Grilled Jalapeno and Cheese Pizza with Homemade Pizza Crust

By SweetnSpicyLiving on July 29, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

Featured Video: [VIDEO] Small Batch Homemade Pizza Dough

I have always wanted to make my own homemade grilled pizza since I bought my grill. I thought summer is the perfect time to do this, although I have to admit I had been using my grill as early as winter time. Yeah, I am that obsessed with grilled foods. I grill whenever I want, rain, shine or snow. I live in Vancouver Canada anyway, where winter is not as crazy as other provinces so winter time is still tolerable for me to be out and grilling.

What do I love about grilling? I love the charred and burnt taste of grilled foods and I love the grilling process itself. I like the smell, I like the grill marks it leaves in the meat or pizza, I like the watching it cook, it makes my mouth water just smelling and waiting for it. What made this pizza great is the Homemade Pizza Dough. There is nothing unusual about the pizza dough, in fact, it is so simple and basic that you can make it in less than 1 hour. But you know sometimes the simplest things are the best thing, and that is true for this Homemade Pizza Dough. You can make the dough as thick and thin as you want, but you just have to adjust the grilling time. I like mine in between, not too thin and not too thick.

When it comes to toppings, be creative and put whatever you like. After all, it’s a homemade pizza. That’s the best part of making your own pizza, you get to customize it to however you like it. Since I love cheesy spicy food, I made this jalapeno cheese pizza. It’s super cheesy and hot just the way i want it. I bet this will even be better with meat on it, I’ll give it a try next time. Let’s get started!

Grilling Tips:

Pre-bake the dough for 5 minutes before putting toppings on it: The reason we are doing this is to partially bake the dough before it hits the grill and then we will let the grill finish the job. It will be slightly puff up but not thoroughly baked like in the photo above. This way, by the time the cheese starts to melt and the crust starts to brown, the crust is already cooked through inside and out. You don’t want a burned gummy crust when you serve it.
Grease the top of your grill with oil before turning the grilling on. This will help avoiding the crust from sticking to the grill when you lift it. We want our pizza to retain its shape and form till the very end.
Pre-heat your grill. It’s just like when you are baking, you want your grill to be really hot before you put down the pizza crust.
Thin crust pizza can get burned easily, so keep an eye on the grill. You will only need 1-2 minutes to grill the pizza if you have the grill pre-heated, so keep an eye on it. You should see grill marks at the bottom of the pizza once its done.
Use something flat to lift up the pizza. You don’t want to break or tear it apart while you take it out from the grill. Slide the laddle from the edge to the center to remove the possibility of crust sticking to the grill. The pizza should be easy to lift and you should see grill marks at the bottom.

Just follow this 5 simple tips and you’re on your way to having the best homemade grilled pizza. Let’s get started!

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough – I used my easy Homemade Pizza Dough recipe
1 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 cup Marinara Sauce
2 large fresh Jalapeno Pepper
Ground Beef or Chicken – optional

Instructions:

Prepare pizza dough.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F and pre-bake pizza dough for 5 minutes. It will be slightly puff up but not entirely baked. The grill will do the job of making the crust crispy.
Grease the grill and pre-heat to 400F, then lower the temperature to 350F.
Spread marinara sauce on top pizza dough.
Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Top with sliced jalapeno peppers. Feel free to add more toppings as desired.
Grill the pizza for 2-3 minutes (lid close) or until the cheese melts and the bottom of the pizza has grill marks and the crust is crispy.