How to Make Deep Dish Pizza in a Cast Iron Pan (Chicago Style)
Living in Chicago, you've got to accept certain facts. It's Cold for half the year, the Bears will break your heart, and every pizza debate will inevitably circle back to the city's most controversial culinary export: deep dish pizza. While I've got a soft spot for the city's lesser-known but equally deserving thin, crispy tavern style, every now and then I find myself craving that towering, cheese-filled monstrosity that is the deep dish.
Here's the thing about deep dish - it's audacious, unapologetic, a veritable pie filled with tomato sauce, a lake of molten cheese, and whatever toppings your heart desires. It's more a casserole than a traditional pizza, really. But despite the flak it catches from thin crust purists, there's something comforting about diving into a slice that's more skyscraper than flatbread. It's a meal, a statement, a gustatory challenge.
Yet, deep dish isn't the be-all and end-all of pizza, not even in Chicago. There's a certain elegance to the humble tavern style, with its cracker-thin crust, balanced toppings, and party-cut pieces. It's a different beast entirely and speaks to the heart of the city - no-nonsense, straightforward, delicious. So, whether you're team deep dish or thin crust, remember, we're all just here for the love of pizza, right? To each their own cheesy, saucy preference, I say. 🤘🏼Adam
Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients
Instructions
- Deep Dish Dough: Begin by mixing bread flour, cornmeal, salt, and instant yeast in a bowl. Stir in olive oil to coat the dry ingredients, stopping the formation of gluten. Pour in warm water and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and rest for 20 minutes. Attach the dough to a stand mixer with a dough hook and knead for 4 minutes, allow to rest for another 4 minutes, then knead again for 4 minutes. Remove dough, shape into a ball, return it to the covered mixing bowl, and let it rest for 2 hours.
- Tomato Sauce: In the meantime, create the chunky tomato sauce by blending canned San Marzano tomatoes until broken apart. Strain, reserve the juice for other uses, and transfer the crushed tomatoes to a bowl. Add salt, sugar, dried oregano, red wine vinegar, and optional fish sauce. Mix together and set aside.
- Cheese Preparation: Shred two types of mozzarella - whole milk and part skim - to create a rich, creamy, and less greasy mixture. Set aside.
- Italian Sausage: Use a premade Italian sausage or make your own according to the preferred recipe. If using premade sausages, remove the meat from the casings.
- Assembly: Butter a 10-inch or 12-inch cast iron pan and sprinkle the bottom and sides with crumbled parmesan cheese. After the dough has rested, press and pull it into a large circle that fits the pan. Lay the shredded mozzarella cheese into the dough, flatten the sausage by hand and place it over the cheese, followed by the tomato sauce. Finish with more parmesan crumble.
- Baking: Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C) and bake the pizza for 35 to 40 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting. For serving, you may cut the pizza directly in the cast iron, or remove it from the pan, slice, and then return it to the pan.
Adam's Notes
- The dough recipe makes enough for a pizza made in 10-12 inch cast iron pan.
- The cheese blend is 50/50 full-fat mozz to part-skim to get the best of both worlds. Flavor and richness from the fat, stretchiness and “not-too-greasiness” from the part-skim.
- For the Parm Crumble, add a medium hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to a blender or food processor and blitz it up into small crumbles. The leftover crumble saves well in the fridge and come in handy for other stuff.
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