We Americans are obsessed with pizza, aren’t we? How many pizza places are within a short drive from your house? I’m guessing at least 10. And how often do you eat pizza…or WANT to eat pizza? If you’re anything like me and my family, it’s embarassingly often.
Because I have 4 children and all 6 of us adore pizza, my wife, Patti, and I just HAD to figure out some good recipes for BBQ Pizza. We didn’t have a choice. It was our destiny. And if I do say so myself, we flippin nailed it.
For my introduction to all of you, I’m going with the most popular, most basic of all pizzas – pepperoni, of course. It starts with Patti’s delicious homemade pizza dough…but I’m not getting into those details here. Your grilled pizza is going to be absolutely delicious with store bought crust. A Pillsbury crust will do nicely.
The first step might be the most important – lightly browning the crust. I’ve tried several different methods and have come to a conclusion on the easiest/best method: Pizza Stone. You need to add this to your list of things to buy. I get my grill going and put the stone on for 5 minutes to warm up. Yes, I throw a handful of wood chips on, because I like to give my pizza a light smoky flavor. Try it and let me know what you think.
Sprinkle some flour on there to be sure the dough doesn’t stick.
Place your dough on and close the lid. It only takes about 3 – 5 minutes and it will have firmed up. Flip it and firm the other side for just a minute. You’ll want that side less done, as it will be your “down” side and you don’t want it to burn.
At this point I bring the crust to Patti, grab a beer, and watch her put it all together. But I guess that doesn’t help you, does it? Honestly, it’s whatever you want on your pizza. In the case of pepperoni, it’s quite simple: Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and a bit more cheese.
Place the pizza back on the stone, throw another handful of wood chips on, close the lid. Usually our pizza’s are done in about 10 minutes. It’s that easy.
And oh MY, it’s delicious. It’s like having a restaurant quality, wood burned pizza in your own backyard. This is now our absolute favorite pizza to eat as a family – bar none. You must give grilled pizza a try. It really isn’t too time consuming and easy to master. This is the first of many pizza recipes we will be sharing. We make a lot of different pizzas, and have lots of tricks up our sleeves – like homemade doughs, homemade sauces and crazy good toppings.
So what is YOUR favorite pizza topping? We’d love to hear!
Grilled Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 roll of pillsbury crust
- 1 jar of pizza sauce
- 2 cups of mozzarella cheese
- toppings of your choice - pepperoni sausage, etc.
Instructions
- Spread the dough thinly. If it tears, pinch it back together, or just ball it up and start over.
- Cook one side of the dough on the pizza stone at 300 for about 3 - 5 minutes. You just want it to get firm and slightly brown. Flip it and cook the other side for 2 - 3 minutes.
- Pull your dough off the grill and top it with whatever your heart desires. I usually do sauce, 1/2 the cheese, topping, the rest of the cheese.
- Slide the pizza back on the grill for another 10 - 15 minutes - basically until the cheese is melted and gooey.
My fiance introduced me to grilled pizza a couple years ago and was amazed. We use store bought frozen pizza’s and either a pizza stone or pizza pan (on top shelf) and they always turn out great. Gives the cheap store bought pizzas great flavor with the smoking (we use apple and cherry wood chips when available.)
Sounds delish! Can we get Patti’s delicious homemade
Pizza dough recipe please?! 🙂
grilled pizza is one of our all-time favorites!! I’ve never done it with the pizza stone though–we always just put it straight on the grates. I’ll have to try the stone next time!