Pizza on the Big Green Egg is always a hit in our house! We use a Big Green Egg, but you can use whatever grill you prefer. We love pizza and a charcoal-fired pizza stone makes this recipe better than your average delivery place.
I literally spent 8-10 years working on perfecting pizza on the Big Green Egg. We'd have a great experience one time then a burned mess the next. I don't even want to think about the number of times I've built a calzone on the fly. Or the times I burned my fingers after messing up the peel-to-stone transfer. This recipe makes that process easier. Plus this dough will get you consistent results. All you'll have to do is figure out what temps work best for your equipment. You'll be making pizza your neighbors talk about for weeks!
Go with what works!
Don't try to reinvent the wheel that J. Kenji López-Alt perfected, just make his dough. You'll thank me! You don't have to have a Big Green Egg for pizza on the grill, any grill and good pizza stone should work, but make sure you're comfortable with your equipment. A cheap or thin pizza stone that may be fine for a 450°F oven will shatter when the grill really heats up! This is just a guide, so feel free to adjust the toppings to your tastes!
For a little extra flavor on the crust mix Lauren’s Italian Seasoning Mix with a little olive oil and brush on the crust. You can also try adding a little smoke wood to your fire for a smokier BBQ style pizza! We'd love to hear what you decided to put on it below!
Equipment
- Big Green Egg or other smoker
- Big Green Egg Pizza Stone
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Serious Eats New York Pizza Dough
- 16 Oz Mozzarella Cheese Shredded
- 8 tbsp Tomato Sauce
- 20 pieces Pepperoni
- 4 oz Sausage Browned
- 1 tsp Oregano
- ¼ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 2 tbsp Jalapeños Pickled, diced
- 3 tbsp Banana pepper sliced
Instructions
For the grill:
- We use an XL Big Green Egg, but this recipe should work on any grill with a pizza stone.
- Place your charcoal and light as normal, once your coals get going well place your platesetter and pizza stone.
- Allow the grill to come up to temp (and burn off any gunk from the bottom of your plate setter if you've been smoking a bunch of yummy).
- I cook mine at roughly 600°F. You need to know your grill and equipment here, a thin pizza stone built for the oven (especially Pampered Chef) will crack at best and shatter at worst.
- Once the grill is at temp and burning clean you're ready to cook! It may be unnecessary with this dough, (it is a holdover habit of mine from using dough that burned quickly on the bottom) before I put on the pizza I dip a 100% cotton cloth in water and rub the stone until it doesn't immediately boil away. Again, know your equipment here, this may be unnecessary or even damage your stone. If you have trouble with your crust burning before your toppings are ready I'd consider adding this step.
For the Dough:
- Follow the linked Serious Eats dough recipe.
- Let the dough rest for at least 24 hours in the fridge, we find 2-5 days is really the sweet spot. Remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest at room temperature for a couple hours before using. Divide into three roughly 5½ inch dough balls and place on parchment paper. Flour as necessary to keep from sticking to your hands as you work the dough.
- Use a rolling pin to roll dough, and if necessary stretch by hand (or hell, toss it if you've got that in you!) until it is about ¼ inch thick, it won't have a perfectly even thickness, that's fine just roll with it.
- Finished dough should be 12 to 14 inches in diameter. Return to parchment paper.
- Top pizzas as your heart desires, the toppings we used are above, but this is really a preference area. IMPORTANT, less is more when it comes to sauce, a nice thin layer will do the trick, you don't want to introduce too much liquid here.
Grilling the Pizza:
- Once you have the pizza and grill prepared as above, slide a pizza peel (or something similar) UNDER the parchment paper and take the pizza to the grill.
- Slide the parchment paper (and pizza) onto the pizza stone and shut the lid. The parchment paper may catch on fire, it's ok.
- After 5 or so minutes start testing to see if the dough has set. I do this by pulling on the parchment paper with tongs or a gloved hand while sliding the pizza peel under the dough. If the dough gives resistance, give it a bit more (trust me, I've made many calzones on the fly before I learned you'd rather spend a little extra time on the parchment paper than screw up here). Once the pizza is ready to leave the parchment slide the parchment off and make sure it's not on fire before you dispose of it.
- Cook the pizza checking every 5 minutes or so and making sure to check the doneness of the dough by lifting the edge with the pizza peel. If the top starts to get done before the dough leave the dome open to allow the dough to firm up.
Larry Edwards
With my XL pizza stone on the XL grill, it never got over 400 degrees. Does that happen with you? I don’t use lump charcoal as that is unpredictable. Instead I use kingsford natural. Might that be the problem?
Scott Holmes
Hi Larry,
That is probably part of your problem. Charcoal brickettes are largely clay binder and create a ton more ash than lump
which may be restricting your airflow.
With lump, and the egg in general, it all about getting used to it. Lump responds great to air flow, learning how to control that is the key.
Hope that helps!
Scott
Michael
Larry, Thank you for post, “PIZZA ON THE BIG GREEN EGG.” I am about to cook my first pizza as my first cook on my new BGE.
Your recommendations, admission of past errors, and pictures are very helpful.
Scott Holmes
Good luck! Would love to hear how it went!
Scott
Brian
My third attempt on my BGE. Turned out amazing all thanks to your tips. I truly appreciate it. I made three pies on my large BGE three different sauces and topping. First I did a basic red sauce with four meat toppings, bacon, ham, pepperoni, and sausage. Second pizza was honey bbq sauce with chicken, bacon, red onions, and Cilantro. Thord pie had garlic white sauce with chicken bacon and sweet onions. The third pie temp on the egg exceeded 500 degrees and the crust burnt. But still tasted good just could not eat the edges..all other pies were perfect all around perfectly cooked. Big hit with everyone eating.thank you again for the tips on how to do this in the BGE. I am still learning the EGG but found listening to seasoned pros I can do it as a beginner. But not without the hel0 of the pros who put in the time effort and mistakes. Praise to you for this.
Scott Holmes
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
Scott
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