Leave the Stone (and Steel) Alone When you Grill Pizza at Home

From pre-made to homemade and everything in between – pizza is just better when you grill it on GrillGrates. 

At the GrillGrate office we’re regularly rolling out the grills for lunch – sometimes it’s just quick burgers, sometimes it’s the finest wagyu beef, but about once a month, we find ourselves making some sort of pizza for the gang.

Debra Best doing her thing in the Anova on the GrillGrate Griddle.

Lots of people have traditionally used a pizza stone when cooking pizza on the grill, but a pizza stone is unnecessary when you’ve got GrillGrates on your grill. (Not to mention, pizza stones are heavy, cumbersome and breakable.) Just fire up your grill as normal, we prefer to grill with rails up, but you could use the flat side if you’re looking for even more crunch in your crust.

Making your pizza indoors? The GrillGrate Griddle replaces overpriced and slow-to-preheat baking steels that are also popular for making pizzas in traditional and smart ovens. And the Griddle isn’t just great for pizza, our bakers are loving it as well. Head on over to the Anova Precision Oven User Group on Facebook and you’ll see Debra Best making some of the most beautiful artisan breads you’ve ever seen on her GrillGrate Griddle.

Anyways, back to pizza on the grill…

When I started here a few years ago, we were largely using premade crusts like Mama Mary’s or Boboli. These are some good options to keep in the pantry for a quick mid-week meal or unexpected guests at dinner time. The great thing is, they’re versatile too. We’ve used them for Breakfast Pizzas at the SCA World Championships a while back and we love them for repurposing our Pulled Pork leftovers on pizza for lunch.

There are also actually frozen pizzas that advertise on the packaging that they’re “Great for Grilling.” Two such brands are Jack’s and Mama Cozzi’s. And believe it or not, simply throwing these on the grill instead of in the oven makes them 10 times better. 

As our tastes have evolved over time, we find ourselves to be sort of “grilled pizza aficionados”. Our go-to has gone from premade crusts to homemade dough, made from Urban Slicer Outdoor Grilling Pizza Dough mix. Heck, we love it so much, we even started selling it in the GrillGrate store. It requires a little more pre-planning as the dough has to be made and able to rise for 2 to 4 hours prior to grilling, but it is worth the wait.  

An office favorite is the Don Framptonio recipe, which includes prosciutto, roasted red peppers and fresh ricotta, just to name a few of the ingredients that make this pizza magic. The Urban Slicer Pizza dough and the Don Framptonio recipe come to us from friend and longtime GrillGrate user, Matt Frampton. Matt is a self-proclaimed “World Class Pizza Addict” and it shows – this dough is the real deal!

We recently cooked up some pizzas with GrillGrate Guest Chef Joe Costa who put our dough-making skills to shame when he showed us how it’s done.  Check out the video below for some tips, techniques and a good laugh. 

So whether it’s fresh or frozen, make sure you to include your grill next time you’re craving pizza!

GrillGrate. Eat Well.
– Meagan