Grilling is one of my favorite ways to cook when the weather warms up. It makes me so very happy to not have to turn on my stove or oven and feel like my kitchen is quickly becoming an inferno. We throw the usuals on the grill often, but chicken and steak can only go so far. Sometimes you just need pizza. Since discovering my favorite pizza dough recipe my family rarely eats pizza out, preferring to make our own and each get exactly what we want. And by putting it on the grill we take it to another level of perfection. One that a fast food chain would be hard pressed to come anywhere near matching in the taste department. It may look like it would be challenging or time consuming, but grilling pizza is relatively quick and simple and you will never want to go back after you taste it!
To start, prepare your dough and roll it out evenly into a circular shape (don’t worry too much about the shape, it all tastes the same). I try to keep my dough about 1/4 of an inch thick, you definitely don’t want to get it too thin because it is much easier to tear and come apart. Preheat your grill to medium heat. Brush both sides of the pizza dough with olive oil. Transfer dough to preheated grill and and let it sit for about 5 minutes, or until bubbly.
Remove the dough from the grill (we like to use a baking sheet to help us transfer the dough). The bottom side should now have beautiful grill marks and the top should be nice and bubbly. Flip the dough over and add the toppings to the side that was grilled. Now put the pizza back onto the grill, with the opposite side down, cooking just until the cheese is melted.
By grilling the pizza, you add another layer of flavor, and a different texture to the crust…not to mention it looks beautiful. I love that this simple cooking technique changes the entire taste of one of my favorite meals. If you’ve never tried to grill pizza, I really hope that you will give it a try. You will not be disappointed!
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Our favorite Italian restaurant uses a pizza oven to cook their pizzas…they also sell those ovens for close to $1,000! Our oven just doesn’t pull out the same flavor, but I can see this coming close. Great tip.
Bellaisa recently posted…A Review Of Your Life After Their Death By Karen Noe
Hi Bellaisa, I’m not sure how close this would be to a wood fire pizza, but definitely a better match than regular oven cooking. It really adds a whole new dimension to the flavor. I hope that you enjoy it!
This looks good, I’m going to try it tonight. I’m so sick of heating up the house with the oven this summer. Thanks for sharing!
Allison B recently posted…American Flag Layer Dip
I feel the same way, Allison. It’s terrible to heat up your kitchen in the summer. I hope that you enjoy your pizza!
When you put the dough on the grill, do you put it directly on the grill rack? If so, doesn’t it fall in between the racks and make a mess?
Hi Katie, yes you put the dough directly onto the grill. Make sure that you have oiled your grill (olive oil or even cooking spray works great) and you should have no problems. If the grill is preheated, the dough cooks quickly and will not fall between the grates.
do you close the cover on the grill for any of this process. I’m assuming you don’t, but it wasn’t mentioned.
I left my grill open so that I could see when the dough was “done” enough for my taste. You could absolutely close it after you have figured out the length of time that works best with your grill and dough.
If you wanted some wood smoke flavor you could add some wood chips.
That’s what I’m talking about Karen! You need that smoky flavor, or else why not just thrown it in the over?
I was about to ask about leaving the cover on or off, but I see Susan beat me to the question. These look great. I was going to do pizzas on the grill with premade crusts this weekend, but maybe I’ll try my hand a making my own dough….that is if the weather holds out. Supposed to storm all weekend. 🙁 Thanks for a great post!