Grilling pizza for my family and friends is a staple in my backyard during the year. Pizza is versatile and fun to grill because it’s just that easy to make. Plus, everyone can design their own pizza which makes it much easier for the griller to keep everyone happy!
Now before you decide to grill a pizza, I would suggest using my “4 T model”- Type, Technique, Temperature, and Time. By using this easy to tool, you can grill any type of your favorite pizza with great results.
The first T stands for Type. When grilling pizza, you need to decide what type are you are going to be grilling—fresh, frozen or my personal favorite, Chicago-style deep dish.
With grilling pizza, the Technique is a critical step to guarantee a perfectly grilled pizza. When choosing fresh, frozen or Chicago-style pizza, you have three grilling style options to choose from: direct, indirect or use a pizza stone.
When choosing the direct method, the pizza will be placed directly over the heat source.
When choosing indirect, you will be placing the pizza over an indirect surface, the results would be very similar to baking in your oven. Most frozen and Chicago-style pizzas will be grilled over indirect heat.
When using a pizza stone, the key step is to preheat the stone over direct heat for 30 minutes.
The third T is the Temperature of your grill.
When grilling pizza directly, I focus on getting temperatures in the 425-450 degree range. You want to make sure you keep the heat in this zone to ensure perfect grill marks on the pizza dough along with getting nice golden melted cheese on top.
When grilling indirectly, the temperature of the grill should be around 375-400 degrees. You do not want the heat too high because that can cause the bottom of the pizza crust to overcook and burn. No one likes a burnt pizza!
When using a pizza stone, keep the temperature of the grill between 450-475 degrees. Remember to make sure the stone has been preheated properly for 30 minutes, this step ensures that the pizza doesn’t stick or burn on the stone.
The final T is Time.
Fresh pizza grilled directly should be grilled for 3-4 minutes. Then remove the pizza, flip it so that the grilled side is up, add your toppings then put it back on the grill for 3-4 minutes.
Frozen pizza should be grilled indirectly anywhere from 16-20 minutes or follow the directions on the box.
Chicago-style pizza will usually take around 30-40 minutes over indirect heat, depending on size and type of ingredients.
When using a pizza stone, I try to aim for 7-10 minutes of grilling time.
Grilling pizza can be so much fun in the backyard when done correctly! By following the tips above you should have no problem grilling that perfect pizza on your Weber grill. As always, happy grilling!
