A delicious Chicago style deep dish pizza, with an easy homemade dough and filled with lots of cheese, sauce and sausage!
There’s lots to love about this Chicago Style Pizza. This deep dish pizza has lots of cheese and sausage and its topped off with a great pizza sauce and Parmesan cheese. And there’s the easy homemade crust, sturdy enough to hold all the fillings and it cooks up perfectly in the cast iron skillet.
Ingredient Notes
Mozzarella – any block mozzarella will work fine here, though I’m partial to the low-moisture pizza mozzarella, for the best cheese pulls.
Pizza Sauce – I have included a recipe for a homemade sauce, which is delicious for this pizza. That said, if you are in a hurry, you can replace it with a nice, store-bought pizza sauce. Just note that you will need a good bit, so count on about 2 cups worth.
Sausage – I generally use Mild Italian Sausage, but you can use Hot, if you like a spicy pizza. Or, maybe a mixture of both. As you like.
Tips
- The amount of dough in the recipe below is perfect for a 10-inch top diameter skillet. If your skillet is larger, it will still work, but will be a little thinner, so cooking time may be a bit less.
- The crust on this deep dish pizza is a special, thick, almost bread-like crust, so it isn’t your typical pizza dough. It’s perfect with the hearty fillings and part of what makes this dish sliceable :) As such, while you could use a ready-made pizza dough in place of this one, it will cook and taste differently and may not hold up as well with all the fillings.
- Be sure to cut your mozzarella cheese in thick slices – 1/2 inch or so – to get the full, ooey-gooey, melted cheese experience. Likewise, cover the entire bottom of the pizza with cheese, for the best pizza experience :)
- If you’d like even more meat, add a layer of pepperoni slices or cooked, crumbled bacon above the sausage.
Recipe Video
Cook’s Notes
- No cast iron skillet? No worries, use a 9-inch round baking pan instead!
- Think of this one as an upside down pizza, as the cheese is on the bottom, followed by the meat and then topped with the sauce. While you may be tempted to put mozzarella on the top, trust me, a dusting of Parmesan is all you need, as there is plenty of cheese inside this one.
- The crust on this one is different from my usual pizza crust. First, it has cornmeal in it, with gives it great flavour and texture. It cooks up to a crisp layer on the outside, but soft and a little more bread-like on the inside. As for the sauce, I sometimes use a good store-bought pizza sauce, but I’ve included a quick, homemade pizza sauce in the recipe card notes, if you need one.
- This dough is also a nice quick-rise dough, so you don’t need to start it far ahead. In fact, if you start an hour out, you can cook the sausage while the dough rises. Quickly assemble the pizza once the dough has risen for the hour and pop it in to the oven for 35-40 minutes. Once baked, this pizza is sturdy enough to be able to pop the whole thing nicely and easily out of the skillet and on to a cutting board.
Get the Recipe: Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. honey, or white sugar
For the pizza:
- 10 oz Mozzarella cheese , cut in 1/2-inch thick slices
- 4 8-inch Hot or Mild Italian sausage links, casing removed, crumbled and cooked, or about 1 lb. loose sausage meat
- 1/2 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for topping
- 2 cups pizza sauce, store bought or see Note 1 below for an easy homemade pizza sauce recipe
Instructions
- Combine the yeast and lukewarm water and let sit for 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a kneading hook, combine 1 cup of the flour and the cornmeal. Add the yeast mixture, olive oil and honey. Stir until moistened. Add more flour in small increments, until you achieve a soft dough that is neither too sticky or too stiff. Remove the dough to a well-oiled large bowl and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
- While dough is rising, cook your sausage. If your sausage is links in casing, cut a slit down the casing and remove the sausage from the casing. Discard casing. Cook sausage in a skillet, breaking up into small pieces with a spoon, until cooked and browned. Turn off heat under skillet and set aside until needed.
- Preheat oven to 425° F. Grease the bottom and sides of cast-iron frying pan with olive oil and lightly dust with additional cornmeal.
- When dough is ready, scrape onto a well-floured surface (dough will seem sticky at this point, but will be fine with the additional flour on the counter. With a rolling pin, roll dough into a circle a little bigger than the bottom of your skillet. If it's sticky, dust with more flour as needed. Transfer the dough to prepared cast-iron frying pan and press into bottom and up the sides about 2/3 of the way up. Cover the bottom of pizza completely with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese. Top with cooked sausage. Top with all of the pizza sauce, spreading it to cover the sausage. Sprinkle the top generously with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. *You don't want your crust to extend too much higher than your filling, or the exposed part at the top will overcook. If it extends too high once your filling is in, push or crimp it down to closer to the level of your filling.
- Bake in pre-heated 425° F. oven for about 20 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and if crust is dark enough (it usually is at this point), cover loosely with a sheet of tinfoil and cook about at least 10 minutes longer or better yet, 13-15 minutes more (33-35 minutes total), to be sure the crust is cooked. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5-7 minutes. Using a spatula, carefully remove pizza to a cutting board. Allow to stand a couple more minutes before cutting with a sharp knife.
Notes
Be sure to read the “Ingredient and Cook's Notes" (above the recipe card!), where I share more detailed tips, variations and substitution suggestions for this recipe!
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
You are the master (mistress?) of the cast iron skillet Jennifer, this pizza looks epic and totally blows all those puny flatbread versions off the map!!
Thanks Sue :) The skillet is the perfect pan for pizza like this!
Made this for the first time tonight. I’ve had pizza from Chicago but my fiancé hasn’t I was excited to try this recipe because we just bought a new skillet. Anyway it turned out amazing! Tastes just like the restaurant I remember and I’m sitting in my living from in Ohio. Lol. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe.
So glad to hear, Teila :) Thanks so much!
My hubby will love this! As will I, of course! Gorgeous pictures and fun video! Thanks for re-sharing this beauty!
Thanks so much, Annie :)
I have to say, this pizza looks incredible. I’ve had the real deal in Chicago and often dream of eating it again some day. Maybe I just need to make my own! LOVE your video :) Your husband has good taste!
Thanks Tricia and yes, he requests this one on a regular basis :)
Trying to make a skillet pizza today – hope it turns out great like yours :) Pinning!
Thanks Tricia and I’m sure it will :)
Salt in dough?
No, but feel free to add a bit if you like.
This was outstanding! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes. I have made this and the garlic chicken and both made for a perfect meal. With great appreciation, I look forward to making more of your delicious recipes!!
Thanks Nima. So glad you enjoyed it. It’s a favourite in our house :)
I made this for dinner last night. It was incredible! My husband and I ate over half of it. Thanks for the terrific recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Carrie. Thanks for coming back to let me know. Now your husband is going to be requesting it every Friday night now, too ;)
Hi Jennifer, You may know that I discovered your blog a few weeks ago, and have been inspired by every single post… I absolutely adore your blog. I suspect you are nowhere near to a new blogger, but I wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for the Liebster Award anyway…. You can go to http://bourbonandbrownsugar.wordpress.com/ for the details. A little thank you for the inspiration :)
Thanks you so much, MB. I am honoured and appreciate your kind words :)
Jennifer, I think I physically swooned when I saw this because it made all my pizza dreams come true! Your husband is right to love this :) I have only made deep dish pizza once at home and it was mostly all a plan to seduce the man who would eventually became my husband. Worked like a charm! Can’t wait to try this.
That’s hilarious, Amy :) This is definitely man-wooing food!
I know what I’m having for dinner tonight!
Highly recommend, Chung-Ah! (Hope your puppy is feeling better)
never thought about baking the pizza in a cast iron skillet, sounds like a really great idea, love this!
Thanks Cheri. Hope you can try it!
I love the idea of baking pizza in a skillet, what a great idea!
Thanks Laura. It cooks pizza perfectly!
Wow! That looks soooo good! And I really love that you made yours in a cast iron skillet. That seems like a great choice. I love your blog. : )
Thanks so much, Crystal. This pizza cooks so perfectly in a skillet! And thanks for stopping by so I could discover your great blog as well. Subscribed so I can follow along with your kitchen adventures, too :)
No way, girl! I JUST made deep-dish pizza last night, in my cast-iron for the first time ever! It made SUCH a huge pizza! I wish I had read your tip about not letting the dough up the sides higher than the filling…. but I learned my lesson. What a feast! Mine had Italian sausage, black olives, onions and peppers and mushrooms. It was way too much filling. Or maybe that’s how deep-dish is really supposed to be? ;) This post came at such a fun time, I’m sure your husband LOVED it and I’m sure mine would, too! Will try your version next time!
That’s weird timing! :) I’m probably a purist, but my favourite version of this pizza is just with the sausage and bacon. The crust on this one is different from regular pizza. Love the cornmeal in it and it’s thick enough to hold all that stuff in.
I imagine baking pizza in a cast iron skillet gives the crust an altogether different crispiness that I know we would love on a “mans” pizza like this one or any combination of toppings we like.
Cast iron does make a great crust, for sure. We have thrown all manner of things in to this pizza. I’ve found it works best to put extras on the inside, rather than on top. Sauteed mushrooms or olives are great in this one!