Wood Fired Pizza

I wrote a post about How to Make Wood Fired Pizza at Home for my partnership with Char-Broil™.  They came out with a kamado grill this year, the Kamander, and I wanted to show the new kamado owners how to make pizza on their new grill.  

We made this one with fire roasted onions and peppers, pepperoni, salami, and more.

The recipe is at the link above, here are a bunch of extra footage from that post.

We'll buy pizza sauce in a pinch, but I'd much rather make my own. We do a modification of this sauce recipe.

Picked up a Char-Broil pizza stone and pizza peel for just $20 at Lowes. It's pretty thin compared to a BGE branded one that I have but about the same as a Pampered Chef one that we own. People complain about the Pampered Chef one breaking on the grill but I've used mine for 8 years without a problem.  For $20 for this one, I figured I'd take the risk and so far, it's done fine.

Like all my other kamados, I use a Kick Ash Basket in my Kamander.  I think it makes the air flow a bit more fool proof and certainly makes reusing the leftover coal easier.

Well, that's the last time that pizza stone will be THAT clean.

Several of my kamado friends have asked what I think about the Kamander compared to the ceramic kamado grills that I use.  I need to write a full post about that.  But long story short, I have been surprised at how good it works. Truthfully, I expected to not be thrilled with it since it's only in the $300-350 range.  It is just as easy to use, holds temperature evenly, burns coal about the same rate (haven't done any quantative tests, just observation), and cooks well.  I have heard some "yeah buts" about a metal kamado but those are merely speculative at this point although I would like to see them extend the warranty.

Seasoned peppers and onions going on to roast a bit before putting them on the pizza. 

To fit parchment paper to the pizza stone, I fold it in quarters...

Then cut an arc from one side to the other at the distance of the radius.  What? You're right, this isn't math class.  Cut it like a circle, half the width of the pizza stone.

Can't remember where we got this docking tool but going "stabby stabby" with a fork works just fine.  This keeps the pizza from having one of those big bulging bubbles swelling up while cooking.

This is making me hungry for pizza tonight.

Alexis sliding the pie onto the stone. The peel isn't necessary but it sure makes it easier.

Ready to roll!

I like our pizzas between 500 and 550°f. 

Just grab the edge of the parchment paper and slide the peel right under there.  I need to get a metal peel for taking them off, I think they are easier.

You're [bleepity bleep] right that this isn't "delivery"!

Writing this post has been excruciating because I'm hungry.  I'm definitely making pizza this weekend.