Backyard Dinner Party: Pizza on the Grill

You want to cook pizza like an Italian mama or a New York style pizza, you can now do it with your BBQ. Ooni designs pizza ovens primarily for this purpose and they excel in the field but did you know that you can also bake delicious pizzas in your charcoal or gas oven and the result will be just as divine?

We’ve found the best grills for making delicious pizzas and the tips and tricks from the pros to wow the gallery at your next BBQ party.

Ooni makes pizza simple

The Ooni company has only one mission: that you are able to prepare and enjoy the best pizza of your life. Their specialized pizza baking devices are lightweight, portable and extremely easy to use. The oven reaches 950 degrees in 15 minutes, the perfect temperature to bake a Neapolitan pizza in just 60 seconds.

Kamado BBQ for the perfect pizza

Whether it’s Big Green Egg or Kamado Joe, kamado-type grills are perfect for creating delicious pizzas. In fact, these grills cook and roast better and faster than wood-fired ovens ever could because the heat from the natural charcoal radiates through the thick ceramic walls of the dome, allowing food to cook quickly and evenly.

One of their latest innovations, the durable cast-aluminium DōJoe transforms the Kamado Joe into a best-in-class pizza oven. Ideal for beginners and expert chefs alike, the distinctive wedge shape of the DōJoe makes maintaining steady temperatures ranging from 400°F to 700°F effortless while also allowing grillers to easily see and monitor their pizza or other baked goods as they cook.

The convEGGtor is designed to facilitate indirect cooking on the Big Green Egg by providing a heat-directing barrier between the food and the fire, instantly transforming your EGG into an outdoor convection oven. The design of the convEGGtor, in conjunction with the thermal properties of the EGG, allows heat to efficiently radiate within the dome while preventing the flames and heat from over-cooking the food. You can bake and roast your way to culinary perfection with indirect heat using the convEGGtor and our Pizza/Baking Stones. Psssst you can even add the Eggspander and bake two pizzas at the same time.

Turn your gas bbq into a pizza oven

Your gas BBQ is more versatile than you think. Whether you have a Napoleon Prestige Pro Series BBQ with a pizza stone or a Saber grill with a Cordierite pizza stone that eliminates burns and creates a crisp, even dough you will have pizzas worthy of a chef.

Here are Ricardo’s tips for a successful pizza on a gas BBQ:

• First, preheat your barbecue and oil the grill. Bake the first side of your pizza dough directly on the wire rack until firm and toasted, about 1 minute.
• Then remove the pizza from the grill and top it with the already grilled side. Return pizza to barbecue for about 5 minutes or until crust is toasted and cheese is melted.

Ooni – Dough Hydration Explained

What is hydration? One of the most commonly asked questions… Simply put, it’s the amount of water you put into your pizza dough recipe. Usually it’s referred to as a percentage. For example, 1000g of flour and 600g of water – that’s 60% hydration. However, not all flour can handle high hydration, so it’s best to start low and work your way up.

Different pizza styles have different hydrations, and this is due to the characteristics of the finished product, and the flour types. For example, Detroit has a fairly high moisture content between 70 – 75%, whilst Neapolitan style generally sits at around the 55-60% mark.

The favorite accessory of the pizzaiolo

Used for launching, retrieving and turning your pizza, your peel is one of the most important tools in your pizza-making toolkit. Even the most experienced pizzaiolo have different preferences when it comes to their peel of choice, and many use a variety of peels at different times in the pizza-making process: bamboo peel, perforated peel, turning peel, pizza peel.

Recipes: it’s your turn!

That’s it, you want to put what you just learned into practice, here are some recipes:

100% Bigga from Ooni 

New York-style Pizza Dough from Ooni 

Pizza Calabrese from Saber 

Pizza Margherita from Big Green Egg

Easy weeknight grilled flatbread pizza from Weber

So what are you waiting for? prepare a pizza baked in the rules of the art, with its thin crispy crust, its melted cheese and its delicious tomatoes, and suddenly your terrace will remind you of the bustling streets of Naples.