Want to know how to grill pizza? Here’s my easy technique for making homemade grilled pizza using a gas grill and a pizza stone.
How To Grill Pizza
I’ve gotten so many requests for this how-to, and I finally took some photos the last time we had a pizza night! We often make baked pizza in our oven in the colder months, but in the warmer months there is nothing like the char-flavored grill marks of a grilled pizza! We’ve made them both on the Big Green Egg and our gas grill when we have less time.
While sometimes we do a homemade pizza dough recipe, our favorite is actually the store-bought dough from Whole Foods. We mix and match pizza toppings each week between pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, fresh mozzarella, and lots of cheese.
Pizza cooking can be intimidating, but it’s really quite simple. Here’s the process!
Making The Crust
We buy our pizza dough from Whole Foods pre-made. It saves time and is delicious! (You can obviously make it from scratch as well.)
Start by covering the cutting board with lots of cornmeal.
This keeps the dough from sticking when you’re ready to slide the prepared pizza off the board onto the stone.
Equipment
- A grill, gas or charcoal
- A large cutting board or pizza peel
- A pizza stone (which helps cook the crust quickly and evenly and helps prevent sticking)
How To Grill Pizza
Preheat Grill and Stone
Heat the grill burners to high heat with the pizza stone inside. Ideal is up to 500-600 degrees.
Prepare Crust
Let the dough come to room temperature before grilling. Cover board with 75% all purpose flour and 25% cornmeal and push and stretch dough out into a big circle, incorporating some of the flour on the board into the dough which will help keep it from sticking to your hands. Flip the dough over to ensure it’s loose. You can top the dough with a bit more flour if it’s too sticky.
Make sure pizza can slide back and forth on the board. If it can’t, add more cornmeal.
Add any toppings you like!
You can drizzle the edges of the dough with olive oil for extra flavor.
Slide pizza onto stone
If you don’t have a stone, make sure grill grates are clean.
How Long To Cook Pizza On Grill?
Cook for 10-12 minutes with lid closed. Check to see that cheese is melted and the edges of the crust are golden brown. If you feel your crust is cooking too fast, you can move the pizza to the side of the grill with a burner off. Close the lid to cook the top like an oven.
Tips For Grilling Pizza
1. Dough Thickness
Rolling your dough into a thinner crust works best for grilling because it cooks more quickly and evenly. Aim for the dough to be about ¼-inch thick. (Remember it will rise).
2. Precook the Dough
Some people find it easier to precook the dough into a tortilla pliability before adding toppings. If you’d like to do this, slide the rolled-out dough directly on the grill and cook for a few minutes with the lid down until the down side is firm. You can flip it so it’s even on both sides and gets some grill marks.
3. Topping Recommendations
It’s tempting to go overboard with toppings but you don’t want your pizza to sag! Go lighter on the sauce than you think, and spread toppings around so you get sufficient but they are still spaced. Using precooked meats and veggies are recommended since the pizza will likely cook before any raw meats would be done.
4. Preheating
Preheat the grill on high for at least 10–15 minutes before cooking. This ensures everything is evenly heated. You’ll also want to make sure the pizza stone is in there from the beginning so it matches the temperature of the grill. If you’re cooking directly on the grates, make sure they’re clean and well-oiled.
5. Heat Recommendations
Use medium to medium-high heat to prevent burning the bottom of your pizza. If you think the crust is cooking faster than the top (with the lid closed), turn off one burner and use the indirect heat like an oven rather than a burner underneath.
6. Storing leftover pizza
We typically layer slices between parchment paper and then stack them in a tupperware. You can reheat on your pizza stone in the oven or simply microwave for a quick bite!
Homemade Grilled Pizza
Equipment
- Pizza stone
- Grill
- Pizza peel
Ingredients
- 1 package pizza dough (from Whole Foods or a grocery store)
- 1/4 cup pizza sauce
- All the toppings you love!
Instructions
- Preheat grill with burners on high and pizza stone inside. Ideal is 500-600 degrees.
- Cover board with 75% all purpose flour and 25% cornmeal and push and stretch crust out into a big circle, incorporating some of the flour on the board into the dough which will help keep it from sticking to your hands.
- Add sauce, toppings, and cheese. Make sure pizza can slide back and forth on board. If it can't, add more cornmeal.
- Slide pizza onto pizza stone and close lid.
- Cook for ~12 minutes, until crust is crispy and toppings are bubbly.
- Slide pizza off using a large spatula or pizza lifter.
- Allow to cool slightly and slice!
Cyndi says
Thanks for this, Kath!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
You got me craving pizza now! I don’t have an outdoor grill so I can’t make this (sigh, such is the pain of living in a cramped apartment in the city) but I guess I could order in… the next best thing haha!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Brigid says
That pizza looks to die for!!!! I am going to try this but I just don’t think it’ll look that good!
alan says
Hi Kath:
Thanks for posting. Making homemade pizza dough is actually enjoyable and not difficult–as you mentioned. I recall a very old early KERF post which had a pizza tutorial. That was one of my first recipes I used. Now I use a basic ratio of 8:5 flour to water. (62.5% hydration) and I usually add a splash or two of olive oil and dribbles of honey.
Anyway–I made grilled pizza over the summer and it came out charred. I’ve heard that when using cornmeal, it can also burn even with its properties of allowing easier sliding of the dough. Any experience with charring the pizza vs. baking it ‘just right’? How many burners do you turn on? Do you cook it on active burners or use “indirect heat’? Your stories are fun to read and your food always looks so delish!
KathEats says
Did you use a pizza stone? We haven’t had issues with charring (except for maybe once?) and we use all burners on. The pizza stone blocks the flames so they don’t burn the crust.
Christine says
Where did you get your stone? I had a Pampered Chef one that cracked in half when I took it off the grill. Lost both the stone and the pizza! ?
KathEats says
Oh no!! I’m not sure where ours is from but I’d go to Williams Sonoma.
Janet says
Thank you for this post! Will give it a try soon.
alan says
Hi. There is a stone I saw on the King Arthur Flour website, for 15% off today. I have a few stones personally–Emile Henry, pizza steel and the regular stone. I like the Emile Henry stone a lot (they come rectangular and/or circular, and black and red options). The steel works great too.
As far as the grill–yes, we did prewarm the stone on the grill (didn’t just use the grate) but it got so hot that the dough charred and the top got very brown quickly. I still ate it and was fine with it, but your images of pizza look way way better.
Betty says
What happened to using the big green egg? any difference with this gas grill?
KathEats says
We do use the green egg on occasion, but it takes a bit more work because it uses charcoal so we use the gas one whenever we need a quicker dinner.
Angie says
Made today! Wow! Came out so good! Delicious! Thank you for the info, tips, and time you put it in.
Mike says
Do you use yellow or white corn meal
Kath Younger says
Yellow!