Best Tips and Tricks On Cooking A Pizza On THE Kamado Grill

Pizzas are usually cooked in ovens but do you know that you can use your Kamado grill for it? So here we will give you the best tips on cooking a pizza inside a Kamado grill.

If you want to switch up your cooking style when making pizzas, you can do it by moving on from ovens to other cooking appliances. Kamado grills are the perfect grills for this job.

Conventional ovens are usually good enough and can finish pizzas in just ten minutes. However, they do not bring that authenticity to the taste that you had in pizza restaurants.

One reason for that is because it takes a lot of practice to attain that significant taste. So I guess the first tip is to cook pizza regularly until you perfect the desired flavor you want.

 

You cannot attain the authentic taste of pizza because convection ovens will never be able to do it. You need something else to fire the chamber and heat it with smoke.

Kamado grills use charcoal as fuel to create that amazing heat inside them. The smoke from the fuel helps put that amazing flavor in your pizza and makes it taste authentic.

You can do a few things to enhance the smoke, which we will also discuss later on. So if you want to get that amazing taste on your pizza, you need to switch from gas-fired ovens.

It is pretty easy to cook pizzas in Kamado grills, and it usually takes shorter since they can give more heat. It is also more satisfying as you will taste the authenticity in every bite.

We will also be looking at the process of cooking pizza in a Kamado grill. So read on as we take you to the best tips and tricks that you can do when cooking your pizza in a Kamado grill.

 

How To Cook Pizza In A Kamado Grill

Let us first get into the process of cooking pizza in a Kamado grill for you to get a better idea about the experience itself. It is going to be brief, so do not worry about the process.

See, Kamado grills are very versatile, which means that you can cook almost anything in them. Pizza is no exception and will give you that amazing taste that you are looking for.

First, you need to get to the right setup of the Kamado grill for cooking pizzas. This is where you will do most of the work, so do not hold back in making it as convenient for you as possible.

 

Setting Up The Kamado Grill For Cooking Pizza

First off, you need to make sure that the interior of the grill is perfectly clean. This will help in heating the grill as the fire, or the temperature will hugely depend on the grill’s airflow.

Get the grill grates cleaned, and then ready your other cookware by cleaning them as well. You need to clean the ashes from the past cooking sessions at the bottom.

This will also, again, give more way to the air that the fire needs. So make sure that there are no clumps of ash and other residuals that will possibly block the air from entering the grill.

 

 

Preheat The Grill

Kamado grills have thick insulations, so you need to prepare the fire ahead of time. The preheating time for most Kamado grills usually takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

Fill the firebox with charcoal and then use a lighter to start the fire. Open the bottom vent fully to allow as much air to get in the grill while also opening the lid for it to escape.

If you use a pizza stone (recommended), make sure to preheat it along with the grill. This will produce a more evenly heated interior for cooking the pizza on all sides.

Once you put the pizza stone in the grill, close the lid to start making the heat spread evenly. This will give you more time to prepare the pizza and get it cooking once done.

 

Cook The Pizza

Once the grill and the pizza stone reaches the maximum temperature, place the pizza in the grill. Close the lid to create convection inside the grill and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

If your Kamado grill reaches a temperature of 700 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can wait for a shorter time before checking the pizza. Do not open the lid frequently to keep the heat even.

Close the vent at the bottom of the flames go up; this temperature is maintained inside since the grill has great insulation. Keep the top vent open or at least slightly open when the pizza is cooking.

After about 8 minutes, check the pizza once again and then turn it around if needed. Some sides might not have cooked as evenly as you want to move the pizza to cook it evenly.

From there, you can wait for the crust to brown a little and the cheese to melt. Get the pizza out of the grill and then wait for about 5 minutes to cool it down a little or serve it right away.

 

Tips And Tricks On Cooking Pizza In A Kamado Grill

Now that you have experienced cooking pizza in a Kamado grill, you need to know some of the best tips for improving the quality of the pizza you are cooking in the grills.

 

Use A Pizza Stone

Pizza stones are considered the best cooking surfaces for pizzas. They can eliminate the unnecessary moisture from the pizza and make the crust as crispy as possible.

This will also help in making the temperature of the grill chamber more even. Pizza stones absorb heat and then distribute it in the grill to make convection heat and evenly heated grill.

It better not to use cookie sheets as they are more likely to get burned before the pizza oven starts cooking. So as much as possible, use pizza stones when cooking pizza in the grills.

 

 

 

Use The Provided Heat Deflectors

Kamado grills can get so hot, and the fire that they produce comes from underneath. That is why some food gets burned when there are flare-ups in the chamber and leave other parts raw.

Heat deflectors are present in these grills, and they are a huge help. They are necessary, especially if you want to cook in the grills and make them as if they are convection ovens.

Heat deflectors block the fire from the bottom while also distributing the heat upwards. There are different types of heat deflectors, with ceramic ones benign the most common.

The Kamado Joe grills offer a different heat deflector that blocks the fire from the bottom and enhances the smoke produced by the fuel from underneath.

 

Enhancing The Smoke

If you are cooking with charcoal, wood, or pellets, you will have that authentic taste that you want. However, charcoal is not the best when it comes to producing smoke.

They do heat up fast, but the smoke that they emit does not do the job. Since Kamado grills use charcoal as their main fuel, you will need something else to get the smoke you need.

One thing you can do is to place wood on top of the charcoal. Get a lump or two, and then put it in the firebox to get the smoke-induced in the pizza you are cooking.

 

Use Firebricks

Pizza stones are prone to breaking from thermal shock or sudden temperature change. That is why you cannot just place them cold in a hot grill when preheating it.

Direct contact with flames also threatens the integrity of the pizza stones. Firebricks help in elevating the pizza stone to prevent it from breaking while also heating it evenly.

Put the firebricks on the grill grate and then place the pizza stone on top of them. The firebricks will also help make the heat evenly inside the grill as they also absorb and distribute the heat.

 

MAKE SURE THE LID IS CLOSED

It is very easy to get excited and check on your pizza now and then, but I would advise you not to do so. If you do that often, then the entire heat from the inside of the dome will escape.

This would cause uneven cooking of the pizza inside the Kamado Grill, and hence I would highly advise that you never do it if you want to cook your pizza fast and evenly.

I usually just open the lid once to check on it before taking it out of the grill. Note the time needed to cook the pizza on the grill and avoid opening the grill’s lid too many times.

 

But, How do you keep pizza from burning on the grill?

When I say that make sure the lid is closed most of the time, the question that comes to mind is then how do I keep my pizza from burning.

The answer to that question is that you need to check your pizza more often, especially if you have placed it directly on the grill grates.

The chances of the pizza base burning is a lot more when cooked directly on the grill grates than if you were cooking it on a pizza stone or using another method that does not involve the pizza being in direct contact with the grill grates.

This is a little confusing to many beginners, but cooking pizza on a grill does have a learning curve, and you are going to get it once you understand the time required for a pizza to cook on your grill at a given temperature.

 

Conclusion

Of course, I do not need to remind you that you need to keep the lid closed when cooking. Kamado grills will truly get the job done in the best possible way when cooking pizzas.

This will give you more flavor as the pizza has a smoky flavor. Kamado grills are versatile, and for multi-tiered grills, you can cook other recipes while the pizza is cooking in them.

They are great for parties or even small gatherings with friends and family. Make sure to do the right process and use as much of the tips and tricks mentioned above.

Within just a few weeks of practicing your cooking skills, you will be making the best pizzas in town. You will no longer need to order your pizza from restaurants near you.

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