How to Grill a Pizza

I posted about making a sourdough pizza on our new electric grill last week ahead of doing a fun race—the ELEVATE challenge at Blue Mountain with City Shred—and the number of comments I got about it were ridiculous. So, I thought I’d share a quick how-to, since pizza is my go-to pre-race meal. (I once did a story about what elite marathoners did for pre-race meals and 9 out of 10 said pizza.)

Sourdough Pizza on the Grill

The sourdough crust

• Use my lazy sourdough recipe here to make your dough (you just need water, flour, salt and sourdough starter)
• Let it proof for 24 hours in the fridge (you could also just do the 12 hour proof on the counter, but I think the slower proof works better for the pizza dough)

The toppings

You can do whatever you want, obviously, but we were out of pizza sauce so I got creative with a margherita pizza and a chicken-veggie-with-balsamic vibe

• Basic balsamic reduction: Bring a cup of balsamic vinegar to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and let simmer with lid off, stirring occasionally. You want it to thicken and reduce to about a third of a cup. Pour into a gravy boat or measuring cup (something that makes it easy to drizzle on top of pizza)
• In what’s left in the pot from the balsamic reduction, add a bit of olive oil and sauté tomatoes and onions and spinach in the leftover reduction
• I shredded chunks of leftover chicken, but could have also used steak, pepperoni, sausage, whatever
• On the other pizza, we had sauteed spinach, thin sliced tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese

Grill It

• Pull your sourdough out and envelope it a few times to get as much air out as possible, then split in in two
• Preheat the grill to cook at high for 12 min
• When it tells you to add food (seriously, the Ninja Woodfire 7-in-1 Outdoor Grill is incredible), spray it with PAM or coat with olive oil
• OK, here’s where it gets tricky. I tried rolling out the sourdough on a floury piece of wax paper but it’s so springy that it didn’t want to stick! So… I suggest just taking that half of your sourdough dough and putting it directly in the center of the grill, then use your hands or a spatula to press it outward to fit across as much of the grill as possible. As it quickly starts to bake, it will stay spread out.
• (DO NOT PRE-BAKE AND FLIP YOUR PIZZA CRUST before adding toppings. It does not need it. I tried this and ended up with it crisped on the top so the topping just slid right off. So disappointing.)
• Once you have it spread out, add all of your topping EXCEPT for the cheese, unless you want your cheese crispy (this was my main mistake the first time I did this—because the Ninja grill uses convection, it heats the top of your food fast, and the cheese only needs a minute!)
• With 2 minutes to go, open the lid and add your cheese
• When it says done, it’s done! Easy.