Now that I’ve done it more than a few times I can think of several reasons, the first being who wants to heat up an oven to 450°F or higher on a hot summer day?
Grilled Pizza is a Game-Changer
If you use a grill to make pizza, you can keep the heat outside where it belongs. Grills also better mimic a wood fired oven than your conventional indoor oven. Whether using charcoal or gas, the smoke from the grill will help give your pizza great flavor that you simply cannot get from a regular oven. It’s also easy! No, the pizza dough does not fall through the grill grates. Assuming you’ve properly heated the grill, your dough will form a lovely lightly browned crust.
How to Grill Pizza the Smart Way
The trick is that you cook the plain dough first, on one side, on the grill. Then remove it, flip it, brush the grilled side with sauce and toppings, and return the pizza to the grill for final cooking.
Need a Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe?
This is a quick how-to on the grilling steps. I’m assuming that you already have pizza dough ready to go, but if not, we have a great recipe here on our homemade pizza post.
Make Ahead Instructions
Dough: Make a double batch of the dough, let it rise, then divide it, wrap it in plastic and freeze it. Then, when you want pizza for dinner, take the dough out of the freezer and put it into the fridge before you go to work, and when you come home take it out of the fridge and put the dough on the counter to warm while you heat up the grill.Pre-grill crusts: Just stretch out the dough and grill it lightly on both sides. Let the crust cool on a rack so that the heat and steam on the underside of the crust don’t make it soggy. You can make several this way, a few hours ahead of time. Then when you are ready to grill again, paint the crusts with sauce, add toppings, and grill.
Whichever toppings you choose, go light with them or your pizza will be heavy and soggy.
Winning Sauces for Grilled Pizza
Store-bought sauce works just fine, but if you want to make your own, we have recipes!
Quick and Easy Red Pizza Sauce Roasted Garlic White Pizza Sauce Quick Pizza Sauce (part of our Homemade Pepperoni Pizza recipe) Basic Tomato Sauce
More Homemade Pizza Recipes to Try
Homemade Pizza and Pizza Dough Spicy Sausage Pizza Grilled Vegetable Pizza Hawaiian Pizza With Cauliflower Crust Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza With Italian Sausage
Tomato sauce
Herbs
Cheese (mozzarella is the best)
Onions, thinly sliced
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Pepperoni
Once you’ve stretched the dough, let it sit for 5 minutes and then push out the edges with your fingers again, until you have a nice round shape, about 12-inches in diameter. Do not make a raised rim, it will interfere with the grilling process. Note that if you are preparing the pizza dough for a party, you can make several pizza dough rounds, stack them separated by parchment paper, and keep them in the refrigerator for up to two hours before cooking. Then place a pizza dough round on a lightly floured (or you can use cornmeal) rimless cookie sheet (or pizza peel if you have one). Let the dough slide off the cookie sheet onto the hot grill grates. Close the lid of the grill and let cook for 2 minutes. If it is not beginning to brown, cover the grill and continue to cook a minute at a time until the bottom has begun to brown. It should only take a couple minutes if you have a hot grill. The top of the pizza dough will start bubbling up with air pockets. Sprinkle on your toppings, ending with Mozzarella cheese (if using), and if using meat, put that over the cheese. Remember to go light on the toppings, or your pizza will be heavy and soggy. Slice and serve!
