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Anyone else a fan of grilled pizza?

nismo270r

Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2011
Messages
412
Hey everybody!

I'm glad to see a foodie forum on here! My family owned a restaurant for about 20 years, and that's where I grew up and worked for about half my life, so I'm always happy to see other people that love good food and share thoughts and recipes.

Recently, my brother introduced me to the idea of grilling pizzas. My wife and I were at a friend's this past weekend and decided to give it a whirl and grilled up 4 pizzas. Grilled chicken, broccoli, roma tomatoes, feta, mozz & provolone with alfredo sauce instead of pizza sauce was the first. A traditional pizza sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, mozz & and provolone was next. An all veggie with pizza sauce, then finally a BBQ chicken with red onions and sharp cheddar. My mouth is still watering just thinking about it! I never would have thought of grilling them, but now I really can't see making pizzas at home any other way! You get a great crispy, thin crust pizza that will taste better than any delivery!

If you have all your ingredients prepped before you get the dough out and grill hot, it goes by much faster. Here's a quick breakdown:

You can use either homemade pizza dough, or you can use the premade dough in a tube just the same

Your sauce and toppings of choice. You want to keep the toppings and sauce pretty light, otherwise you'll end up with a soggy pizza. Quick cooking veggies work well.

Get your grill to between 400-450.

Once you have all your ingredients prepped and ready to put on, unroll or roll out your pizza dough.

Using a folded over paper towel, or grill brush, put a light coating of veggie oil on the grates to keep the dough from sticking.

The trickiest part is getting the pizza dough onto the grill evenly to where it doesn't get stretched and deformed in the process. If you're lucky enough to have a pizza peel, you can lay out your dough on some cornmeal and slide it off, or just do a quick flip and slap it down on the grill. I wasn't so lucky the first few times, and got some rather irregular shaped pizzas, but they still tasted just fine. :)

Now your dough is on, close the lid and give it just a minute or two. Take your peel, or a couple spatulas and give your dough a quarter turn and take a peek to see how the bottom is doing. It's all personal preference on how done you want it, so timing is really up to you.

Once the bottom is done to your liking, pull the dough off and flip it uncooked side down on your peel or a cookie sheet. Dress it up with all your toppings. Don't use too much sauce, or as I said before, you'll most likely end up with a soggy pizza. You also don't want to load it down with toppings, so they get cooked enough, since they'll only be in the grill for a few minutes at most. If you want to use any uncooked meats, pre-cook them before topping your pizza.

Now you've got your topped pizza, just take it back out to the grill, slide it on and close the lid and give it a minute or two. A quarter turn and maybe another minute or two after that and you're done! It's a little trickier on charcoal if you're not used to maintaining a steady temperature with a charcoal grill, but practice makes perfect! And now I'm hungry! :p

Let me know if anyone gives it a shot and tell me what you think! I think next time I'm going to try making a greek pizza with gyro meat, feta, onions, and tzatziki for the sauce!
 
Hey thanks for sharing that nismo. I never would have thought of grilling pizza but it sounds great. I'll give it a shot and get back to you..
 
I have grilled pizza before but used a stone on the grill. I will have to try it just on the grates. I am so hungry reading this!

Thanks for sharing

Paul
 
That is a great idea. I will have to try it soon. I think this will be great in the summer, since running the oven in the house when it's 100 outside just sucks.

Question - When cooking the pizza, do you direct or indirect heat? I have a gas grill and find that I do a good part of my grilling on indirect heat.
 
I've seen something like this online, I think weber bbq's has a method for doing this over charcoal. Never tried though....maybe I will next year as its getting a bit chilly out.
 
That is a great idea. I will have to try it soon. I think this will be great in the summer, since running the oven in the house when it's 100 outside just sucks.

Question - When cooking the pizza, do you direct or indirect heat? I have a gas grill and find that I do a good part of my grilling on indirect heat.

I had all 3 burners on, but I may have to try indirect next time. I think you get a crispier crust with direct, but the toppings would cook better with indirect. Maybe direct first, then indirect to finish off the toppings? Hmm...guess I'll have to make another pizza!
 
My family has been doing grilled pizzas for a while now. HUGE fan! We sometimes get together (cousins,friends, Aunts,Uncles) and have a
"cook off" with grilled pizzas. We all bring a dough and our toppings. Great time.

I love telling people about grilled pizza. Their facial expressions are sometimes hilarious.
" Wait... you grill the pizza ? Doesn't the dough fall thru the grates ?? " hahaha

Great post nismo. . . :D Now I want some pizza
 
I use a pizza stone on the grill, but I've seen Alton Brown on Good Eats grill it the same way you describe. Now I'm hungry for pizza...
 
I do! l Love the added flavors. Best traditional pizza's, imo, come out of a wood burning Stove.
I also do this with Frozen Pizza. "Home Run Inn" specifically. Intructions on the site.
 
I've been making pizza on the grill for a while but I do use a stone. My Big Green Egg gets me as close to real NY coal fired pizza as I can get at home. I can get the egg past 700 degrees and the pizza cooks pretty quickly.
 
I've done it with some frozen pizzas from the local Italian restaurant. They turn out really great. I like them on the coal fire over gas. I crashed and burned on the homemade pizza on the grill due to the raw dough issues on the grate you mentioned.

I'm actually getting tired of my gas grill. Cabelas has a green egg knockoff for $399 with cart. I am trying to figure out how to make that happen. You can smoke, bake, sear, grill..... It may even do laundry. Not sure.
 
Love it nismo270r! Been into food way longer than cigars. It's amazing how incredible something as simple as a pizza can be, isn't it?

I do mine the same way you do. Someone mentioned Good Eats--that's where I learned it, too. Gotta be quick, but damn are they good! There's a never ending list of combinations you can try--my favorite creation recently was roasted fennel, red onion, sausage and toasted pine nut with a white garlic sauce. Yeahhhh buddy!


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.647695,-73.774518
 
I absolutely LOVE a good grilled pizza! The crust is the best part... its super easy to do and if you never tried it - I recommend it highly. #grilledpizzalover
 
Is there any other way really, when you think about it........ :thumbs:
 
Maybe direct first, then indirect to finish off the toppings?

This is what we do.

Direct heat, then flip, add toppings, kill the middle burner and finish.

One of our house favorites is steak with caramelized onion and gorgonzola cheese. Another is diced onion, tomato and cucumber; then add gyro meat, feta and tzatziki (personal favorite!)
 
I am going to have to try this soon. My mouth is watering after reading about this. :p
 
Maybe direct first, then indirect to finish off the toppings?

This is what we do.

Direct heat, then flip, add toppings, kill the middle burner and finish.

One of our house favorites is steak with caramelized onion and gorgonzola cheese. Another is diced onion, tomato and cucumber; then add gyro meat, feta and tzatziki (personal favorite!)

X2...that's been my technique for years.

Rise the 1lb ball of fresh dough...divide in 4 equal 'personal' pieces...stretch them out oblong by hand...then go with Gern's directions.

We like the individual pizzas as everyone can make their favorite version. We do this as a 'hands on' type of BBQ Pizza party all the time. I rise 5-6 balls of dough, I pre-cook onions, green & red peppers, diced chicken, steak, salmon, etc...then slice up tomatoes, cucumbers, hot peppers, fresh mozzarella & assorted other cheeses, a few hard sausages, etc. and put each in separate bowls along with a bunch of sauces and have all the fresh & dry seasonings on the ingredient table. As the pizza dough is precooked over the direct heat, I hand them out to each person who then prepares their own and finishes it off themselves on the indirect side.

Nothing like a Pizza & Beer Party...loads of fun when everyone is involved!
 
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