1) Pizza is not not not junk food and it makes my blood boil every time I hear it so called. OK, some of the crap sold at pizza joints might be, but a real pizza, especially a home-made pizza with fresh ingredients, is a wonderful well balanced meal. You’ve got your crust, which is really a loaf of flat bread, and the toppings are mostly fresh veggies and herbs with just a little cheese and meat for protein.
2) A great pizza is incredibly easy to make from scratch at home, even the dough, whether you cook it outdoors or in your oven, but beware, once you get the hang of it, you’ll never be satisfied with eating pizza in a restaurant again. It has happened to me. Don’t bother asking me if I want to go get some za.
3) Pizza from the grill comes close to brick oven pizza, and it beats the snot out of the stuff that arrives steamed and soggy in the cardboard box. The heat and hint of smoke from the grill elevate grilled pizza into the stratosphere. I’ll show you how (with a lot of help from my Italian-American wife, the resident pizza maker). If you have a kamado, you’re in luck. It gets screaming hot on the bottom and the top, similar to the temps in a wood-fired pizza oven.
4) To make pizza on the grill you do not have to cook the dough on both sides before you add toppings as many cookbooks instruct. You can do it the way they do in the best restaurants: Make the dough, top it, and bake it.
5) It takes a little practice. The tricky part is getting the bottom and the top done at the same time, simultaneous pizzagasm. If the bottom finishes first, the sausage can be undercooked and the onions raw. If the toppings finish first, the crust will be wet and doughy. I’ll make temperature recommendations, but your grill will vary depending on how it is ventilated, how high the dome is, whether you use a stone or a pan, the type of stone, airflow, charcoal or gas. The moisture levels and thickness of the toppings all impact the thermodynamics. It may take a couple of tries to get your machine dialed in. A good thermometer helps.
The dough is the canvas upon which pizza is painted. It should not dominate the toppings, but it should not be innocuous. There are many different styles of pizza determined mainly by the dough, not the toppings. Once you have a dough, then the topping options are limitless. Click here for more on the different styles of pizza.
The two most important doughs are Neapolitan and Roman. Yes, there are also deep dish doughs, New York dough, sheet pan dough, and so on, but let’s keep it simple at first.
Roman dough has a bit of olive oil in it, perhaps even a pinch of sugar, and that gives it more crunch, more rigidity, and a bit more flavor. My wife has taught me how to make her simple no-knead Roman style dough.
Yes, you can make pretty good pizza with frozen dough from the grocery, and some pizzerias will sell you a ball of fresh dough. A reader, Mark Davis, recommends using Naan bread dough. Naan is the bread they serve in Indian restaurants. He says “It stands up to the heat and cooks evenly with the toppings.” Another option is pre-cooked pizza dough like Boboli, but I don’t recommend it. Because it is pre-cooked it tends to dry out.
But making your own dough from scratch is far easier than you think, there are fewer ingredients and preservatives, and the smell is almost beer like. I especially like that part. The homemade dough does have a taste and texture edge called pride. Find a smooth work surface. Marble, granite, and quartz are best because they are smooth and cold, but wood or laminate are just fine.
The pizza stone. The pizza stone is an attempt to replicate the floor of the old fashioned Italian pizza oven. It is slow to heat up, but it is good at distributing the heat evenly and reducing hot spots. Once hot, it holds the heat very well, so putting a room temp dough on it barely impacts its temp. It is also a great surface for serving your pie. It will keep it hot while it sits on the table. When we put a stone on our oak dining table, we put about 2″ of cloth placemats under it or it will ruin the finish on the wood it is so hot.
Modern pizza stones are made from a special heat tolerant refractory material that is poured into a mold and dried called cordierite. They should not crack if you handle them properly. Put the room temp stone on an unheated grill, close the lid and preheat the two together. This is no problem on a gas grill, and it is not much of a problem on a charcoal grill if you use a chimney to light the coals. The Pizzacraft 15″ Square Cordierite Baking/Pizza Stone is a stone I have been using with great success. It works especially well in a kamado. The innovative Baking Steel
To use a stone properly, you need a pizza peel, that large flat paddle they use in pizza joints. You dust the peel with flour and/or cornmeal to prevent the wet dough from sticking, assemble the topping, and then you slide it off onto the hot stone. I like cornmeal because the grains add flavor and texture, and they act like ball bearings that help the dough slide off the peel more easily. The cornmeal also helps keep the dough from sticking to the stone. As it ages, it gets dark and forms a patina.
Thick metal plates. There are now several heavy carbon steel metal plates that absorb lots of energy and transmit it efficiently to you pizza. They work very well and they are unbreakable.
Thin metal pans. We occasionally cook our pizzas on a thin metal round pan about 14″ diameter. You can even use rectangular sheet pans (for “square” or “grandma” pie) or cookie pans. They are very good at transmitting heat to the pie and you don’t need a peel. Once the dough is ready, put a thin layer of olive oil on the pan to prevent it from sticking and to aid browning. If you wish, dust the pan lightly with cornmeal. Roll out your dough, lay it in the pan, shape the edges so they don’t hang over, and add the toppings. You can even use frying pans, paella pans, and griddles.
Cast iron. Cast iron slowly absorbs heat, and because it is thick, it retains it. A cast iron skillet or griddle works just fine for making pizza, especially Chicago style deep dish pizza. A light coating of oil is important.
When it comes to pizza, the temperature of the cooking surface is just as important as the air temp because that is what cooks the dough. The best way to measure the temp of your pizza stone or pan is with an infrared gun. Click here to see our reviews and ratings of infrared thermometers.
In order to get the top and bottom done at the same time, simultaneous pizzagasm, you may have to fiddle a bit and practice a bit. On one grill the sweet spot may be 500°F on the stone surface and 400°F air temp in the oven, on another 600°F stone temp and 350°F air temp. Air movement under the hood, how often you open the hood, air temp outside the grill, and thickness of the toppings are all factors in the equation.
Allow a good 30 minutes for the pizza stone as well as the oven/grill sides and dome to soak up energy. Every oven/grill is different and even the color of the stone can impact the cooking properties. One very useful technique if the bottom is cooking faster than the top is to place a second pizza stone above the pie.
Safety comes first, so you must get the sausages cooked through. At first, if you use sausage, chop or tear it into small chunks. As you get your system dialed in you can make them larger if possible. If some toppings overcook, then cut them thicker next time. You want a slight black and gray char on the bottom, but not burnt. It is a fine line.
Just preheat your grill with a 2-zone system, but don’t get the hot side very hot, the only medium. Place the pizza on the grates right over the heat, close the lid, and start checking the bottom every minute or so to make sure it does not burn.
With a gas grill
A gas grill is a little easier to use than a standard metal charcoal grill. Preheat the grill with direct heat on all burners, put in a pizza stone, and let it heat up to about 600°F on the top surface. The stone may continue to build heat beyond your target, so when my gas grill hits the desired temp, I turn off the burners under the stone and leave on the burners on the side. The side burners will keep the air hot and moving, and don’t worry, the stone will stay hot. For a bit of wood fired flavor, use your smoke box or a smoke generator if you have one. You can even put a few charcoal briquets or lumps above the burners. There is one gas grill attachment that really works for pizza, the Bakerstone. I discuss it on this page.
If you are cooking indoors, start by cooking on the lowest shelf. That will deliver a lot of heat to the underside. You may even want to put the stone on the stove bottom. Better yet, use a Baking Steel. It delivers heat faster and gives you a slightly better crust than a stone. If the top isn’t cooking properly, cook the next pie in the middle or the top shelf where it will get more heat reflective off the top of the oven’s inside. Or, use the broiler method: preheat the pizza stone or steel on a top shelf of the oven 4 to 6 inches from the broiler, then turn on the broiler right before you load the pizza into the oven. That way you get bottom heat from the stone or steel and top heat from the broiler.
These are not paid ads, they are a curated selection of products we love.
All of the products below have been tested and are highly recommended. Click here to read more about our review process.
Why does the bottom of my pizza look burnt and charred?
FAQ
How do you keep pizza crust from burning on the grill?
How do I stop my pizza base burning?
How to cook a pizza crust on a grill?
So, as mentioned above, brush one side of the crust with olive oil and place it on the grill. Cook it until it is lightly browned and has char marks. Then, use tongs to flip the crust and start building your pizza. The side with the grill marks is the side that your toppings should go on.
How do you keep a pizza crust from burning?
Using a few layers of parchment paper between your pizza and baking tray/stone will reduce some of the heat and help combat any burning. It’s not the most effective way to do it, but it’s better than nothing. Once you can see that the bottom crust has firmed up, you can take a few layers of crinkled aluminum foil and slide it underneath.
How do you make a good pizza dough?
Use the Right Type of Dough Reduce, or cut completely, oil and sugar in your dough. Oil will lead to heat, baking the pizza faster, and sugar will caramelize and burn at a fairly low temperature. The flour can also burn in the oven, so you should go for a color that can handle it, such as Caputo Pizzeria (affiliate link).
How do you make a good pizza that doesn’t burn easily?
If you want to make good pizza that doesn’t burn easily, avoid adding anything else except the basic flour, water, salt, and yeast. If you see your pizza isn’t browning enough without sugar, you can either add a small amount of sugar to the dough next time or brush the crust with oil to help promote a golden-brown crust.