Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

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Who doesn't love a good pizza?  As a former New Yorker, I will tell you that I have had some delicious pizza growing up.  Actually, my older brother and sister both worked in a pizza place, so many of my Friday nights were spent hanging around the restaurant or delivering pizzas with my brother!  I have a lot of fond childhood memories associated with pizza...sort of odd, but totally true.

As I've grown older, my love for the food has not faded.  I've tried many of the well-known pizza restaurants in DC from 2 Amys, to Pizzeria Paradiso, Pi Pizzeria, Matchbox, and my personal favorite Ella's.  So, when my boyfriend suggested that we make a Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza using his cast iron skillet, I was immediately intrigued.

This recipe is actually fairly simple and incredibly delicious.  We used a recipe from chow.com.  You will need:

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6-7 tablespoons water (start with 6 and increase to 7 as necessary)
• 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3/4 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

You can obviously use any mix of pizza toppings you like, but we used: 

• Cheese Mix: Cheedar, Provolone, Mozzarella
• Toppings: Chopped Red Onion, Green Pepper, 3 garlic cloves (minced), Mushrooms, Pepperoni, Jalapeno
• Sauce: Chopped Roma Tomatoes
• Spices: Dried Oregano, Basil

We started out by making the dough.  Simply mix all the ingredients together for 1 minute.  Then knead for 2 minutes and cover.  We then let the dough rise for 4 hours (recipe suggested 6 hours, but we were impatient).  Once the dough has risen, punch it down, cover once again and let it relax for 10-15 minutes.  At this point, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  

While the dough was resting, we chopped the vegetables.  Homemade veggie toppings are truly the best!

Once the dough is ready, roll it out and press it into the cast iron skillet.  Truthfully, we had a bit of trouble with the rolling portion of the recipe.  Maybe it was because we didn't have a rolling pin, and were using a drinking glass as a substitute?  At any rate, we tried about 4 times before successfully getting the dough to line the entire cast iron skillet.  You don't want the dough to simply line the bottom of the pan, but rather it should coat the entire side of the pan as well - to create that amazing thick crust! 

 

We grated our own cheese mixture.  Once the dough is in the skillet, add the cheese.

Next, add all of your other toppings in your preferred order.  We went with green pepper, then red onion, followed by jalapenos, then mushrooms, and finally pepperoni.  Last, the chopped tomatoes go on top of the pizza as the 'sauce'.  True Chicago style pizza doesn't have a typical sauce.  Spread the minced garlic over the top along with the dried oregano and basil. 

Keep an eye on the pizza once you put it in the oven.  I ended up turning the heat down to about 400 degrees with 10 minutes to go because the crust was starting to burn. We took the pizza out after the suggested 30 minutes, but if I made this recipe again, I'd probably have left it in for another 5 minutes.

The crust of this pizza was amazingly crunchy and flavorful.  The toppings all melded together nicely, though I would probably not include the cheddar cheese next time as the flavor was a bit overbearing.  I enjoyed the chopped tomatoes in lieu of a typical sauce, which you all know is a big statement for me (as I pretty much love any sauce more than life itself).  The basil and oregano added the perfect touch of spice and the minced garlic was the perfect touch.  

Have you ever made pizza at home?  What are your favorite pizza toppings?  Next time I'd love to try a BBQ Chicken pizza!