turned out well for you! Xx
OK, “Heather”
This recipe is a disaster. Just admit it. On the panel, you brought up this recipe and basically have a very condescending tone while talking about… “people are saying they have problems with the cheese leaking out… well did they do this or this or this… yadi yada”. You were essentially blaming the people who made this recipe at home for YOUR mistakes. Even in your stories, the cheese was leaking all over the damn place. Don’t put this blame on others.
That panel was really uncomfortable to watch. I have followed and loved HBH for years. I watched that and omg she came across as so condescending, and actually unlikable. She seemed annoyed and disinterested the entire time. It’s a stark contrast to when she is doing photo shoots/candle promo. She seems happy and engaged. Anything food related for the past year or so she seems uninterested, almost angry and annoyed. Maybe time to quite the food and move fully into lifestyle.
It’s been a while since she seemed humble, likable, and interested in food. Cooking is her income but obviously not her passion. Given what we’ve seen so far, it’s unlikely she’d be able to successfully pivot to being a lifestyle influencer.
I think this recipe should just be deleted. The Phyllo absorbs the grease from the cheese and pepperoni and the cheese leaks out. Spooning it back in is not really a solution becuase they are wrapped like burritos there is no open end and the cheese is hard and crispy.
Is spooning the cheese back in a step that should be included in the recipe? Or is there room for improvement on the development and testing of this recipe. Super bummed with the results and wasted ingredients
This recipe is the nail in the coffin for me. I used one of your one pot orzo recipes to entertain my in-laws once and the meal was embarrassingly bad. This recipe was even worse. I don’t understand why anyone uses your site. Everything I’ve tried results in failure. And no, I didn’t do anything differently. Your recipes, as followed, do not work.
When we pulled this out of the oven, it was just a sheet pan of melted cheesy grease and phyllo, with no discernible “rolls” or “sticks.” We had to throw the entire thing in the garbage disposal after attempting to salvage less-greasy portions off the pan.
Disappointed because the concept sounded good, but clearly these were not tested or vetted. Officially my last HBH recipe; way way too many fails recently. 🙁
Wow these were bad. The phyllo falls apart on the bottom into a soggy greasy mess. The cheese oozes out and quickly becomes congealed and not appetizing. I made this in anticipation of a party next weekend. Thank god I tested it first.
Hi Annie,
I appreciate you trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, I’m so sorry to hear they did not turn out for you! I just spoon the cheese back into the dough if it melts out. Again, so sorry! xx
Sorry, “spoon the cheese”? How is someone supposed to spoon bubbling hot cheese into a phyllo wrapper when the hole it’s leaking out of is probably quite small? Why aren’t these instructions in the recipe?
Really a fail. I had everything on hand and thought these would be a fun twist on my husbands fav snack of mozz sticks for watching the game. I followed the recipe exactly, using the slices of cheese. (Tieghan used blocks for a reason not sure why the recipe says slices as it didnt work) They turned out totally flat-not ‘stick’ shaped at all and ALL the cheese oozed out. you are left with phyllo dough that is greasy. Do not try this one guys.
Hi Piper,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, so sorry to hear it did not turn out for you. The cheese does tend to ooze out some, I just spoon it back in when I pull it from the oven. Again, my apologies! xx
I’m even more confused than I was the other day. In your Instagram stories, you use blocks of mozzarella. It’s clear. There’s no mistaking it. And yet you haven’t corrected the recipe here to reflect that and you are telling people to follow the recipe when you don’t? This is bizarre and inexplicable. Why should we even try this recipe at this point? It’s going to be a disaster of a gloopy mess, as yours all exploded in the oven according to Instagram stories. I used to be such a fan, but it seems like you don’t even like cooking if you’re going to share this kind of a hot mess. We deserve your best effort and if this is it, I’m out.
Hi Natalie,
In this recipe, I recommend using slices because in testing the recipe multiple times, I thought using slices yielded a better result. Most cheese that is melty will work here whether it is in the form of a block or a slice. Again I recommend sliced for best results which is why I wrote slices in the recipe. Hoping this now makes some sense. Let me know if I can answer any other questions! xx
It makes even less sense now, honestly.
Why would you then demo the option on social media if it wasn’t the most optimal after testing?
Yeah, it’s pretty clear this wasn’t made more than once, let alone tested. It’s really hard to trust recipes like this.
These were unfortunately a miss. They didn’t not look like the pictures and now I realize tieghan used blocks of cheese not slices. They were completely flat and all the cheese leaked out. They were also very greasy. I was serving them to my son and his high school football buddies so I didn’t really care that they looked bad, but the boys said they were not good and we ended up tossing them out.
Hi Sara,
Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback! So sorry to hear it was not enjoyed! My apologies! xx
Did you use slices of mozzarella for the ones in the photos, or were those made with the giant blocks? The finished product seems too “stick” shaped for it to have been slices.
Hi Patty,
I would recommend using the thin slices, but either way will work for you! Please let me know if I can help in any other way! xT
So in the pictures above did you use the block cheese or thin slices? You didn’t answer my question!
Like others are saying, you used huge sticks of mozzarella. Your directions say to use thin slices, which would not only 1.make them much less cheesy (one thin slice is a lot less cheese than the block you used) 2. Block of cheese would take much longer to melt and have a longer bake time and 3. using flat slices would alter the final appearance, they would be flat. Can you please post pictures of the final product using the thin slices like you say to use? It is very confusing when you make the recipe one way and then post directions that are different.
Hi Sophia,
For best results with this recipe, please follow the instruction and ingredient list as written using the thin mozzarella slices. Please let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
But you made it with thick sticks, so how would you know?
16-20 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed…is this right? Are you actually mean this many..that would be boxes and boxes.. I am puzzled. thanks.
Leslie, you’re probably thinking of puff pastry.
Hi Leslie,
Yes, that is correct:) You will want to be sure to use phyllo dough and not puff pastry. 1 box should have at least 20 sheets. Please let me know if I can help in any other way! x
The ingredient list says thin slices of mozzarella but the pictures show rectangle cut block. Can you clarify?
I’m wondering the same thing also, rectangular cut motz or sliced motz?
Hi Barbara,
Sliced mozzarella is going to melt better for you, but either one will work! I hope you love this recipe! xT
Hi Ana,
The thin slices of mozzarella will melt better, but either one will work:) Please let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT