2 Pizzas on the Grill

I’ve been wanting to make a pizza on the grill for a long time now. Last weekend I smoked some Canadian bacon, so I figured this would be the perfect time to make that pizza on the grill.

My wife and I will do this project together, so we’ll do one her way, and one my way. My wife typically eats veggie pizzas or plain cheese pizza. She went with the cheese for this experiment. Me, I’m a meat lover, so it’s Canadian bacon for mine!

First, a little story:
Now, I have to be honest. This is my second attempt at this. Yesterday, I tried this and followed directions on a website recipe which called for a “very hot” fire on the grill. You know the “holding your hand just above the grill for no more than 2 seconds” rule. Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You have to be very careful with recipes found on the internet. Some of them just aren’t tested, and some, well they just don’t make sense! But not this one… I promise!

Well, as soon as I put the pizza dough directly on the super hot grill, well… yep, you guessed it. I burned the bah-jeebies out of it. (Is that a word?). Fortunately my smoker was about ready for more coal, so I added the nice hot coals from the grill to the smoker. So, on to the modified version, which I owe most of the credit to my wife for thinking of putting it up higher on the top (cooling ) rack of the grill.

We are making the dough and the sauce from scratch. So if you have your own, or want to buy pre-made, that’s up to you. But the dough and the sauce are very tasty! The dough by the way is a no-yeast dough.

2 Pizzas on the Grill

Pizza Dough Ingredients

Pizza Dough Instructions

1)  Mix the dry ingredients together thoroughly, and then add in 3/4 cup water and the olive oil.

2)  Stir until it forms a ball. If the dough is stiff, add more water.

3)  The dough should be soft, not sticky. Knead it on a floured surface for 3-4 minutes.

4)  On a flat, floured surface, roll out the dough until it’s a fairly thin pizza crust. I’d say about 1/8″ thick. You can make whatever shape that will work for you. Nothing says you have to be traditional and go round. Make it heart shaped and present it to your sweetie! Points scored buddy!

This will make enough for 2 medium size pizzas, or 3 individual sized pizzas.

Set this aside for now.

Pizza Sauce Ingredients

3 garlic cloves (minced)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 (29 oz. can) tomato puree
1 (28 oz. can) crushed tomatoes
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Pizza Sauce Instructions

1)  In a large saucepan, saute the garlic in oil until it’s tender.

2)  Stir in the remaining ingredients.

3)  Bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, or until the sauce reaches a desired thickness.

Set this aside for now also.

Let’s make some pizzas:

Now, let’s get the grill going. You want a cool to medium-cool grill.

1)  Place the pizza dough or doughs on tin foil. (No topping yet). I recommend you place this on a cookie sheet to easily slide foil and dough onto the grill rack.

2)  Set the foil and dough on the upper rack, (cooling rack), of the grill and close the lid. This should take about 8 to 10 minutes to get the bottom of the dough browned. (See picture below)

3) Once the dough is browned and golden delicious on the bottom, slide it back onto the cookie sheet and bring it back into the house for some toppings.

Note: Don’t do what I did and drop the nicely browned pizza crust on the ground. Fortunately I’m still quick and got it within the 5 second rule!

4)  Now, flip the crust over and ladle the sauce onto the browned side of the crust. (Not too much or it will get soggy!) Add cheeses, and any other toppings you may want on your pizza.

5)  Slide the foil and pizzas back onto the top rack of the grill and close it up. This should take another 8 to 10 minutes to get the bottom browned nicely, the cheeses melted, and the other toppings hot and blended into the flavors. And as the picture below shows, this is how it should look.

Only one thing left to do. Take the pizzas off, (don’t drop it), bring it into the house, slice it up and enjoy!