Grilled Pizza is a perfect dinner recipe for hot summer nights when heating up the oven is not an option. Use fresh pizza dough and your favorite toppings to create a brick oven style pizza that everyone will love.
I started making these grilled pizzas for my family out of necessity. I had made a double batch of my Homemade Pizza Dough the night before and had planned to use what was left in the fridge to make my usual oven baked pizza for dinner. The problem was, the weather had shifted and it was way too hot in my house to even consider turning my oven on to 400° plus! So I made pizzas on the grill that night instead, and it’s been a favorite ever since.
Grilled pizza has the benefit of being cooked over a flame, which gives it a slightly charred bottom that gives it so much flavor. This recipe is ready for your favorite pizza toppings, whether you like pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, or something else. It all works.
My Homemade Pizza Dough recipe is totally foolproof. Just plan ahead because the dough needs a couple of hours to rise and be ready for cooking. Not prepared to make pizza from scratch right now? That’s ok, make some Flatbread Pizzas instead and save this recipe for later.
Why You Are Going To Love Making Pizza on the Grill
- It’s Fast. Making your pizza on the BBQ is much faster than you might think. With a nice hot grill, pizza will be ready in less than 10 minutes.
- Simple. Making pizza dough from scratch is as simple as it gets with this recipe. You can knead the dough with a stand mixer, or use your hands and get an arm workout!
- Customizable. Make any type of pizza you like! Add sauce, mozzarella, and traditional pizza toppings, or get creative with new and different toppings.
- Grill Marks. I love the way pizza looks when it’s been grilled. The crust has beautiful grill marks that are not only fun to look at, but they add a smoky flavor to the grilled pizza.
Ingredients for Grilled Pizza
- Pizza Dough – I highly suggest making your own using my Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe. You can use any pizza dough though, even store bought!
- Olive Oil – We’ll brush the dough with oil before tossing it on the grill. A spray olive oil would work really well for this also.
- Pizza Sauce – I have a recipe for Homemade Pizza Sauce too, or use your favorite brand.
- Cheese – Shredded mozzarella cheese works perfectly for these pizzas, or use an Italian blend or your favorite pizza cheese.
- Toppings – Use whatever pizza toppings you like! I used thinly sliced zucchini, sauteed mushrooms, and fresh basil leaves.
How to Grill Pizza
Here’s how you make the pizza dough, prep it for the grill, grill it, and add all of your favorite toppings:
- Make Pizza Dough: Prepare your dough as directed in this recipe, or start out with a premade pizza dough.
- Roll Dough: Divide the dough into 4-6 dough balls. On an oiled surface, roll each with a rolling pin as thin as possible to make 10-12 inch circles. Then place a piece of parchment paper over the dough, letting it stick. Turn it over so that the parchment paper is underneath the dough, and brush the dough side with olive oil.
- Preheat the Grill: Preheat the grill to medium high heat, and have a hot and cold side on the grill. (I have a 3 burner gas grill, and I switch on just one side and the middle burner, and leave the last one off so that side of the grill is cooler). Clean and oil the grill grates.
- Grill Dough: Gently flip the pizza dough over the grill grates with the down side down, and peel off the parchment paper. Close the lid, and cook for 1-2 minutes. When the bottom of the pizza looks done, flip the pizza and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
- Add Toppings: Move the pizza dough over to the cool side of the grill and add your toppings (sauce, cheese, and any other desired toppings). Lower the heat of the middle burner if needed. Close the grill and allow the cheese to melt.
- Serve: Use grill tongs to remove the pizza from the oven and serve.
Tip!
If large bubbles appear while you’re grilling the dough, just pop them with your grill tongs!
Tips for Grilling Pizza
- Roll it out thin. For grilled pizza, the thinner the pizza dough the better. If the dough is too thick, it might burn on the grill before it’s completely cooked in the middle.
- Pay attention. It really takes 2 minutes or less per side to cook the dough, so don’t walk away from the grill while you’re cooking.
- Be sure to preheat. Let the grill come all the way up to temperature before cooking the dough. Putting the dough on a cold grill will cause it to stick to the grates.
- Make the dough ahead. I suggest making your pizza dough ahead of time, the day before, so that you aren’t waiting for it to be ready.
- Go easy on the toppings. We’re making a thin pizza, so don’t overwhelm the crust with too much sauce or toppings. A thin layer of sauce and a handful of toppings is perfect.
Grilled Pizza Topping Ideas
Grilled Pizza is great because it’s literally a blank canvas for all sorts of topping creations. Stuck on what to put on your pizza? No problem, try these!
Sauces:
- Traditional Pizza Sauce
- Olive oil and garlic salt
- Alfredo Sauce
- Pesto
Toppings:
- Pepperoni, ham, cooked sausage, cooked chicken, cooked meatballs.
- Mushrooms (I like to cook mushrooms in the air fryer or saute them on the stove for a bit before adding them).
- Peppers, onions, fresh tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli (blanch or saute first).
- Olives, banana peppers, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes.
- Pineapple (if you’re into that sort of thing!).
Extras:
- Crushed red pepper Flakes, parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper, sesame seeds (on the outer crust, yum!).
Frequently Asked Questions
A pizza peel is a large wooden tool used to move pizza dough from one place to another, particularly useful in restaurants where giant hot ovens are used. If you have a pizza peel and like using it, feel free to use it to grill your pizza, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I use parchment paper to help transfer the dough to the grill.
Again, not necessary. Actually, I prefer not using a stone so that I get all of that grill flavor in my dough.
You sure can! Sometimes I make the crusts on the grill a few hours ahead of time. Then when it’s time for dinner I let everyone dress their own pie and we grill them on low heat to finish. Kids especially like when I make the pizzas a little bit smaller so they get their own personalized dinner.
The cooking instructions are the same for grilling pizza on any type of grill, you can even make these pizzas over a campfire if you’re careful! Just make sure you are using a medium heat to cook the crust and a low heat to melt the cheese.
I’m so happy to have this pizza cooking method in my toolbox, and I hope you will be too! Make sure to pin this recipe to save it for later!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Grilled Pizza
Ingredients
- Pizza dough homemade (click for recipe), or store bought
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Pizza sauce
- Cheese
- Toppings
Instructions
- Prepare your dough as directed in this recipe, or start out with a premade pizza dough.
- Divide the dough into 4-6 dough balls. On an oiled surface, roll each with a rolling pin as thin as possible to make 10-12 inch circles. Then place a piece of parchment paper over the dough, letting it stick. Turn it over so that the parchment paper is underneath the dough, and brush the dough side with olive oil.
- Preheat the grill to medium high heat, and have a hot and cold side on the grill. (I have a 3 burner gas grill, and I switch on just one side and the middle burner, and leave the last one off so that side of the grill is cooler). Clean and oil the grill grates.
- Gently flip the pizza dough over the grill grates with the down side down, and peel off the parchment paper. Close the lid, and cook for 1-2 minutes. When the bottom of the pizza looks done, flip the pizza and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
- Move the pizza dough over to the cool side of the grill and add your toppings (sauce, cheese, and any other desired toppings).
- Lower the heat of the middle burner if needed. Close the grill and allow the cheese to melt.
- Use grill tongs to remove the pizza from the oven and serve.
Notes:
- Roll it out thin. For grilled pizza, the thinner the pizza dough the better. If the dough is too thick, it might burn on the grill before it’s completely cooked in the middle.
- Pay attention. It really takes 2 minutes or less per side to cook the dough, so don’t walk away from the grill while you’re cooking.
- Be sure to preheat. Let the grill come all the way up to temperature before cooking the dough. Putting the dough on a cold grill will cause it to stick to the grates.
- Make the dough ahead. I suggest making your pizza dough ahead of time, the day before (let it rise in the fridge overnight), so that you aren’t waiting for it to be ready.
- Go easy on the toppings. We’re making a thin pizza, so don’t overwhelm the crust with too much sauce or toppings. A thin layer of sauce and a handful of toppings is perfect.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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