Sling Dough on the Grill for Tailgating Pies by Andrea Lynn
If you’ve hit a bit of a rut in your tailgating menu plans, here’s a suggestion: Add a little pizza making into the mix. Homemade pizza can be targeted toward your specific needs. For example, I like my pizzas to be heavier on the tomato sauce and lighter on cheese, an easy fix when I make it myself. Also, using the grill to cook the dough infuses it with a slight, smoky flavor.
Store-bought pizza dough, available at a variety of grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market, makes whipping up your own pies easier than ever. The grocery store has already done the hard work—making the dough. All that’s left is the stretching and flinging of the dough on the grill and the creativity of tailgating-worthy toppings.
First, let’s tackle the stretching of the dough. While the following instructions describe how to use your hands to transform the room-temperature dough into a pizza crust, make sure you keep one thing in mind: Dough can have a mind of its own. If you’re not having any luck stretching out the dough, put it down. Let it rest 5 minutes and try again. Also, keep a backup pizza dough ready just in case.
As far as cooking the dough on the grill, another mistake to avoid is having uneven spots in the dough. Try and make it as even as possible because any ultra-thin parts will end up burning on the grill. To cook the pizza dough, place the dough onto the grill, cooking until the bottom side is browned. Remove from the grill, flipping it over and decorating it with toppings. Then, back on the grill to finish cooking. While I find tongs the easiest way to remove the pizza dough to transport onto a baking sheet, others recommend a pizza peel.
Another tip to be mindful of: While a restaurant pizza might be piled with toppings, you don’t want to go overboard when you’re creating your own. Otherwise, the dough will be weighed down. So, spend a little time mastering the dough first, and then use the recipes below, whether it’s the tropical flair of a grilled pineapple and ham pizza, a jalapeño pesto topped with scoops of ricotta cheese or Buffalo chicken wings transformed into pizza form, to make your tailgating festivities extra special.
Pizza Crust
YIELD 1 pizza
PREP TIME 10 minutes
COOKING TIME 10 minutes
1 (1-pound) ball store-bought pizza dough, at room temperature
1–2 tablespoons flour
canola oil, as needed
Grease the grates, and preheat the grill to high heat.
Sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour onto a cutting board, flouring the cutting board and your hands. Remove room temperature pizza dough from plastic. Slowly, stretch the dough on the back of your knuckles, rotating the dough and stretching it out into a circular shape. When the dough is stretched out to about 1 foot in diameter, place on the cutting board and stretch the pizza dough even more using your fingertips. If you are creating too many thin spots, stop stretching the dough, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again.
When the grill is preheated, transfer the dough from the cutting board, and place the dough directly onto the grill rack. Close the grill, and cook until the bottom crust is cooked, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, lift up the pizza and make sure the bottom side is browned and cooked. If so, remove from grill, and place on baking sheet with the bottom crust face-up. Follow the directions below to adorn your pizza with the toppings. Bring the baking sheet to the grill, and using tongs, transfer the pizza carefully back to the grill.
Bake until the bottom crust is fully cooked, about 2 to 3 minutes again. Using tongs, carefully transfer pizza back to the baking sheet. Cut into pieces, and serve.
Taco Pizza
This is the beauty of a taco except in a pizza form. If your version of a taco can’t be without beans, add 1/2 cup refried beans to the base of the pizza. Also, the pizza can be adorned with any toppings desired. The sky’s the limit.
YIELD 8 slices
ZEST FACTOR medium
PREP TIME 10 minutes
COOKING TIME 15 minutes
1⁄3 pound flank steak
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons chile powder
1 1⁄2 teaspoons cumin powder
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne powder
3⁄4 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend (or Cheddar cheese)
2 scallions, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1⁄4 cup chopped black olives
Hot sauce, as needed
Season the flank steak with salt and pepper. Place the skirt on the grill, covered, and cook about 5 minutes on each side. When flank steak is cooked to desired temp, transfer to a cutting board, and let rest for a few minutes. When cool enough to touch, cut steak into bite-sized pieces. In a medium bowl, add chile powder, cumin powder and cayenne powder, and mix together. Add steak pieces into the bowl, coating steak with spices.
When ready, top the pizza dough with the cheese and steak pieces. Transfer pizza back to the grill using tongs. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, covered, until the bottom of the crust is cooked and the cheese is bubbly. Transfer pizza from the grill to the baking sheet again using tongs. Garnish the taco pizza with a variety of toppings, like scallions, tomatoes and olives. Let pizza cool, cut, and serve with hot sauce.
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