(Cooking Pizza on a Blackstone Griddle)
An outdoor griddle is becoming more and more popular for expanding your alfresco kitchen – and this great appliance can cook up a delightful Griddle Pizza! So let’s explore cooking pizza on a griddle!
The advantage of the griddle for pizza over your indoor oven include the high heat and the resulting charred flavor, even heating, and the al fresco outdoor experience!
Why Use a Griddle to Cook Pizza
- Speedy Satisfaction: Griddle pizzas cook faster than traditional oven-baked pizzas. The direct heat means you’ll have your pizza ready to devour in no time.
- Versatile Flavors: The griddle can not only cook your pizza – but it can also cook your toppings. The griddle can be used to cook up vegetables, chicken, paneer, or even pepperoni. The griddle can put a slight caramelized taste to your toppings that’s hard to replicate just through baking a pizza in the oven.
- Outdoor Fun: Griddle pizzas are perfect for outdoor cooking – a patio, a campsite, or even your backyard. Just fire up the griddle, and you’re set for a delicious al fresco feast.
- Customizable Creativity: Like any pizza, using a griddle allows you to embrace creativity. You can experiment with different dough types, sauces, cheeses, and toppings to craft your unique masterpiece.
What You Need to Make Griddle Pizza
You’ll obviously need a griddle! Blackstone is currently the most recognized griddle maker on the market, with a variety of models available – and in many sizes.
We are also fans of the Pit Boss brand, and they also make a variety of models as well – with their table top models starting at $120.
You can also buy a griddle top to put on a number of different gas grills, such as this one by Traeger.
Many griddles come with lids, which are going to be pretty important in order to get the cheese on top cooked.
My Griddle Doesn’t Have a Lid!
If your griddle doesn’t have a lid, there’s a work around. However, it may not be perfect. You’ll need to improvise to cover the pizza with something while the toppings finish. This could be a baking pan, a wok lid, or, if there’s nothing else, you can use tin foil. It is really important that you have a way to safely remove the lid! A baking pan will get very hot and will not be easy to safely remove!
- Make sure your toppings are at room temperature – don’t pull them directly from the fridge.
- Preheat your griddle to medium-high.
- Stretch out your dough.
- Transfer the dough to your griddle with no toppings.
- After 3-4 minutes, your dough should be firm and you’ll need to flip it over.
- After flipping over the dough, turn the heat down to low-medium.
- Top your pizza while on the griddle. The hot side up will help transfer warmth to the toppings.
- You should finish topping the pizza in 3-4 minutes.
- Use either a large lid (such as from a wok) or else tin foil.
- Turn off the griddle and let the pizza rest on the heat for an additional 3 minutes.
Ingredients for Griddle Pizza
Obviously, you’re going to need pizza dough. We recommend our Easy Peasy Pizza dough but we also found Urban Slicer’s grilling pizza dough great for this – and the instructions couldn’t be simpler!
- 1 Pizza dough
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Pizza toppings of your choice:
- We’re using:
- 4 ounces of mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
- 3 ounces of pepperoni
- We’re using:
Instructions for Cooking Griddle Pizza
- If your grill is outside, make sure it’s clean.
- Preheat your griddle to medium-high heat (about 450 F).
- We have only suggested pepperoni as a topping here, but of course you can use any toppings you like.
- If you are going to cook your toppings (like peppers, veggies, or mushrooms), do that now. Depending on the toppings, you may need to use oil so that they don’t stick. When finished, remove the toppings from the heat while you prepare the dough.
- Flour a large cutting board and stretch out your pizza dough. It can be a circle, but if your cutting board or griddle is on the small size, you may prefer to make a rectangle. Same goes if you’re going to do “tavern-style” or “party cut” (meaning squares/rectangles). The cutting board will allow you to transfer your pizza from the kitchen to the griddle.
- Oil your griddle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and spread around with spatula or brush.
- Transfer the pizza dough onto the griddle and cook for 4 minutes and then use a spatula or pizza peel to flip it over.
- After the flip, you’ll want to work quickly to top the pizza.
- Spread pizza sauce evenly over the dough.
- Top with your desired toppings.
- Close the lid (or loosely cover with tin foil to trap the heat and cook the cheese).
- Check and rotate the pizza after 5 minutes – if the bottom is cooking faster than the top, reduce the temperature to medium or even turn the griddle off.
- The pizza should finish in another 4-6 minutes (9-10 minutes total on the second side, and 13-15 minutes total). Again, you may feel the top of the pizza needs a little more time, so don’t hesitate to turn off the griddle, close the lid, and let it rest for a couple more minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the griddle back to the cutting board and let it cool for a 3-5 minutes before slicing and serving. This will allow the cheese to set.
Tips for Cooking Pizza on a Blackstone Griddle
Here are some additional tips for cooking pizza on a Blackstone griddle:
- Using a pizza peel to transfer the pizza to and from the griddle will make it easier.
- Be quick topping the pizza so that it doesn’t overcook on the bottom before you can close the lid – and careful not to burn yourself!
- If you’re cooking multiple pizzas at once, stagger them on the griddle so that they have enough space to cook evenly.
- Keep an eye on your pizza while it’s cooking. The crust will start to brown and the cheese will start to melt and bubble when it’s done.
- And despite the fact that your griddle should heat evenly, you should still rotate it to make sure it cooks evenly.
- The bottom of the crust may be cooking faster than the top. If you see this happening, turn down (or turn off) the griddle and let it rest with the lid closed.
- Remove the pizza from the griddle and transfer to a cutting board as soon as it’s done cooking. This will help to prevent the crust from becoming overcooked.
- Let the pizza rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving. This will help the cheese to set and the flavors to meld.
Now, Your Turn!
The griddle can breathe new life into outdoor pizza making! Your sizzling griddle not only transforms the texture of the crust but elevates the flavors of every ingredient. Whether you prefer the classics like Pepperoni pizza or an adventurer ready to try Nashville Hot Chicken pizza, cooking pizza on a Blackstone griddle (or any griddle for that matter) offers an exciting culinary journey. So, the next time you’re planning pizza night, consider stepping out of your comfort zone and up to the sizzling griddle!
Blackstone Griddle Pizza Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Pizza Griddle (Such as a Blackstone)
- 1 Pizza Peel Optional
- 1 Pizza Cutter
Ingredients
- 1 12" Pizza Dough Store-bought, or try our recipe for Easy Peasy Dough
- 1 Tbsp AP flour While stretching the dough
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil If using a pizza pan/cookie sheet
- .5 cups Pizza Sauce Store-bought or homemade
- 4 ounces Mozzerella Cheese Equals about one cup
- 3 ounces Pepperoni (or substitute speck!)
Instructions
- Preheat your Blackstone to 450 degrees.
- Prepare your pizza dough. While you can use many freshly made doughs about 20 minutes after making it, most store-bought pizza doughs must be out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes to warm up to room temperature. Check your recipe (or the dough's instructions if you're using store-bought).
- We have only suggested pepperoni as a topping here, but of course you can use any toppings you like.If you are going to cook your toppings (like peppers, veggies, or mushrooms), do that now. Depending on the toppings, you may need to use oil so that they don’t stick. When finished, remove the toppings from the heat while you prepare the dough.
- Flour a large cutting board and stretch out your pizza dough. It can be a circle, but if your cutting board or griddle is on the small size, you may prefer to make a rectangle. Same goes if you’re going to do “tavern-style” or “party cut” (meaning squares/rectangles).
- Oil your griddle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and spread around with spatula or brush.
- Transfer the pizza dough onto the griddle and cook for 4 minutes and then use a spatula or pizza peel to flip it over.
- After the first flip, you’ll want to work quickly to top the pizza. – Spread pizza sauce evenly over the dough.– Top with your desired toppings.– Close the lid (or loosely cover with tin foil to trap the heat and cook the cheese).
- Check and rotate the pizza after 5 minutes – if the bottom is cooking faster than the top, reduce the temperature to medium or even turn the griddle off.
- The pizza should finish in another 4-6 minutes (9-10 minutes total on the second side, and 13-15 minutes total). Again, you may feel the top of the pizza needs a little more time, so don't hesitate to turn off the griddle, close the lid, and let it rest for a couple more minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the griddle to a cutting board and let it cool for a few 3-5 minutes before slicing and serving. This will allow the cheese to set.
Nutrition
Todd’s cooking skills have revolved around the grill since about age 12, when he developed a love for grilling and took over for Mom at the BBQ. He worked at Wendy’s and at Earl’s Tin Palace (a restaurant chain in Canada) but never really did any sort of baking…until he and Heather started making pizza together! Now he’s often making dough in the mornings and pizza in the evenings.