Big Green Egg owners know a secret: The Big Green Egg bakes better than wood-fired ovens, because heat from the charcoal radiates in a convective flow within the thick ceramic walls of the dome, allowing your food to bake quickly and evenly. There’s no need to buy a high-priced pizza oven when you can bake a perfect pizza with indirect heat simply using the convEGGtor and a pizza and baking stone in your EGG!
Bill Cariss is an EGGhead and, along with his wife, has been a staple team at our Eggfests and Open Houses for years, serving fresh-baked pizza to our waiting guests who are always ready to try another delicious slice.
Bill was willing to share his own Big Green Egg pizza recipe here on our blog. We hope you try it for yourself!
The Big Green Egg is an excellent choice for both grilling and smoking, as well as baking desserts and casseroles with a wood-fired flavor. It is charcoal-fired, but fuel-efficient and easy to use and maintain. On top of that, the lifetime warranty covers cracks and more.
Here at Meadow Creek Barbecue Supply we're a platinum Big Green Egg dealer which means we keep all 7 sizes in stock along with over 100 Big Green Egg branded accessories to expand the capacity and functions of the Eggs.
For this recipe, you’ll need a Big Green Egg and the optional convEGGtor, baking stone, pizza peel (Bill prefers the metal peel), and EGGspander multi-level rack.
Brushing the crust with olive oil
Adding the sauce
Sprinkling on the mozzarella cheese
Adding pepperoni
Putting the assembled pizza on the grill
The delicious, fresh-baked pizza
Need barbecue supplies? Visit us at 140 W Main Street in New Holland, PA (store hours at the bottom of this page) for rubs, sauces, thermometers, gloves, gadgets, charcoal, pellets, and everything else you need to cook outdoors. You can also browse hundreds of products in our online catalog.
Grilled Pizza Recipe on the Big Green Egg
Ingredients
Pizza
- Fontanini pie crust
- Sita olive oil
- All-Purpose Pizza Sauce (see recipe, including secret ingredient, below)
- Pepperoni and/or sausage of your choice
- Grated mozzarella cheese
- Yellow corn meal
All-Purpose Pizza Sauce
- 1 can (28-ounce) crushed tomatoes The best brand of tomatoes for pizza sauce is the one you like best. (I like Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes with basil.) They all work well. You may find that your tomatoes are a bit too juicy. If so, drain them, but reserve the juice in case you need it later. You may not need to add the extra water.
- 1-1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (Skip this if you use Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes with basil.)
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/3 - 2/3 cup apple sauce (secret ingredient, works as a sugar replacement)
- 1/8 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
How to Set Up the Big Green Egg for Pizza
- Set up the Egg for indirect cooking with the convEGGtor legs up.
- Place the EGGspander on the grate. If you don’t have an EGGspander, place the pizza stone on the grate. (The EGGspander allows you to bake higher in the Egg at a higher temperature).
- Preheat the Egg, plate setter, and pizza stone together to 600 degrees F.
Making the Pizza
- Brush a light coat of oil onto the crust, making sure you apply it to the edge.
- Add the pizza sauce to the crust, keeping it about an inch from the edge.
- Add the pepperoni, sausage, or other meat.
- Add the cheese.
- Spread a light sprinkling of corn meal on the hot baking stone.
- Bake the pizza for about five minutes.
- After you “burp” the Egg, check for a nice light golden edge. If it hasn’t formed, bake it for another minute. The time to cook each crust will vary depending on how moist it is.
- Rest the pizza for a couple of minutes.
Making the Sauce
- Drain the tomatoes and set aside the juice.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the apple sauce, salt, and tomato juice.
- Taste the sauce and whisk in the apple sauce and salt to taste. If necessary, add more tomato juice to thin the sauce. The sauce should spread easily over the dough—if the sauce is thick at this stage, it will be pasty on the pizza.
- Taste the sauce again and adjust the apple sauce or salt if needed.
- This sauce doesn’t need cooking because the tomatoes are cooked when they are canned and the sauce cooks on the egg. Resist the urge to use too much sauce; the sauce should kiss the dough. For a 10-inch pizza, use 1/4 cup of sauce (3 ounces). For a 12-inch, use 1/3 cup (4 ounces).
