January 29, 2021

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Name: Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 170 min
Ingredients: 1½ cup water; 2 tsp dry active yeast; 4 cups all purpose flour; 3 tsp salt; 2 tsp sugar; 1 tbsp olive oil (optional); ½ can stewed or diced tomatoes (finely diced/mashed (or 5 medium tomatoes equivalent, stewed)); ¼ small onion (finely chopped); ½ jalapeno (optional ); 2 clove garlic (finely diced); 1 tsp oregano; 1 tsp basil; 1 tsp thyme; 1 tsp tarragon (optional); salt and pepper (to taste); 4 slices bacon (optional, cooked or uncooked ); 1 tbsp butter (olive oil for vegan); 1 cup mozzarella or provolone (shredded or thick sliced - more if you want, to skimp ); Mushrooms; Green Pepper; Jalapeno; Whatever meat you can imagine...!

Home Cooked Feast for all!

The kingpin of pan pizzas

I would describe deep dish pizza as “so good, so deep”. On a less innuendo-y note, until last weekend when I made one, I had been craving deep dish pizza for several months. I had the most amazing deep dish in this cute little place over on West Washington Blvd when I… just kidding – this isn’t that kind of blog. Take the plunge into flavour town from cast-iron-land and try this recipe for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

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I’m not a baker; so you can too!

As you know, I am not in any way trained in culinary (other than random tips from the internet). So when baking a pizza in a cast iron pan came to me in a dream, I was so, so, so excited to tell everyone! But boy was ever disappointed to learn the next day (on the internet) that not only are cast iron pizzas a thing, they are super popular and really easy to do!

Well, ok it’s not that easy. First, you have to make dough, then rise the dough, then shape it, fill it and bake it (and make everything that goes into doing it)! But it’s not nearly as hard as you think. [that’s what she said?]

Sauce

No red-sauce pizza is complete without a really Simple Marinara Sauce! I’ve used this very basic recipe all over the place and with a little improve and a little love, this is the best sauce I’ve ever made for any kind of pizza!

Non-Deep Dish

Deep dish dough isn’t much different than my Really Easy Pizza Dough, so if you don’t have a cast-iron pan or just prefer thin-to-regular crust pizza, give that shot!

Cast-iron deep dish

The tipping point for me to finally getting off my butt and satisfy my deep dish craving was the second season finally of Paradise PD on Netflix. In this episode, [possible spoiler alert] “The Kingpin” plans to enclose the town of Paradise with deep dish pizza cheese and sauce, then detonate a nuke to bake everything. His plan was foiled but after that, I couldn’t stop thinking of that thick dough, delicious melted cheese and tangy home made pizza marinara. And so, my dinner was born (and two lunches of leftovers after that!)

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza

It came to me in a dream but then it turned out to already be a thing. Here's my very simple, very doable take on Chicago-style cast-iron deep dish pizza

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Rising Time 2 hrs

Total Time 2 hrs 50 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Calories 550 kcal

Equipment

Cast iron pan (12-inch)

Ingredients

Dough

1½ cup water
2 tsp dry active yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil optional

Sauce – https://www.homecookedfeast.com/simple-pizza-marinara/

½ can stewed or diced tomatoes finely diced/mashed (or 5 medium tomatoes equivalent, stewed)
¼ small onion finely chopped
½ jalapeno optional
2 clove garlic finely diced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp tarragon optional
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices bacon optional, cooked or uncooked
1 tbsp butter olive oil for vegan

Cheese

1 cup mozzarella or provolone shredded or thick sliced – more if you want, to skimp

Meat and toppings

Mushrooms
Green Pepper
Jalapeno
Whatever meat you can imagine…!

Instructions

In a bowl or saucepan, mix water, yeast and sugar and let sit until it becomes foamy, approx 5 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, add flour, salt (and oil) and mix until and mix with water/yeast mixture. If using a kitchen mixer, use dough hook and run until dough becomes fully mixed and smooth. If by hand, mix with spoon/spatula until becomes rough, cohesive unit and then move to cutting board or countertop and kneed by hand until smooth, not tacky. Add extra flour or water as required.
Dust with flour, set aside for 1-2 hours (until doubled in size).

Sauce

In the meantime, prepare marinara sauce.
Melt butter in saucepan on medium-low heat. Toss in onion and pepper and stir until lightly browned/translucent
Add tomato, garlic and spices.
Simmer until reduced to a nice thick, but spreadable sauce, approx 15-20 minutes. The goal is to have a nice cohesive, but liquid sauce. Imagine the consistency of bolognese/meat sauce.

Shred Cheese.

Prepare any meat you would like to use.

Assemble pizza

Preheat oven to 425°F/220°C
Cut dough ball in half, roll or stretch flat with hands until about 1cm/½ inch thick.
Dust cast iron pan with flour, lightly drizzle with olive oil or butter. Line entire cast iron pan (and up the sides) with pizza dough, poke with a fork if any bubbles arise.
Take grated cheese and line the entire bottom of the pizza (that's what makes it Chicago style!). Feel free to save some cheese for the top too (I like that).
Next, add, in order, marinara. On top of this and/or mixed in, add any vegetables and/or meat that you can dream. My favorites are ground beef, uncooked bacon, Italian sausage, etc. but you can literally use anything you can imagine.
You're good to go! Bake pizza for 25-30 min (depending on thickness) until crust becomes nicely golden brown.
Let rest 3-5 minutes prior to cutting. Consider eating with a knife and fork. Enjoy!