Adventures in Grilled Pizza

I'll spare you all another woe-is-me tale about how I hate the muggy weather...

Being an eternal optimist, I'm going to turn this summer into a learning experience instead of torture and practice cooking on the grill.  Experiment #1:  Grilled Pizza!

I made this BBQ Chicken Pizza fully on the grill and it was AWEsome.  At lunch time I grilled up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and basted them with barbecue sauce.  I set aside a couple for the pizza and used the rest over the weekend.

About an hour an a half before dinner, I made up a batch of pizza dough.  Once the pizza dough was risen and ready, there was no turning back, I was going for it... I sparked up the `Q.

Now is the part when I just started to wing it.  I patted and stretched out the dough into a circle on a piece of parchment paper (using my peel to get the size right, plus it comes in handy later).. next time I'll flour it a bit too.  

One, two, THREE! I flipped the dough over on the grill and peeled back the parchment.  I got a bit of a tear, but it was easily mended (the flour on the parchment next time will help).  I closed the lid and let the dough cook on medium heat just for a couple of minutes, until it was sturdy enough I knew I could flip it (with the help of the peel).

Once both sides were lightly grilled, I popped the crust back off on to the peel and put the toppings on the pizza.  I used barbecue sauce, lots of shredded mozzarella, the two barbecue chicken breasts, chopped up and a hearty dash of Epicure Smoky Bacon Topper along with some grated Parmesan (with the usual just cheese section for Chelsea).

Then back on the grill she went.  I closed the lid and let it cook on medium until all of the cheese was bubbly and melted and the bottom of the crust was nice and crispy.

The Cons:

Cheese does not brown like it does in the oven (or mine didn`t)

Crust looks a bit pale.

The Pros:

I did not have to turn on the oven.

It was fun.

The crust was SO CRISPY, it was awesome.

I did not have to turn on the oven.

Will I Do It Again?

Absolutely!

Step outside your comfort zone and Enjoy!