Grilled Pizza

Super simple. Super tasty.

Howdy, all, this is William. I've got something fun for you. Imagine your favorite pizza. Toppings of your choice. Whatever you want; anything goes. Now imagine in every juicy bite the smoky goodness of charbroiled flavor imbedded throughout. A little redundant? When you've tried this recipe you'll understand.

One of my favorite podcasts has a new segment called Grilling While Armed. Celebrating two of America's favorite past times (not counting Baseball), the segment pairs up a tasty charcoal-grilled (NOT propane) recipe with a sidearm to match. Such a beautiful thing. Hour 3 from the August 7th show, starting at about 17 minutes, the host and his guest discuss pizza on the grill.

So the recipe and instructions are quite simple. 

Dough: Get the store bought stuff (frozen or fresh) or pull out your favorite recipe and really live it up.

Sauce: I used the  Boboli packets, but you can do whatever sounds good. Your own recipe or store bought.

Toppings: your favorite stuff. I used onions, bell peppers, pepperoni, pepper jack and cheddar. I prepped my toppings while the coals were burning and getting ready.

Directions: Let the dough set out for 30-45 minutes to rest and rise. If you use the frozen dough you should put it in the fridge the night before to allow enough time to thaw. Roll the dough out into either one large pizza or individual pizzas. Dock the dough (poke it with a fork all over so that the dough doesn't puff up too much), then slather with extra virgin olive oil on both sides.

Start the coals. For this to work you'll want to use indirect heat because the dough will burn or crisp. If your grill is smallish you can spread the coals around rather than have them in one pile. You run the risk of running out of heat, but you have a better chance of not burning the pie. If you have a large grill just keep a "cool zone", keeping the bottom dampers open and the top dampers only open about halfway (but you should keep an eye on the whole process and adjust as necessary).

Par Cook the dough (partially cook it): bring the oiled dough to the grill and place in the cool zone. In a very few minutes, when the bottom is starting to cook, flip it over and do the same to the other side.You don't want it fully cooked because after you load it up it's going back on the grill for the rest of the grilling.

Bring it back inside. Slather with pizza sauce, then cheese, then toppings. Bring it back to the cool zone of the grill and allow to cook for about 15-20 minutes. 

Eat and enjoy!