Pizza on the Grill

It has been a bit warm around here.  Too warm to turn on the oven or even the stovetop.  So we are gilling everything.  Spud 3 wanted do-it-yourself pizza for his birthday party.  We did it ourselves, on the grill.

What follows is technically not a recipe.  You have to make your own pizza dough following whatever recipe you prefer.  The one I use is here.  Pick your favorite sauce, or spice up a can of tomatoes or tomato sauce.  Gather meats, cheese and other toppings and heat up the grill. 

Since you are using your grill to bake, you want to get it pretty hot and minimize the amount of time you have the lid open.  You need to balance that with having space on the grill where the burners are no hotter than low/medium so the dough doesn't burn.






Once your grill is hot (probably about 400 degrees F) start rolling out your pizza dough.  Keep it pretty thin.  I like to put it on a plate (in the case of making pizzas for a house full of ravenous teenagers, I used paper plates).  Oil one side. 

Flip the plate over so the dough lands oilded side down onto the grill.  Close the lid quickly and let it bake.  You are going to have to test the baking time on your own grill.  There are too many variables for me to even guess your timing.  We were running a slow grill and probably did the pre-bake for about 7 - 10 minutes.  Do NOT flip the dough over.  You want it to be almost entirely baked through but not burnt on the bottom. 

Your dough will have lovely grill marks on one side and be slightly bubbled but done on the other. 

Oil the side without the grill marks.  Put that side face down on your plate.  Add sauce and toppings as you desire.  Keep the toppings and cheese to minimum.  This is not the time for a deep dish pizza.  Remember you are still balancing keeping the grill hot with not burning the crust. 

Carefully slide the pizza onto the grill.  Close the lid and continue to grill until the cheese is melted and the toppings are bubbly.  When I am the one doing the cooking, I put the topped pizzas on the upper shelf in the grill.  That keeps them removed a bit from the flame and allows the cheese longer to get a nice bubbly crust.   Spud 2 who was manning the grill put them on the normal rack

And there you have it.  Perfectly grilled pizza.