There’s always room for improvement! 
In Deep Dish 101: Lesson 3,
I gave you a dough recipe with instructions for making deep dish pizza.
Here’s my latest version with minor adjustments.
If you try it, please let me know how it turned out (and take photos).
(click the link below to download the PDF)
Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza – The Real Thing – 201211
(click the link above to download the PDF)
Happy New Year!
Just wanted to let you know that I had great success with your deep dish recipe 12-28-12. I have been attempting to replicate a Malnati type pie for several years and have researched a ton of recipe’s.
A couple of key things which I believe helped me along
1) I replaced 20% of APF with Semolina
2) I used two Pizza stones – 1 on the bottom rack and one positioned on a second rack about 6 inches above the first. This was to create some reflected heat on the top of the pie
3) 45 second knead
4) No oil on the side of pan and formed sidewall as thin as possible
5) Slightly pressed cheese into bottom dough
Overall – nice recipe and very detailed instructions.
Thanks for sharing…
Glad to hear you had good results! I do something similar with your ‘reflected heat’ setup, but I just use a big sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil for the top rack at the highest level. It not only reflects heat from the bottom, but deflects heat from the top burners to reduce the chance of the top burning before the rest of the pizza has cooked.
THank YOU for posting your RDD HOly Grail recipe!! !!!!!!I couldn’t even find success making just regular crusts with generic recipes I found online. After eating Lou Malnati’s in Chicago and trying Angelo’s in Cleveland, I really wanted to make some deep dish. After googling recipes with those names I found your site. AND it was the best pizza I ever made!! I added cooked panko bread crumbs to the bottom, since I really like the way Angelos does that and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. Thanks for sharing your deep dish pizza knowledge with us!!!!
PS —also, i’m pretty sure this recipe sealed the deal for me getting that ring from my italian boyfriend as he ate in silence between bites of food gushing over how incredible it was
– polishing off 75% of a 12” pie
Congratulations!
I usually stop at 1/2 of a 12″ pie, so you’ve got a keeper there!
Just wanted to thank you… I love this recipe!!!. For the most part, I’ve been doing NY style and napoletana pies. The only deep dish I had ever made before was with grocery store “made fresh daily” dough in a cast iron skillet. They were actually pretty good, though apparently FAR from Chicago style! The only Chicago style restaurant pie I had ever had before was from my local UNO’s… in Connecticut (now closed). In other words, I have never had a REAL Chicago pie.
A week or two ago, I came across realdeepdish.com and decided to try your recipe. Whole different animal! And so quick and easy!! I love the fact that you can decide to have pizza and a couple of hours later, it’s ready to eat!!
I’ve done two of these so far. The first was baked in my Big Green Egg, the second in my electric oven (center rack on pizza stone). The egged crust was better, but not by much. Both were very flaky and delicious! Perhaps the best tasting pies I’ve ever done! From the photos I’ve seen, your recipe appears to be most like Malnati’s, yes?
Oh, one other question… have you ever tried putting melted butter in the pan before the dough? I used corn oil in the pan, but butter sounds good, unless it will burn. Or maybe some butter chunks mixed in with the dough like you would with a standard pie crust? And a little less oil to compensate?
Thanks very much for putting this out there! I would have included a photo, but apparently I cannot.
You’re very welcome! I’m so glad my site could help you make better deep dish pizza!
This is why I created RealDeepDish.com
If your UNO’s in Connecticut was one of the ‘Chicago Grills’,
then yes, you had not previously had Chicago Deep Dish.
Yes, my recipe is probably closer to Malnati’s, but in general,
my crusts are a bit thinner than, but similar to both Pizzeria Uno (the original) and Malnati’s.
I just put up a new post about ‘Pizzafying’ your oven.
It may help you get better results.
One of the important steps when using a pizza stone is to preheat that stone.
I recommend at least an hour, but you might get away with 30 minutes.
I haven’t baked a deep dish pizza in a bbq grill yet. I’d be concerned about burning the bottom.
What was your Green Egg configuration? Did you use indirect heat?
Any extra protection, like a sheet pan below your pizza pan?
Butter has stuff in it that will get brown and eventually burn if cooked too long.
You will probably be OK using it, but if you can find (or make) clarified butter, you will have less chance of burning.
As for ‘butter crust’ that Malnati’s offers, they’re brushing the TOP of the dough with melted butter (possibly margarine -TRANS-FATS- Run away!) before they add cheese and toppings.
You can definitely use melted butter in place of some of the oil in your dough (or you could do the cold butter pie crust thing, but keep in mind that butter also contains water, so it may throw off the recipe if you don’t also compensate for that. Maybe a few tablespoons less of water.
Well, I’ve written a novel here, haven’t I.
Maybe I’ll take some of this info and put it in a future post.
Thanks for visiting the site!
p.s. – You can’t post photos here (yet) but should be able to post photos on the Real Deep Dish facebook page if you like. https://www.facebook.com/realdeepdish