Have you ever wondered how to cook pizza without an oven?
Pizza is one of the world’s most versatile and well-loved foods. A homemade pizza is easy to create from scratch, and you can customise everything from the pizza dough to the tomato sauce to create unique flavours. Pizza has been around for hundreds of years in its most popular form. When we are not ordering pizza from a restaurant, we often bake frozen pizza in a regular oven.
So, what happens when you don’t have an oven available to cook pizza with? If you find yourself in a position where you’re making pizza without an oven, you can try a few alternative methods to cook up the perfect pizza party.
The good news? Making a pizza recipe at home, even without an oven, is a simple enough experience. However, you may need to practice with a few methods before you find the option you like best.
Can you Cook a Frozen Pizza Without an Oven?
The easiest way to cook pizza is with your home oven. However, you should be able to cook frozen pizza and homemade pizza with raw dough at home, even if you don’t have an oven available. Some methods will work better for frozen pizza than others. For instance, if you’re cooking a fresh pizza with all your freshly applied desired toppings, you can use everything from a stovetop to an outdoor fire to cook the perfect pizza.
Alternatively, when cooking a frozen pizza, you need to ensure there’s a way for all parts of the pizza to cook at the same time. Throwing your pizza into a pan to make stovetop skillet pizza may result in a pizza recipe that’s burned on the outside but still cold on the inside.
Here are a few different ways you can make a pizza if you don’t have an oven available.
1. Use a Toaster Oven or Grill
If you don’t have a full-sized oven to create your golden-brown pizza dough recipe, you can always consider using a toaster oven. A countertop electric oven will work very similarly to your standard oven, and it’s small enough to fit into virtually any kitchen – even if you only have a very small apartment. Just make sure you have a grilling pan available so you can cook the pizza in your toaster oven without worrying about toppings dropping off the pizza and getting burned.
If you don’t have a toaster oven, a grill could be a good alternative. If you have a good grill, you can even cook delicious fresh pizza using things like wood chips or a pellet stove to create a unique oven-fired taste. A good way to improve your chances of a delicious pizza at home is to invest in a non-stick pizza grill pan. The grill pan will stop the dough from falling apart as your pizza cooks.
To create your mozzarella cheese pizza recipe, heat the grill to around 600 degrees Fahrenheit, or make sure the charcoal or wood you’re using is fully burning and producing consistent heat. You can roll out your pizza base with your rolling pin in your kitchen. Make sure you brush both sides of the dough with olive oil to stop it from sticking, then place the crust on your grill pan.
Put the crust on the grill for a few minutes to start crisping the base, then flip it over to apply your ingredients. Add your desired sauce and toppings to the top of your pizza, and cook for a few minutes, keeping an eye on the meal while it’s cooking. When the cheese seems to be bubbling and well-cooked, you can remove the pizza from the heat to see if it’s ready.
2. Cooking Pizza on the Stove
If you don’t have a grill or a pizza oven for your recipe but have a stovetop, you can still make great pizzas at home. Some people continue cooking pizza on their stovetop with a pan after they’ve got a full oven because they love the flavour. Stovetop pizza is often delicious, but you should pay attention to the heat and the cheese as it’s cooking.
To make your stovetop pizza, start by choosing the right pan. You’re going to need a pan that’s big enough for the crust of your pizza. Add some olive oil, grapeseed, or avocado oil to the bottom of the large pan. A cast-iron skillet is a great choice here. Turn the burner to medium-low heat while you’re stretching the dough out nearby.
Follow the recipe notes you’re using for your pizza carefully, then place the dough into the pan, giving it time to cook for about 3 minutes. Move the cast iron pan off the stove when you’re ready to apply the toppings. Flip your pizza to get the best results, and add sauce, melted cheese and toppings quickly, as the residual heat will still be cooking your pizza without the stovetop.
Place your pan back on the heat for another three minutes or so. Some people prefer to choose a frying pan with a lid when cooking their own pizza, as this helps to keep the dough moist. A skillet pizza pan with a lid can also help with even melting the cheese too. You can find tons of stovetop pizza recipe options online to try out.
3. Cook Pizza in a Microwave
If you don’t like the flavour of stovetop pizza, or you’re not happy with the idea of making your own pizza dough, you can always try cooking frozen pizza in your microwave. The only way to cook a pizza in the microwave is to choose a pre-made frozen option. The cheese sauce and the way the cheese melts will mean that fresh pizza doesn’t work nearly as well.
You can place things like microwave crispers between the microwave plate and pizza if you want to keep your pizza from going soggy. This is often a common problem when heating a frozen pizza. If you don’t have a crisper pan, you can place your pizza in the stove pan after cooking it in the microwave to give it a little more crispiness. Use medium heat to melt the rest of the mozzarella cheese and remove moisture from the dough.
Add a little oil to the pan to ensure it’s non-stick before transferring your pizza onto high heat.
Are There Other Ways to Cook a Pizza?
There are a lot of different ways to cook pizza without an oven these days. As long as you know how to make your own dough, you can experiment with cast iron skillets or a stovetop pan designed specifically for pizza. If you love making your own pizza but don’t want to cook it in a pan, you can always try making your own dough and cooking it in a special pizza oven.
Pizza ovens are brick ovens you can use to cook your cheese pizza with wood and other heat sources. Once you start cooking with a pizza oven, you might find it hard to go back to cooking pizza any other way.
Remember, even if you don’t get the best results from your cheese and dough the first time you cook with a pan or a microwave, it’s worth experimenting a few times. Sometimes you just need to try different dough ingredients, like whole wheat flour and baking powder, to make the dough rise and taste crisper. Other times, you may find your favourite toppings don’t work as well on a gas grill as they do in a cast iron pan.
Whenever you cook a pizza with a pan, using a lid can help to ensure the sauce is evenly cooked and the cheese has melted properly.
Making a Pizza Without an Oven: Making your Own Pizza
There are a few different ways to make your own pizzas at home. If you want to bake a pizza in your oven, you can use a pre-made crust or a frozen pizza if you don’t have time to look for the right recipe. If you prefer to make pizza and pizza dough from scratch, that’s relatively easy too.
Find the recipe for the kind of crust you want to make online, and make sure you mix the ingredients thoroughly on a floured surface. A non-stick surface is crucial when you’re making pizzas, as the crust can easily stick to a range of surfaces. Roll your dough with a rolling pin carefully, and remember you can freeze the leftover dough to use again later.
When making pizza from scratch, it’s definitely worth cooking the crust for a few minutes before you add any toppings. When you bake the crust by itself first, this ensures the dough will be fully cooked when you add your toppings. Sometimes, if you don’t part bake beforehand, the dough will still be soggy when your toppings are cooked, which increases your cooking time and leads to burned pizzas.
If you want to freeze your pizzas to bake later, you can cook them in the pan or on the stove for about 3 minutes before adding your toppings to the dough and wrapping everything up to place in the freezer. Give the crust time to cool slightly before adding the toppings and wrapping the food in clingfilm.
If you want to make pizza without an oven and you want to cook it straight away, keep the heat on while you add your toppings and make sure you evenly cook all the cheese and other ingredients until they’re piping hot on top of your pizza. Evenly burning a few areas around your pizza’s edges can help make the mozzarella cheese and store-bought dough combo taste more impressive.
Cook a Home-Made Pizza Now!
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different kinds of pizza dough and pizza sauce. Once you know how to make pizza without an oven, there’s nothing to stop you from experimenting with other recipe options.
I like your article about cooking pizza. For cooking pizza in a microwave, do we need to cover the pizza with a microwave-safe lid?