How to Make Easy Grilled Pizza

July 13, 2019 Julie L

This grilled pizza recipe is so easy and delicious, you’ll wonder why you’ve never made it this way before.

Friday night is pizza night in our house but this grilled pizza recipe is so easy, you can make it any day of the week!

Start with store bought pizza dough, we like Trader Joe’s, you can find it fresh and ready to grab in the refrigerator section near the cheeses. Of course you can make your own from scratch, but who has time for that, right?

The pizza dough needs to be at room temperature, so when you get home take it out of the package and put it in a lightly greased bowl with a kitchen towel over it for an hour or more. Let the dough rise until doubled in size. Chef’s note: if using frozen pizza dough, plan ahead and put it in the refrigerator the night before so it has time to thaw.

When the dough is ready, pre-heat the grill to 425 degrees.

Lightly dust flour on your kitchen counter. We prefer to make smaller, personal size pizzas (8 to 10 inches) because they are easier to work with on the grill, so we cut our pre-made dough in half.

Use your hands or a rolling pin to shape the dough into a circle or rectangle, or a misshapen blob, doesn’t matter, they’ll all taste delicious when you’re done. Place your dough rounds on a lightly greased sheet pan.

Time to get your toppings ready. We love to make margarita pizzas with Rao’s sauce, buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil. The boys in our house prefer traditional pepperoni pizzas, so tonight we’re making both.

If you haven’t done so already, open your favorite red wine and turn on some music. We had just returned from Napa Valley, where we visited the Raymond Vineyards and purchased some great wines. One of our favorites was the LVE red. LVE stands for Legend Vineyard Exclusive, a collaboration of Raymond Vineyards and John Legend. Yes, the singer, and do I even need to mention that he is married to Chrissy Teigan?

Back to pizza, sorry I got side tracked.

Take everything out to the grill. Bring some really good olive oil too. Drizzle the dough with a little olive oil and spread it all around, you can use your fingers or a pastry brush. Turn it over and do the same to the other side, you don’t want the dough to stick to the grate.

Now, carefully, lift the dough and place it onto the grill grate, no pizza stone needed. You want those gorgeous grill marks and smoky flavor that come from direct contact with the heat.

Close the lid and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, until it starts to bubble and gets golden brown on the bottom. Then, flip it over carefully and quickly add your toppings. Close the lid and cook another few minutes, until the cheese starts to melt.

Use grill tongs to remove the pizza to a cutting board. We like the Pizzacraft wooden pizza peel, you can find this on Amazon. Let the pizza cool a few minutes, then cut and serve!

Chef’s note: If your grill is really hot, watch the bottom of the pizza so it doesn’t burn. If the bottom dough is golden brown and the cheese hasn’t melted enough, remove it from the grill and put it under the broiler in your oven to finish melting the cheese.

Buon Appetito!

You can pin the photos below to your Pinterest for quick reference, enjoy!