Chicago Style Pizza

Print Recipe

Chicago Style Pizza

This was found online, modified for ease of use and better taste! This recipe makes 2 pizzas.

Prep Time3

Cook Time28

Resting time2

Total Time3

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: pizza

Servings: Per pizza

Calories: 1700kcal

Equipment

You will need 2 9 inch pizza pans or deep dish pizza pans. This is a tall pizza, so a casserole dish is better than a flat pizza pan.

Ingredients

Crust (for 2 pizzas)

3 1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 cup Yellow corn meal
1 1/4 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp Yeast This is the same as 1 packet if you are using that type of yeast
1 1/4 cup Warm water
1/2 cup Unsalted butter Divide this into 1/4 cup melted, 1/4 cup softened
3 tbsp Olive Oil For coating - amount may vary

Sauce (for 2 Pizzas)

2 tbsp Unsalted butter
1 Small onion, grated Will be about 1/3 of a cup after grating
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Dried oregano
1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes This will be spicy, you can cut back as necessary
3 Garlic cloves, minced
28 oz Can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 tsp Granulated sugar

Toppings for Pizza (for 2 pizzas, vary as you see fit)

4 cups Shredded mozzarella
1.2 cup Grated parmesan cheese
Pepperoni slices
Sausage Precook sausage
Any other toppings No pineapple - this is pizza

Instructions

Crust

Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. If you do not have a stand mixer, use your hand mixer and a very very large bowl. If you do not have any mixer, you can do this by hand.
Give those ingredients a quick toss with your mixer on low or with a large wooden spoon. Add the warm water and 1/4 cup of melted butter. The warm water should be around 90F degrees. Make sure it is not very, very hot or it will kill the yeast. Likewise, make sure the butter isn't boiling hot. If you melt it in the microwave, let it sit for 5 minutes before adding. On low speed, beat (or stir) the dough ingredients until everything begins to be moistened. Continuing on low speed (or remove from the bowl and knead by hand if you do not own a mixer), beat the dough until it is soft and supple and gently pulls away from the sides of the bowl and falls off of the dough hook- about 4-5 minutes. If the dough is too hard (it will be textured from the cornmeal), but if it feels too tough, beat in a teaspoon of warm water. Alternatively, if it feels too soft, beat in a little more flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl and form into a ball. Lightly grease a large mixing bowl with olive oil and place the dough inside, turning it around so that all sides of the dough are coated in the oil. Cover the bowl tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rise in a warm environment for 1-2 hours or until double in size. For this warm environment, preheat oven to 250F degrees. Once 250F degrees, turn oven off. Place bowl inside. Close the oven. The lingering heat will help your dough rise.
Once the dough is ready, lightly flour a large work surface. Remove dough from the bowl, set the bowl and aluminum foil aside (to use later). Gently punch down the dough to remove any air bubbles and roll the dough into a large 15x12 rectangle. Spread 1/4 cup of softened butter on top of the dough. Roll it up lengthwise per the photos below. Cut the dough log in half. Form the two pieces of dough into balls and place back into your greased bowl. Cover with aluminum foil and allow to rise in the refrigerator (not in a warm place) for 1 hour until they are puffy as you make the sauce.
You may leave it in the refrigerator for up to 1 full day, making sure to punch it down to remove any air bubbles before rolling out.
You may freeze the pizza doughs at this point as well. Allow the dough to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

Sauce

Place butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and allow it to melt. Once melted, add the grated onion, salt, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Once the onion has slightly browned after about 5 minutes, add the garlic, tomatoes, and sugar. Turn the heat down to low-medium and allow it to simmer until it's hearty, fragrant, and thick- about30 minutes. You'll have about 2 and 1/2 cups of sauce at this point. If you have more than that, keep simmering until the amount has reduced. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to be used. You may store the sauce in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days if planning to make the pizza another day. You may freeze this sauce for later use.

Assemble

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
After the dough balls have risen in the refrigerator, they should be puffy. Keep one ball of dough in the refrigerator as you work with the first one. Roll it out on a lightly floured work surface, working it into a 12-inch circle. Using your rolling pin as a guide (see photos below), place over a 9x2 inch deep dish cake pan. Using your fingers, press the dough into the cake pan. Make sure it is nice and tight fitting inside the pan. Trim any excess dough off the edges with a small knife. Repeat with 2nd dough. Brush the top edges of the dough with a little olive oil, which gives the crust a beautiful sheen. Fill each pizza with 1/2 of the cheese (about 2 cups per pizza), then your toppings which I've listed as optional in the recipe ingredients. On top of those optional toppings is the sauce. Pour about 1 and 1/4 cups of sauce on top of each. If you do not like that much sauce, you can reduce to 3/4 cup per pizza and have leftover sauce. Sprinkle each with 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese.
Bake for 20-28 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Feel free to loosely cover the pizzas with aluminum foil after the 15 minute mark to prevent any heavy browning and uneven baking. Remove the pizzas from the oven and allow to cool in the pans placed on a wire rack for 10minutes. After 10 minutes, slice, serve, and enjoy. Place any leftover pizza in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5days. Reheat leftovers in a 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until hot.

Nutrition

Calories: 1700kcal