If you’re wondering how to smoke a pizza, you’ve come to the right place! Everyone, and I mean everyone, loves pizza. Doesn’t matter if you are going for a Chicago deep dish, one of those New York slices that you have to tri-fold just to eat, or to your local Papa Murphy’s for some classic take and bake. Everyone agrees that pizza is pretty much the greatest food ever invented. What we might not agree on are the toppings. Now, I’m not a traditionalist when it comes to pizza, who only puts sauce and cheese on the dough. That’s what makes pizza delicious, it’s a delivery mechanism for other delicious foods. So, in a salute to one of the greatest delivery mechanisms ever conceived, I give you the Pellet Smoker Pizza.
Unless you’re one of those fancy people who have a pizza oven in their backyard, you probably feel like you are stuck setting your oven to 375 and heating up the whole house to bake a pizza. Fear not! Smokers, barbecues, and grills are basically just ovens fueled by fire, so light it up and prep your favorite toppings for a smoked pizza experience that you would probably pay $30 for at a restaurant. This is an artisan pizza, that means everything is done by hand! From the dough to the sauce, to the toppings. Now, if you want to save some time you can buy pre-made dough from stores like new seasons or trader Joe’s, or from your local pizzeria, you can open up a can of your favorite tomato sauce, and you can scour the store for pre-cooked and pre-cut toppings, but where’s the fun in that?!
How to Make Pellet Smoker Pizza
As previously mentioned, this recipe is about doing everything by hand. It’s not complicated, but it is pretty involved, so I’m going to break it down into steps like I did the Smoked Breakfast Granola.
The Pellet Smoker Pizza Dough
Do not skimp on the dough for your Pellet Smoker Pizza. The dough is the delivery mechanism of the sauce and toppings and deserves just as much attention as everything else that goes on to your pizza. You’ve had it, I’ve had it, and it’s a shame it even exists, but there are pizzas out there where the dough tastes like cardboard. Don’t make a pizza like that.
Place the warm water into a large mixing bowl. Yes, the temperature does matter, you want it to be warm enough to activate the yeast but not so warm that it kills the yeast. Add in the sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes to allow the yeast to wake up and start munching away on all the sugar. You want to see bubbles forming on the surface to make sure the yeast is alive and well.
Stir in the olive oil until it’s well mixed (as best you can, something about oil and water not mixing). Add two cups of flour and the salt and mix until you can form a giant dough ball. This part is pretty sticky so is okay to use a spatula.
Flour the surface of your counter or workspace and begin kneading, adding flour as you go until the dough is smooth and looks like what Mario flings in your local pizzeria. Roll the dough into the shape you want your final product to be and prick with the tines of a fork to prevent air bubbles once it bakes. At this point, you can choose to pre-bake the dough for about 5 minutes if you wish, however, I choose to just sauce and top the raw dough. Your pizza dough is ready for the next step!
The Pellet Smoker Pizza Sauce
The sauce is, again, something that pizza lovers all over the world might disagree on. If you’re going for classic pizza, follow these instructions for a great tomato sauce. If you want to mix it up a little bit you can use a pre-made barbecue sauce, pesto, alfredo sauce, whatever floats your boat. Maybe try a breakfast pizza with some hollandaise sauce or a dessert pizza with some chocolate sauce!
This sauce is pretty simple and only requires seasonings that you probably have in your cupboard and some tomato product. Combine the can of tomato paste and tomato sauce, stirring to break down the big chunks of tomato paste. Then stir in the seasonings, I went with Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic salt, fresh cracked pepper, and sugar. Stir well, then it’s ready to sauce your pizza dough and move on to the toppings!
The Pellet Smoker Pizza Toppings
This is where all the major arguments happen over pizza. I’m pretty sure wars have been fought over it. If not wars, at least major family arguments. Are you on the side of pineapple on pizza, or the side that says “fruit doesn’t belong on pizza!” Whatever toppings you may choose, cook them with care and the pizza will be all the better for it. But, beware, if you’re like me your eye for toppings is bigger than your pizza crust, so top conservatively.
For this particular post and recipe, we went classic with a Neapolitan pizza. Tomato sauce, burrata cheese, and fresh basil leaves. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am your pizza’s ready for the fire. Read on below if you are interested in other toppings.
Cooking the Pellet Smoker Pizza
A lot of time went into answering the question, “what temperature do you cook pizza on a pellet grill.” Appropriate temperature is the difference between perfect pizza, and black crunchy crispy dough. Much like anything on the grill, you need to control the temperature and the time. Set your smoker to 450 and preheat (this can be done while assembling the toppings on your pizza). Once you have reached 450 degrees place the pizza on the smoker and cook for 15 to 25 minutes.
Be sure to check in every once in a while to make sure you pull it off when the crust looks perfectly golden brown. You may want to use a pizza stone, that you should preheat and top with cornmeal, or a pizza baking sheet to make getting the pizza on and off the smoker easier. You can cook pizza on a pellet grill without stone, but using one makes it so much easier! Most things on the smoker I will tell you to let rest before serving. Pizza is not something that you let rest. Serve right away and start eating as soon as it won’t burn the crap out of your mouth.
Other Toppings
The day we cooked the Pellet Smoker Pizza, we actually did two different pizzas. The only thing that was the same was the dough underneath. Our second version of the pizza had a barbecue sauce base. I added in cubes of my previously made smoked Italian chicken breast. I sauteed red onions in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes to top, and I added mozzarella, parmesan, and Romano cheese. As I mentioned before, there’s no wrong way to do pizza!
Pellet Smoker Pizza
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup warm water 105-110 degrees
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2-2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 1-2 tbsp oregano
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tbsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
Toppings
- Burrata cheese
- 5-7 fresh basil leaves
Instructions
Dough
- Put warm water into a large mixing bowl.
- Add sugar and yeast and stir to combine.
- Let mixture sit for 5 minutes, or until it becomes frothy and bubbles form.
- Add olive oil and gently stir to combine.
- Add 2 cups of flour and salt and mix with a spatula until a ball begins to form (dough will still be slightly sticky). Add more flour as needed to form a dough ball.
- Transfer to a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough, adding up to ½ cup extra flour if needed.
- Roll dough into your desired shape and gently transfer to a prepared pan.
Sauce
- Mix tomato paste and sauce together in a medium size bowl until well combined (all the lumps of paste are incorporated into the sauce).
- Add the rest of the ingredients (oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, pepper and sugar) and mix well.
Assembly and Cooking
- Start smoker and set temperature to 450 degrees. Place your pizza stone on if you are using one and let it preheat as the smoker heats up.
- Poke your dough all around with a fork to prevent air pockets.
- Ladle desired amount of sauce onto your prepared dough.
- Slice the Burrata cheese into medallions and place around the top of your pizza.
- Use an herb cutter or tear basil leaves into 1/4 inch pieces and spread over the pizza.
- Once your smoker is preheated and your pizza stone (if you are using one) is heated place the pizza on and begin cooking with the lid closed, roughly 15-20 minutes for a perfectly golden brown crust.
Nutrition
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2 responses to “Pellet Smoker Pizza”
Oh man I’ve been looking for a pizza recipe for my traeger, thank you so much!
Thank you so much, Angela!