BGE – Pizza is a family favorite around our house and one of the excuses I had to upgrade to the Big Green Egg. The kids love participating in the making of their own pizza.
This recipe is just a pepperoni pizza due to keeping it simple for the kid’s liking. Make sure to add your personal favorite toppings when proceeding.
When making pizza on the BGE there are two key components for a successful cook.
First, a successful BGE – Pizza is adding cheese last. This will prevent your other toppings from burning while the crust is cooking. Secondly is corn meal. This will prevent the pizza from sticking to the pizza peel.
Ingredients
- Pizza Dough – Tiseo’s Frozen Pizza Dough, or any other preferred dough from a pizzeria/recipes/local store
- Pizza Sauce – Prego Pizza Sauce, or any other preferred sauce
- Flour
- Corn Meal
- Toppings – All your favorites; pepperoni, onion, jalapenos, bacon, mozzarella…
How to setup the Big Green Egg for Pizza?
Always fire up the BGE prior to making your pizza. If you make your pizza and then it sits on the pizza peel it will stick and you will have a mess on your hands. Once you have the BGE fired up, place your conv”EGG”tor leg side down.
Some videos and methods show doing this the other way around but in my experience, it is much more difficult to get the BGE up to temperature.
Next, place your grill grate on the conv”EGG”tor. This will allow airflow between the pizza stone and the conv”EGG”tor which will help prevent the bottom of your pizza from being burned prior to the top cooking all the way.
Place the pizza stone on the grate.
While the BGE is heating up to 600-700 degrees it is time to start preparing the pizza.
How to prepare the pizza for the BGE
For this BGE we will be using Tiseo’s frozen pizza dough to keep it simple. There are many doughs out there and you can even get them from your local pizza shops but with keeping it easy and clean with the kids, this is our favorite method.
To thaw, simply set it on the counter for 4-6 hours and it is ready to go. Another method is to just leave it in the fridge to thaw for 24-48 hours.
Start out by sprinkling a little flour on your baking mat.
This bag of dough is enough to make two thin crust pizza’s so get a knife and cut it in half.
Rub the flour onto the mat and move the excess off to the side.
Put the dough on the mat and start working it with a roller. You can also rotate the dough in a circle with your hands to create your pizza, but I find using the roller is easier and it also keeps the thickness of the dough more consistent.
Simply roll it out in all directions until it’s about the size of your BGE pizza peel.
Sprinkle a thin layer of corn meal on the BGE pizza peel. This prevents the dough from sticking to the peel making it easier to slide onto the BGE.
This is a little hard to show in a photo, but this is about the consistency you are looking for on your BGE pizza peel.
Lightly lay the dough onto the peel. Be careful the kids don’t push the dough down if you are cooking with kids.
If this happens, it will make it difficult to get the pizza off the peel and onto the BGE.
We then add a thin layer of pizza sauce. There are many sauces out there including recipes to make your own. One of my favorites though is Prego’s Pizza Sauce.
This is the consistency of the pizza sauce that you are looking for. As the pizza cooks on the BGE it will all even out.
Add all your favorite toppings (this sample is basic due to being for the kids). Now would also be the time to add your onions, green peppers, bacon bits…
Next add your favorite cheeses. We like to use 50% Mozzarella and 50% Italian blended cheese.
It’s ready to be put on the BGE. Another option that we find tasty is sprinkling a little grated Parmesan on at this step as well.
How to Cook the Pizza on the BGE
Your egg should be around 600-700 degrees. Sprinkle a little corn meal on your pizza stone to help prevent it from sticking.
Slide your pizza onto the BGE. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes and then start checking how done it is. This particular pizza took 6 minutes at about 625 degrees.
The second pizza we made only took 4 1/2 minutes due to the BGE getting a little hotter.
Pull the pizza, let it cool for a couple minutes and enjoy!
Big Green Egg Pizza Parchment Paper
Having trouble with the pizza sticking to either the pizza peel or the pizza stone? Simply put the pizza on some parchment paper prior to making it and placing it on the Big Green Egg!
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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