How To Grill Pizza: A Kid’s Method

It is a thousand degrees outside. And I am not exaggerating. Okay, maybe I am a little. And the most thing that I wanted for dinner was pizza. The thought of turning on the oven in the kitchen to 500 degrees put that look on Mom’s face. There was no way she was going to let me cook pizza in our hot kitchen. I was expecting the disappointment of grilled chicken, again. You can imagine my surprise when she said, “Do you want to learn how to grill pizza?” If it means we are not having chicken, I am in.

Start With the Right Pizza Dough:

There are a few recipes in our house that we use all of the time. Our Reliable Pizza dough is near the top of this list. It is so easy to make this dough, as long as you remember to start it early enough in the day to let it rise.

Large or Small Pizzas?

We almost always cut our pizza dough into 8 small individual pies. But since we were doing something new tonight, I decided to make 2 large pizzas instead. Did I mention that the house was a thousand degrees? I think the dough was extra easy to roll out because of the heat.

Is it Scary to Grill Pizza?:

As a kid, I think the grill has always been a bit intimidating. My Mom once told us a story that when she first got married she refused to learn how to grill anything. It was her excuse to have Dad make dinner. But over time, she got tired of waiting for him to come home from work before she could start dinner. So, she just went for it. I tried to have the same attitude and not be scared to grill pizza.

Have Everything Ready:

After getting some help in turning on the grill, I brought all of my supplies outside and had them ready. The hardest part was trying to get the dough onto the grill without letting it fold over on itself. Maybe smaller pizzas would have been a better idea! It was much easier to use two spatulas so I could lift it on both sides.

After getting the dough on the grill, I carefully used my spatulas to straighten it out. Did I mention how hot it was to stand in front of the grill? I was trying my hardest to stay as far away as I could.

I set my watch timer to three minutes. Mom said to keep checking on the bottom to make sure it wasn’t burning.

We had our grill on high, and three minutes turned out to be plenty to slightly brown the bottom. When I lifted it, it was pretty stiff.

Flipping the Pizza Dough:

This was a little tricky. I was trying to stand away from the heat while making sure I didn’t drop the dough! I ended up using one spatula on the top while using the bottom to flip it over. Next time I think I am going to try using some tongs.

After flipping, I was glad to have all of my toppings right there. I layered on the sauce and cheese trying not to make a mess or start myself on fire.

Turns out I didn’t need to worry about the mess. We had a cheese vacuum that took care of any spills.

After I got the toppings on, we closed the lid to the grill to help the cheese melt on top. It only took about 3 minutes for the edges to become crispy.

Is it Worth it to Grill Pizza?

While our house stayed cooler, I will say that I paid the price. Standing in front of a broiling grill on a thousand-degree day was so hot! But it was worth it when I took a bite of that delicious crispy pizza instead of grilled chicken.