Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Must try if you visit Chicago. And now I can make it at home! Thanks for the recipe - Josh

As a good Chicagoan, I am in love with Chicago-style pizza. I grew up eating deep dish pizza every Friday night with my family. Since we moved to Spain, we haven't stopped thinking about it. The buttery crisp crust, gooey cheese that stretches forever, the spicy fennel infused Italian sausage, and the tangy tomato sauce to balance it out is what I'm talking about. We had to come up with this recipe because we missed it so much and it hit all the marks, making this the best Chicago style pizza we've ever had.

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Ingredients

- DOUGH :

- 275ml or 1.15 cups water

- 8g or 1.5tsp instant yeast

- 450g or 3.5 cups bread flour

- 55g or 0.25 cups corn meal

- 10g or 2tsp salt

- 5g or 1tsp white sugar

- 25ml or 1.5tbsp olive oil

- 25ml or 1.5tbsp vegetable oil

- 55g or 0.25 cups soft butter

- CRUSHED TOMATOES:

- 45ml or 3tbsp olive oil

- 1 medium onion

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 5g or 1tsp salt

- 5g or 1tsp white sugar

- 5g or 1tsp oregano

​- 780g 3.5cups tomate sauce

- ITALIAN SAUSAGE:

- 400g or 0.75lb ground pork

- 10g or 2tsp salt

- 5g or 1tsp black pepper

- 5g or 1tsp garlic powder

- 5g or 1tsp onion powder

- 3g or 0.5tsp paprika

- 3g or 0.5tsp oregano

- 3g or 0.5tsp thyme

- 3g or 0.5tsp basil

- 5ml or 1tsp white sugar

- 15g or 1tbsp toasted fennel seeds

- 3 dried cayenne peppers or 0.5tsp chili flakes

-CHEESE:

- 400g or 0.75lb mozzarella

- 150g or 0.33lb provolone

- Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

1. Preheat the oven and a pizza stone (optional) to 250C or 480F.

2. Dough. Warm 275ml of water to 38C or 100F, and add the instant yeast to the warm water. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

3. To the bowl a KitchenAid add and whisk bread flour, coarsely ground corn meal, sea salt, and white sugar.

4. Attach the dough hook to the KitchenAid and turn it on to medium speed.

5. Add yeast, water mixture, olive oil , neutral flavor oil and softened butter (a little at a time).

6. After about 7 minutes the dough will come together and release from the sides of the bowl at which point you dump it onto a floured board.

7. Stretch and fold a few times, form a ball and drop into a large oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

8. Crushed Tomatoes. Heat a pan to medium heat, add 3 tbsp or 45ml of olive oil and diced onion. Let them sweat and turn translucent (2 minutes). Press the garlic allowing to become fragrant (1 minute) and add tomato sauce. Add sea salt and sugar and dried oregano and let simmer over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes

9. Cheese. You need sliced mozzarella and grated the provolone

10. Italian sausage. To the ground pork add sea salt, fresh black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, oregano, thyme, basil, sugar and the toasted fennel seeds. Blend your toasted fennel seeds with 3 dried cayenne peppers (optional for heat) . Gently mix the spices and meat and set aside.

11. Add olive oil to a 12in or 30.84cm cast iron skillet.

12. Assembling the pizza. After 1 hour the dough is done rising. Dump it into the pan and starting from the middle push it out to the borders. Let it rest for 5 minutes and then repeat until it rest slightly over the edges.

13. Add the grated provolone cheese and then a layer of sliced of mozzarella. Take pieces of sausage and smash it between your hands then place it on top of the cheese in one thin single layer so it cooks completely. Dollop all the crushed tomato sauce on top and finally, add freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

14. Bake. Lower the oven temperature to 220C or 430F and set the timer for 25 minutes with the convection setting on. Place the pizza on top of the pizza stone which is on the lowest rack in your oven. Afterwards, brown/broil this for 3 more minutes. It’s almost done, but we have to immediately set it on the stove top for 3 minutes over medium heat to completely cook the center crust.

15. Wait 10-15 minutes.

16. After a little work you have Chicago style pizza.

Hands down the best Chicago pizza we've ever eaten and we've had our fare share of deep dish pizza. We'd go so far as to say it's better than any large pizza chains making Chicago style pizza. Take this to your next big party and you'll be sure to impress everyone first with the impressive size, but then the overwhelmingly delicious taste. Leave a comment below and let us know how you like this "debatable" pizza style.

P.S. It's pizza!

Dream It. Learn It. Do It.