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.
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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!
Nice quick rise, in oven now. Can’t wait
Do enjoy! Wishing I had it in my oven right now, too ;)
I’m planning to make this pizza for dinner. I have 10 and 12 inch cast iron skillet. For the 12 inch skillet what x size of the recipe should I use? X1, x2 or x3? Thank you.
Hi Sue, I think the dough will work fine for the 12-inch. It will just be a touch thinner. It’s really just the fillings that will need to increase slightly to fill the extra space. So just count on a bit more sausage, cheese and pizza sauce. Enjoy!
Thank you! I made this pizza today and it turned out very good. I used a 12 inch cast iron skillet and used the recipe x1. Delicious! I’m saving this recipe to make it again soon. thank you for sharing this delish recipe and for responding to my question.
So glad to hear, Sue! Thanks so much :)
Making Deep Dish is why I asked for a cast iron skillet for Christmas, and this recipe was perfect. Two days later, I’m still excited with how it turned out and can’t wait to make another in a few weeks. I added a little sprinkle of garlic powder with the cornmeal dusting along the skillet before laying down the dough. I’m not sure how much of a difference it made but I could taste the hint of garlic and it was a nice accent.
So glad you enjoyed it, Steve :) You will love your new skillet. It’s easily my most used pan in my kitchen! Thanks.
This was great! I loved the crust, which is primarily what I used this recipe for. I used vegan cheese and meatless meatballs and it came out great! Easy recipe and clear directions. Thanks for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks!
Can instant (quick-rise) yeast be substituted for active dry yeast in this recipe?
Hi Linda, I haven’t tried quick rise, but my gut says it would work, because of the short rising period. If you try it, let me know how it works!
dumb question about yeast, but since your recipe calls for 1T of active dry yeast and 1 packet of active dry yeast=1/4 ounce.
1T=1/2 ounce
do you really use 2 packets of active dry yeast per one pizza dough?
OR do you use a Tablespoon measure and scoop it out of the packet?
Hi Amanda and no such thing as dumb questions :) A packet of yeast contains 1/4 oz, which equates to 2 1/4 tsp. So for the 1 Tablespoon (which is 3 tsp), you would need 1 packet and a bit from the second packet. I would empty 2 packets into a small bowl, then measure out 1 Tablespoon. The leftover yeast will keep for another project in an airtight container. Enjoy!
Could you use store bought pizza dough? The bake time is a little less on the store bought dough…have you tried it?
Hi Rachael, I haven’t used store-bought pizza dough with this particular recipe. This particular dough is very quick to mix and rise and it produces a sturdy crust and flavourful crust, that holds the ample, deep filling very nicely. It slides out of the skillet super easily. Honestly, I’d recommend you give it a try, as it’s really nice for this “deep dish” style pizza. Store-bought is great for a regular pizza, but this one is different and worth the extra oven-time in my opinion.
100% agree. I just made this and the crust is phenomenal.
Glad to hear, Jon :) Thanks so much!
Do you have to pre heat the skillet?
Hi Brian and no, no preheating required :) Enjoy!
Can this pizza be pre-made, up to the point of putting it into the oven, then refridgerated for a few hours before baking? Have friends coming from out of town and I want to make this for them, they’ve never had a Chicago style deep dish pizza, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen getting it ready while they are here… would like to have the oven preheated and the pizza made and in the fridge, then put it in the oven when they get here…. would that work?
I’m not really sure, Byron. My only concern would be the crust would keep rising in the fridge for those few hours. The cool temperature should slow the rising, but I’m not completely sure. The other option would be to bake it off ahead, then refrigerate and re-warm in a 350F oven, loosely covered with foil until warmed through.
Holy smokes this was amazing! We’ve never had deep dish style pizza. Made thisrrecipe tonight in Northern BC and it was a hit! Worth every minute of prep and every dirty pan. Was inhaled promptly. Fantastic! Thank you!
So glad to hear, Veronica! Thanks! It’s a favourite of my husband and he requests it often. I have to confess that sometimes I do a “speedy” version, for when time or energy is tighter. I cook off the sausage ahead and refrigerate. Then I use a store-bought pizza sauce for the topping. Not quite as nice as the homemade sauce, but comes together in a lot less time :)
We made this last night and followed the directions thoroughly. This was a great recipe that we will definitely make again. The crust was crispy on the outside and softer in the middle, just as it should be. Thanks for the great dinner!
So glad you enjoyed it, Kim :) It’s in regular rotation here, as it’s a favourite of my husband. He loves the hearty pizzas! Thanks so much.
I recently found your recipe whilst browsing for things to make in my new skillet, literally just finished eating this pizza and oh my god it’s good! Thank you so much for this!
Hi Andy and so glad you enjoyed this! My husband’s favourite pizza, so it’s in regular rotation in this house :)
I’d be asking for this again and again too Jennifer! It looks amazing. I never seem to grow tired of pizza!
Thanks Chris and I have to admit, I do enjoy this one, too. A nice, hearty pizza!
My oldest son Sean loves deep dish pizza Jennifer! I can’t wait to make this when he comes home to visit! It looks absolutely mouth-watering!
Thanks Mary Ann and he will definitely love this one!
I do love my thin crust pizza, Jennifer, but this? This looks so decadent! And all that cheese and cooked in a skillet?! Gotta try this one and I know my hubby will love too! Great weekend recipe with a cold beer or glass of vino ;) Pinned!
Thanks so much, Dawn!