Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza cooked in a Chicago Brick Oven.
Since the first time I’ve ever had it, I’ve loved Chicago Deep Dish style.
I love many different pizza styles. It’s a mood thing. Sometimes I want a NYC slice, sometimes margarita, sometimes Sicilian, sometimes thin crust, sometimes Chicago.
I remember Pizzeria Uno used to have many more offerings like the “Sea Delico” a buttery white deep dish with shrimp and crab. It was amazing. I might attempt to re-create this in the future. It was not quite a scampi on top, but buttery, garlicy and cheesy amazing.
EDIT!! – I did recreate the “Sea Delico” and it was amazing, see below.
Still, I love a plain or Chicago classic style, (sausage).
So I decided to do this because it’s been a couple of years, and I’ve had cravings. Yeah, and I broke all the rules, but it was amazing.
The 10” pan that I used is a cake pan which was too deep to easily remove the pie. I will invest in an actual Chicago Deep Dish pan for the future.
This pizza requires that you start the night before. The dough is not difficult, but requires several steps and proper rest times. On the day of, you should start tending to the dough 4 ½ hours before you want to bake your pizza.
Start your dough the night before.
Dough – 60% hydration of a yeasted crude puff pastry that contains corn meal.
250 G AP Flour
37.5 G Coarse Corn Meal
25 G Sugar
5 G Yeast
1 Stick Unsalted Butter
½ TSP Salt
173 ML Room Temp Water
Sauce
1 28 oz can San Marzano whole tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
2 TBS Olive oil
½ tsp Italian Seasoning
½ TSP Dried Parsley
½ TSP Dried Basil
½ TSP Salt
A few Grinds of Black Pepper
Ingredients for the Pizza Pie
8 oz sweet Italian sausage casing removed
12 – 16 oz sliced mozzarella – you decide if you want more
4 oz sliced provolone
4 oz sliced peperoni
3 oz grated Parmagiano Regginano or Romano
Other toppings of your choice.
Making the Dough – the night before
Add the warm water sugar and salt to a large bowl. Fully dissolve the sugar and salt and then sprinkle the yeast on top and let is sit for five or ten minutes to let it bloom.
Add the flour and cornmeal to the bowl of the food processor and pulse to blend.
Pulse the flour and butter cubes in a food processor a few times just to incorporate. You should have flour with chunks of butter.
If you have never done this before, you should watch the video first to get an understanding of how this works.
Add the flour and butter mixture to the wet ingredients and fold until incorporated. Do not over do this.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
Next day, turn the flour mixture onto a floured table top and start to shape the dough.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 8 inches wide by 16 inches long. Fold it into thirds like a business letter, turn it lengthwise and roll it out again.
Fold it again in thirds and wrap it in plastic and place it in the fridge.
You will complete a total of six turns with a rest in the fridge after every two turns. Let it rest for 1 hour between turns.
Or you could do the cheat turn at the end like I did in the video.
Make the sauce
I like a cooked sauce, but it is up to you. If you are not going to cook it, then strain the tomatoes so they are not very soupy. If you are going to cook it, then sauté the garlic in a large skillet. When the garlic is soft and fragrant and just starts to gain some color, add the herbs and spices, stir it up and then add the tomatoes.
DO NOT crush the tomatoes, you want nice big chunks. Simmer for about 15 minutes, just to thicken it a bit. I split my tomatoes in half lengthwise and simmered until I could run a spatula down the middle and it stayed parted like the red sea.
I cooked my sausage because I disagree with putting raw sausage meat in or on my pizza, but that’s me. You can do it the way you want. I rolled little sausage balls and put them in the oven at 350° until they were cooked through, about 20 minutes.
About an hour before you want to bake, form a ball out of the dough and then roll it into a circle that is 3 or 4 inches greater in diameter than your pizza pan. I used a ten inch cake pan which was too deep which made it difficult to remove the pie from the pan. But that is all that I had that was 10” in diameter. I rolled my dough into a 14” circle.
Oil the pan and then place the dough in the center and press the sides up the edge of the pan.
Let the dough puff up in the pan before assembling the pie. Could take an hour or maybe a bit longer. You should notice that it is puffy.
Preheat your oven to 425°. In my case, this was trickier because I used a wood fired oven. However, if your wood fired oven has an insulated door, then you will have an easier time regulating the retained heat. I used a fire that was burning out, and a watch full eye. The top of my crust burned a little bit, but it was still really good. this is because of the dynamics of the wood fired oven. The dome was hotter and the active fire causes a kind of convection. I will invest in the insulated door soon, but that also leads to less dramatic videos.
Assemble the pie.
Press the sides against the sides of the pan to ensure they stay standing.
Place concentric circles of mozzarella slices on the dough. I used about 12 ounces, but I think next time I’ll use 16.
Place a layer of provolone on top of the mozzarella
Layer in the sausage, cooked or raw, your choice.
Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the sausage. I used the entire amount of sauce which was essentially 28 oz. of whole tomatoes with the liquid reduced.
Layer on some peperoni, or not.
Sprinkle with some parmegiano reggiano or pecorino romano.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the crust browns.
Again, I baked mine a bit longer because I used the wood fired oven and was a bit uncertain about the actual temperature. But here’s a tip. You can judge doneness by making sure the crust is browned and and instant read thermometer inserted into the mozzarella reads at least 140° F.
Remove the pizza from the oven and then remove the pizza pie from the pan onto a wire rack so that the crust does not steam in the pan and become soggy.
Wait 10 to 15 minutes and then slice it. This will be the flakiest Chicago style deep dish pizza pie ever.
I truly loved the outcome even with the few mistakes that I made.
It was a magnificent pie. Flaky, saucy, cheesy.... oh my.
Kiss yourself for making deliciousness
Visit me at my day job
Bonus – “Sea Delico”
9” pie pan
Ingredients:
1 recipe of the dough above.
½ pound medium “good quality” raw shrimp peeled
2 large sea scallops, medium dice – about ½ inch cubes
¼ pound imitation crab – this actually works better than real crab
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic
About a teaspoon of fresh parsley
8 – 12 oz sliced mozzarella
4 slices of provolone
2 tablespoons shredded or grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Roll out the dough and fit it to the pan.
Let it puff up. This might take an hour at room temperature.
While the dough is puffing, sauté the garlic in the butter and olive oil in a medium sauté pan.
When the garlic has released its aromas, add the shrimp and scallops and sauté just until they change color and firm up. Then let them cool before assembling the pizza.
Press the bottom of the down just a bit to make room for the filling.
Layer the mozzarella as we did for the Chicago classic, then add the provolone.
Top the chesses with the shrimp, scallops, and imitation crab.
Sprinkle on the parsley and Parmigiano Reggiano
Bake at 425° for about 30 minutes.
Prepare your tongue to go to heaven.
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