Homemade Pizza With Both New York and Chicago Styles.

New York style pizza; thin, crispy crust layered with enough sauce, cheese and toppings to bake to perfection. Chicago style pizza; deep dish crust with layers of cheese, meats and sauce, so thick that a knife and fork are necessary.  Both are so deliciously awesome that it is extremely difficult to choose only one, especially when you are making homemade.  Ah, but what if you did a combination of both styles; how would it turn out?

Each style uses its own type of dough; each uses its own type of baking pan, but the toppings can be the same, just used differently.  Lets go play!

So, what exactly did I do for my pizza; I used New York style dough (click on the link above) and a deep dish pan (14 inch diameter) for Chicago style layers.


Preheat the oven to 450F; for a crispy bottom and thoroughly baked dough, the oven has to be hot.  NO!  you cannot use a convention oven!!!  We have a place in town that does that, and they continue to remain clueless to great pizza making.  Nonstick pans are the best to keep the dough from sticking and burning; spread the dough to the very edges of the pan, an even 1/4 inch thickness.  If you have excess dough on the sides, a simple roll of the dough makes a nice edge all around.

Now begin the layering; slices of provolone cheese covers the dough; then slices of mozzarella over the provolone, but not completely covering.

Depending on your tastes, now would come the meat layer; the meat should be cooked already as this pizza will not be in the oven long enough to thoroughly cook raw meat.  Instead of a layer of meat, I used meat sauce instead of a plain tomato sauce.  For this 14 inch, I used one and a half cups of sauce; oh no, I am not stingy on the sauce when it comes to my pizzas.

A generous sprinkling of an Italian herbal mix, grated Parmesan cheese and this baby was ready to go into the preheated oven.  Now the bad part...the waiting!

Normally, a pizza will take about 20 minutes; that's right, as long as one of those nasty, frozen pizzas you can purchase at your local supermarket.  Depending on your oven, and the altitude, it can take up to 25 minutes.  At 15 minutes, check it and see if the sauce is bubbling yet; then check at 20 minutes; if yes, it's done, if no, bake it for 5 more minutes.

Browned, crispy crust...Oh Yes!!!

Still not sure if you want to make homemade pizza; how about French bread pizza?  Just click on the link and find out how simple and easy this is; but you might want to make my homemade meatballs for a topping.





I bet you're drooling for pizza now, so go make some!

Mary Cokenour