Trader Joe’s Breaded Cheddar Cheese Curds plus air fryer equals pretty dang tasty. Connoisseurs will note that you’re not getting a squeaky cheese experience. But with a slightly savory breading and cheese that ended up oozing out of a few of them browning in the airfryer, well you’re not gonna hear any complaints from me.
So I followed directions and air fried them for 6 minutes and while most of them were about the same size and were up to 165F by that point, there was one curd that was bigger (see that one in the middle?) and wasn’t done. So I gave ’em two minutes more and ended up with a few that gave up their cheese. But it wasn’t a bad deal, because the escapees browned a little bit….yum.
The big question for me was what to dip them in. On Instagram, @laurel_717 mentioned a place near her does a strawberry jalapeno jam kind of thing. So I melted down some strawberry jam, let a few slices of jalapeño steep in there (it didn’t end up that spicy), but the sweetness of jam is the right move for these cheese curds. Pretty much any jam would be great, well, maybe not grape jelly. Trader Joe’s Hot Honey Sauce would also be a good choice.
The cheddar is more on the medium to mild side and they’re best when they’re hot/warm. When cold, they’re pretty unmemorable. So eat ’em right away. Would I buy Trader Joe’s Breaded Cheese Curds again? Yeah, I think so. For a party. For movie-watching at home. Are they the best ever? No, but I liked ’em. They’re good.
Check out some other We Tried’s from Trader Joe’s:
Cold Brew Iced Tea with Lemon (bags)
Raspberry Sorbet/Chocolate Gelato Swirl