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How to Grill Pizza – Pizza Grilling Tips

I’ve been yammering on for a couple weeks about how good the pizza is that we’ve prepared on our grill. So today I’m sharing how to grill pizza, along with some pizza grilling tips and tricks I’ve learned from making a few pizzas on the grill. Seriously, you have to try this sometime this summer. The pizza is so good.

How to grill pizza

Preheat your pizza stone

Using the thermometer on the grill, we preheat the grill to 400 degrees before putting the pizza dough on the pizza stone.

Cornmeal is your friend

Cornmeal will keep the pizza from sticking to the pizza stone, plus it gives the pizza crust an extra crunch. We learned this the hard way with the first pizza we made on the grill. I used a little bit of flour on the pizza stone and the pizza stuck to the stone like crazy. (FYI, I may have used a smidge too much cornmeal when I made the barbecue chicken pizza.)

This is our very first pizza we made on the pizza stone on the grill. It stuck to the stone because I didn’t use cornmeal, and it’s misshapen because I had to fold it like a calzone, put it on the stone, unfold it, and cover it with more cheese to hide the hot mess that it was. Learn from my mistake.

pizza

Build your pizza on the pizza stone

I found this to be the easiest way. Instead of trying to slide a doughy pizza on to the stone, I quickly build the pizza on the stone. Really, it shouldn’t take you very long if you have all your ingredients ready to go. I’m pretty sure the pros can build a pizza in 20 seconds.

grilling-pizza

Like my fancy schmancy GIF? And yes, I most definitely built my barbecue chicken pizza that fast. I’m giving Papa John a run for his money. Look out, Mr. Schnatter.

Remove the pizza from the pizza stone once it’s done cooking

Or it will continue to cook on the hot stone/grill even though the grill is turned off. I cut the pizza with a pizza cutter and use a spatula to move it onto a baking sheet. Then I cut the rest of the pizza and plate it to be served.

barbecue chicken pizza

Make sure you read the washing directions for your pizza stone

Our pizza stone is not dishwasher safe, so we simply rinse it in the sink. We don’t even use soap because the stone will absorb the soap. Some people will say to not even get a pizza stone wet. If you’re worried about germs and food contamination, as long as you preheat the stone before using it again it should kill any bacteria.

Your pizza stone won’t remain pretty like it did when you got it out of the box

Stains and discoloration are normal. It adds character.

grilling pizza

Now, I will admit the barbecue chicken pizza featured in this post wasn’t my best pizza. It’s a delicious pizza, but we had a little bit of a technical issue when making it. It had rained a lot the day I made this pizza, which caused some water to get into our grill (even though it was covered) and make the burners act up. So the pizza got a little more toasty than what we like.

Happy pizza grilling!

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20 Comments

  1. Shelley Scott says:

    Hi, I was just wondering if the pizza stone is the same as the ones sold by Pampered Chef that you use in the oven? Thanks, can’t wait to try this!!

    1. I have no idea. It’s made specifically for grills. If you click on the light blue text it will take you directly to the pizza stone.

  2. Mmm… grilled pizza is my favorite! We have a pampered chef stone that we use in the oven, but we throw our (super thin) crusts right on our grill grates.

    Love the fancy gif!

    1. I’m glad someone appreciates the hard work I put into that GIF. 🙂 I’ll have to try this pizza stone in our oven this winter. I imagine it’d work just as well with the grill. I’d try the throw the crust on the grill gates thing but Brad doesn’t like super thin crust. Fun ruiner.

  3. Do you use the burners directly under your pizza stone or do you have to have them turned off?

  4. invest in a wooden pizza peel. it’s super easy to transfer your pizza dough to the hot pizza stone and you don’t have to rush the process. you just put the corn meal on the pizza peel and slide the entire pizza right on the hot stone. Also, I’ve learned to make my pizza’s smaller. 2 small pizzas instead of one large makes it easier to transfer with less mess. They cook so fast so it’s not like you have to wait for the 2nd pizza. Pizza peels can be

  5. Marissa Luke says:

    We made grilled pizza last night following your tips and HOLY AMAZING! The corn meal made all the difference! Thanks for the tips!

  6. We have a smoker/ grill, so we end up smoking our pizza’s and it’s delicious. We are afraid to put our pizza in the smoker in case it breaks.

  7. Whitney Lacroix says:

    We have been grilling pizza for years! We make ours without a pizza stone and just throw the dough right on the grates of the grill. Here are my steps…
    1. With clean grill grates, brush the grill with olive oil. (I use a silicone brush as it doesn’t burn on the hot grill)
    2. Stretch the dough out and place it right on the grill with nothing on it (Don’t worry, it won’t fall through!)
    3. Close the lid and leave it on for a few minutes. Check it every so often to make sure you aren’t getting any big bubbles (pop them if you do!). Leave it on just until the bottom has a few grill marks on it.
    4. Pull the dough completely off the grill and flip it upside down on a pizza board. (the grilled side should now be up).
    5. Put your sauce, cheese and toppings on the pizza and put it back on the grill. (I usually oil the grill again just to prevent sticking)
    6. Once the cheese is melted and the bottom has some grill marks, pull it off and enjoy!

    **Tips, you have a better chance of not burning the dough if you leave the grill on a little lower temperature, usually around 350 is good. Lots of flour when you are rolling out the dough makes it easy to stretch and keeps it from sticking to the grill. The dough will shrink a little once its on the grill so try to get it as thin as possible… sometimes this requires two people to get it on the grill successfully without tearing!

    Hope you guys will give it a try, its amazing! Enjoy!

  8. Building your pizza on your stone on the grill is super smart. I would never have thought of that. Also, I had no idea you could get pizza stones at Lowes! Go figure. Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday!

  9. I have never tried this before! My husband is always looking for things he can grill. He would rather be using a grill than the stove. Thanks for linking up with Delicious Dishes Recipe Party!

  10. Oh my goodness! I have been wanting to try to grill pizzas for so long & you totally motivated me! Thank you so much for sharing at #HomeMattersParty

  11. So you heat the pizza stone in the grill to 400 degrees and then take it off the grill to build your pizza or you just open the lid and build it on the grill and then heat it up all over again? I have an aluminum pizza peel and I can never get the dough off of it onto the stone. Does a wooden pizza peel make a difference?

    1. I keep the grill set to 400 degrees while I build the pizza on the stone in the grill. I have no issues getting the pizza off the stone due to the cornmeal.

  12. We find it easier to leave the pizza stone in the grill while heating the grill up. We make the pizzas on parchment paper and set it on pizza stone to cook.
    About halfway through the cooking process you can easily pull parchment paper out.

  13. These tips to grill the pizza is very helpful for the beginners and also for those who doesn’t know how to make it in proper way as this will help them to grill it in proper way as the taste of the grilled pizza is totally different from the other pizzas which is not made in grilling.

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