Guide to Grilling the Perfect Pizza from Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet

Freshly made pizza off the grill makes for a fantastic meal or appetizer, and it is quite easy to do. We recommend using a gas grill or hybrid grill because you will need to maintain a consistent temperature for over an hour (1 hour to pre-heat and about 10 minutes to cook).

Following are the basic instructions. A pizza dough recipe and a number of pizza recipes are available in our recipes section. You can buy fresh pizza dough at many markets, or you can make your own.

What You'll Need:

• A pizza baking stone that fits your grill over an indirect cooking zone.
• A wooden pizza peel.
• Pizza ingredients, including extra flour and corn meal.
• Wood chips or chunks.

Step One: Pre-heat the Pizza Stone

Place the pizza stone on the grill over an indirect cooking zone and preheat the grill to 500 degrees with the hood closed. The pizza stone will require about an hour to thoroughly come up to temperature.

While the stone is heating, set out the cheese, pizza dough and any other ingredients to bring them to room temperature before assembling the pizza.

At the one-hour mark, you should have wood smoking or about to smoke (See wood notes that follow).

Step Two: Cook the Pizza Ingredients

While the pizza stone is preheating, any raw meat ingredients, such as sausage, chicken or shrimp, should be cooked. No raw meat should be assembled on the pizza. You can grill food alongside the pizza stone as it pre-heats.

This is also a good time to roast garlic or grill onions, if you are including them on your pizza.

Step Three: Assemble the Pizza

All ingredients should be chopped, sliced and otherwise prepared before rolling out the pizza dough.

Roll out the fresh pizza dough using plenty of flour to prevent sticking. You can use a rolling pin dusted with flour or simply use your hands to stretch, flatten and shape the dough. The pizza crust should be a maximum of 1/4" thick, and sized to fit your pizza peel and stone. Sometimes it is easier to make multiple small pizzas than it is one large pizza.

Sprinkle the pizza peel with corn meal so that the pizza will slide off easily when you move it to the grill. Transfer the rolled-out pizza dough to the pizza peel before assembling the pizza.

Add the ingredients, and be sure not to overload the pizza.

Step Four: Cook the Pizza

Wood smoke should be going strong at this time (See wood notes that follow).

Bring the assembled pizza on the peel to the hot pizza stone. Maneuver the peel over the pizza stone, and gently shift the peel with a sliding motion to get the leading edge of the pizza crust just off the end of the peel. Touch the crust down to the stone and then quickly and smoothly slide the peel back from under the crust like a magician pulling the tablecloth out from under the place settings.

Close the grill lid and cook the pizza at 500°F for about ten to twelve minutes or until the crust is browned. After the fist five minutes, use grilling tongs to rotate the pizza one-half turn (180 degrees) on the stone to help it cook more evenly.

When the pizza is done, use grilling tongs once again to lift the edge of the pizza and pull it back onto the pizza peel to remove the pizza from the grill.

Sprinkle with any finishes, like fresh basil, parmesan or finishing salt, then slice and serve.

Wood Notes:

For Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet Hybrid Grills: Preheat the pizza stone with the solid fuel drawers (not the ceramic-lined gas drawers) over the active burners. You can pre-heat using gas alone or gas with charcoal or wood. After the ingredients are prepared, but before the crust is rolled out (about ten minutes before the pizza goes on the grill), put fresh wood into the solid fuel drawer over the active burner. Be careful not to cause a temperature spike, as a pizza will most likely burn if cooked at temperatures over 600°F.

For Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet Smoker Box Grills: We recommend having hot charcoal at the ready in the smoker about five to ten minutes before the pizza will go on the grill. At that time, add a generous number of large, dry wood chunks to the coals and close the smoker box door. The baffle to the cooking chamber should be wide open, and there is no need to snuff the fire in the smoker box.

For gas grills with smoking trays: The indirect cooking zone with the pizza stone is should be on the opposite side of the grill from the smoking tray (so that the burner under the smoking tray can be used). Ten minutes before the pizza goes on the grill, load the smoking tray with dry wood chips or chunks. There is no need to soak the wood chunks because the pizza will only cook for ten minutes.

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