Cast Iron Skillet Pizza
A three-ingredient camp pizza cooked under a lid in a hot cast iron pan or dutch oven, crisp on the bottom, no oven required.
Equipment
- 1 cast iron pan or dutch oven, with lid
- 1 Kitchen Torch optional, for a browned top
Ingredients
The base
- 1 pizza dough ball store-bought from a bakery, or homemade
- tomato sauce your favorite, used sparingly
Toppings
- toppings of your choice see suggestions in the notes below
Instructions
Get set up
- Get all your toppings prepped and within reach. Once the dough hits the pan you will be moving fast.
- Roll or stretch the dough into a round about the size of the base of your pan, or a touch smaller.
In the camp BBQ
- Preheat your cast iron pan (or dutch oven) with its lid over high heat for at least 10 minutes.
- Lay the dough in, spread the tomato sauce, scatter the toppings.
- Cover and cook for at least 5 minutes before lifting the lid to check.
Straight on the campfire
- Preheat a dutch oven and its lid on the grill grate, or bury them right in the coals, for at least 10 minutes.
- Leave the pot on the fire and lower the dough in — mind your knuckles. Sauce, toppings, lid on: you have just built yourself an oven.
- Quarter turn every minute. At 3 to 5 minutes, lift the lid and see whether the crust is cooked through.
- Want it gratinéed? Finish the top with a kitchen torch.
Notes
Watch your wet ingredients. Skip watery toppings like fresh tomato, mushrooms, or fennel unless you pre-cook them, since extra moisture is the enemy of a crisp camp pizza.
Mind your cheese. Pizza mozzarella is your best bet. If you are using fresh mozzarella packed in water, pat it very dry first, or better yet, add it only in the last minute of cooking.
Go easy on the sauce. A thin layer is plenty; too much tomato sauce turns the crust soggy before it has a chance to crisp.
No BBQ? Cook it straight on the fire. Preheat your dutch oven and its lid directly on the grate or in the coals for at least 10 minutes. Add the dough without pulling the pot off the heat, top it quickly, and cover to trap the heat like an oven. Give the pot a quarter turn every minute, and check for doneness after 3 to 5 minutes. For a browned, bubbly top, finish with a kitchen torch.
See the frequently asked questions
- Using a nonstick skillet instead of cast iron
- Whether you really need the lid
- How to know when the pizza is done
- Making it without a BBQ, on an open fire
- Best toppings for camp pizza
- Using store-bought dough
- Why the crust came out soggy in the middle
- Whether to oil the pan before adding the dough
- Making it in a regular oven at home