Pizza on the Grill

Seeing as I get asked quite frequently for my favorite, family-friendly recipes, allow me to share with you a brand new favorite.... Pizza on the grill!

Can I just tell you this was, by far, the best pizza I've ever made? I've made pizza in the oven for several years and it's just alright. I'd still rather order pizza, but the homemade is alright when we're being cheap. This pizza last night though I think I'd gladly make over ordering take-out pizza! The crust was a perfect, light-brown color and had just the right amount of crunch to it. The toppings were heated perfectly. I seriously am salivating right now and wishing there was some left over in the fridge!

Ok, so on to the how-to. Understand that this was my first time ever cooking pizza on the grill, so some of it was winging it and some of it was using bits of advice I received from various Facebook friends. The crust recipe came from The Pioneer Woman. (If you've never visited her site, prepare to be hooked. Did I mention she also gives away the coolest stuff?!) The pizza crust recipe can be found at the bottom of this page. She recommends letting the crust sit for at least 24 hours, but I didn't have that long so only let it sit 2 hours. It still tasted fantastic!

For the "sauce" I drained most of the water out of a large can of petite diced tomatoes and then dumped the tomatoes into a sauce pan. I added some seasonings (onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and sugar) and cooked it for about 30 minutes. Then I scooped the tomatoes (leaving as much liquid as I could in the pot) onto the crust and spread them out. Added some pizza cheese and some sliced, smoked sausage (the only topping type item I had in the house).

As you can see, I cooked it on my pizza pan, which has holes in the bottom. I think that helped with the crisp crust, although my crust has never been that crisp in the oven. Others have said they used a pizza stone, but I don't have one of those.

I had all four grill burners on and turned to low and I cooked the pizza for about 15 minutes. I used tongs to lift the edge of the crust every so often to see how the bottom was looking. This pizza was seriously perfection! I have the other half of the crust in my fridge for now and will move it to the freezer in a day or two, and I cannot wait to make it again!

Oh, and we also had the very first cucumber from my garden last night. Yum!