Chicago Style Pizza

Being the ever-hungry pregnant lady that I am (Rachel, not Emily), I am always craving weird things. For example, two days ago all I wanted was pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and tomatoes. But not any kind of pizza, chicago-style pizza aka a true deep dish pizza. Here is what I managed to whip up and it turned out great!


Pizza dough


1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sald
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
cornmeal (for the Chicago style I omitted the cornmeal)

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the oil, sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. Turn onto a floured surface; cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
2. Roll into a 13" circle (For the Chicago style you need to make it nearly 16"). Grease a 12" pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. (For the Chicago style you need a spring form pan, no cornmeal, yes to the grease.) Transfer dough to the prepared pan, building up the edges slightly (you may need to wrap the dough just over the edge of the spring form pan to help it stay in place). DO NOT LET RISE.
3. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes, or until browned. Add toppings; bake 10-15 minutes longer.

Chicago style filling
The filling is slightly different than a normal pizza. You add more and you must must precook any vegetables going in so that the pizza doesn't pool up with water from them.


First, layer 5-6 slices of provolone cheese on the crust.
Then start adding in your fillings. Because the pizza is so thick and to avoid any extra liquids, I used turkey pepperoni -- it's less fattening and because of that you can add more layers of it.

Remember, you do not want your pizza crust to rise, so have all of your toppings pre-cooked and ready to go as soon as your dough is rolled out.


Once all of your toppings are in, add your pizza sauce. Ladle approximately 1 1/2 cups over the top of your pizza. Then, add a final layer of cheese and send it off for baking.

Then enjoy!! And yes, there is a little bit of liquid at the bottom -- our power went out and  I couldn't use the microwave to pre-cook my tomatoes and some of my mushrooms. Lesson learned.