Pizza’s so popular that it’s threatening to take over other foods. Name another food and it’s almost certainly been used as a topping, or even as part of a sauce or base! (Check out our Pinterest account for recipes using cauliflower and zucchini as crusts!) Likewise, other cooking techniques have been used to make pizza; you can find slow cooker pizza, pizza sandwiches, pizza toast – just about any food-prep appliance in your home can be used to make pizza. The grill is no exception! It’s (obviously) a great source of high heat, and it adds that wonderful smoky flavor to give your food an extra dimension. Now, there are a few things that differ when using the grill to cook your pizza (as opposed to the oven), so here are 5 tips for great grilled pizza.

Smoked Pizza

One thing you can do specifically on the grill that you can’t do in your oven is to smoke your pizza. The complex flavors that are produced by smoke just so happen to taste amazing with common core pizza ingredients like cheeses, meats, and vegetables. You can even choose different types of wood to produce a flavor profile specific to the ingredients you’re working with. There are even woods that work well with any protein. Here are some examples of a few common types of smoking woods and the meats they go best with:

• Oak wood: great for all types of meat.
• Cherry wood: beef, lamb, game, poultry, and ham.
• Apple wood: poultry, ribs, pork, sausage, and ham.
• Maple wood: poultry, pork, ham, bacon, and cheese.
• Olive wood: lamb, poultry, and seafood.

Grilling Your Toppings

A simple and sometimes overlooked technique is to grill any ingredients that normally require cooking before they go on a pizza. Some examples are raw meats, winter squash, kale, thick mushrooms, onions and bell peppers. Simply using your grill (and in some cases a grill wok, basket, or grid) to pre-cook the ingredients that need it will produce smoky flavor that will turn up the volume for your taste buds.

Opening the Lid (Or Not)

This is a common mistake made by rookie pizza grillers. If you’ve never grilled a pizza, the natural urge is to put the pizza in and check on it periodically by lifting the hood. This is understandable with your very first grilled pizza, so when you bake it, pay attention to how long it’s taking to bake and when you need to rotate it. That way you’ll know just how long to bake future pizzas, and when they need to be rotated for even cooking. Opening the lid less ultimately means you’ll lose less of that precious high heat needed to cook a great pizza.

Using the Rotisserie Burner

In my opinion, the biggest problem with grilled pizza is getting the top of the pie cooked perfectly. Grills provide plenty of heat below the pizza, since that’s where the fuel source is located, but often they can’t fully brown or char the top of the pizza. One way to remedy this is to use the rotisserie burner if your grill has one. Simply position your pizza stone 1-2 inches in front of the burner, and as your pizza is nearly finished (1-2 minutes before done) turn on the rotisserie burner and rotate it to brown the outer and upper crust. This technique may take some practice, but will produce a superior upper crust.

Choosing the Right Tools

While it’s possible to grill a pizza directly on the grill grates, some of you won’t be entirely comfortable doing that – which is perfectly understandable! Thankfully there are a myriad of tools to help you successfully grill your first pizza. We suggest picking up a pizza stone (especially our Perfect Pizza Grilling Stone) or cast-iron pizza pan along with one or two pizza peels. A pizza screen can also be helpful for getting a good browning on the top of the pizza because they slow down the rate at which the bottom crust cooks, allowing the top to catch up.

Gas vs. Charcoal

When it comes to the two, the hands-down easier approach is to try your first grilled pizza on a gas grill. Consistent temperatures are better for baking, and any experienced griller will tell you gas grills are definitely superior to charcoal in this case. If you do use charcoal, it’ll make things a lot easier to keep your charcoal in a ring shape around the outermost portion of your grill. Place your pizza stone in the center of the ring, with no coals underneath it so that it won’t overheat. Also, keep in mind your pizza stone will take time to preheat once the coals are lit, so plan on using a few more scoops of briquettes than you normally would.

The next time you plan pizza night, plan to bake your pizza on the grill. We promise your oven won’t get jealous! With these tips and tricks you’ll be on well on your way to a perfectly grilled pie.

Daniel Replogle

Daniel does business development and marketing at The Companion Group. When he isn’t writing you can find him rock climbing or doing ceramic artwork.