Nothing gets our kids more excited to fire up the EGG than the promise of a pizza night. Something about the combination of them being able to design their own dinner, and it being cooked in less than 7 minutes makes EGG fired pizzas endlessly appealing.
Why the EGG is Ideal for Pizza
As we all know, The Big Green Egg isn’t just a BBQ it’s a versatile outdoor pizza oven (amongst other things). Its ability to reach high temperatures with consistent heat means you can get that perfectly crisp base and gooey, bubbling cheese every time. Plus, the smoky, wood‑fired flavour? Absolutely unbeatable.
Set up, Temperature and Tools
Set Up
Fill her up! To keep those temperatures firing, it’s essential that the EGG has enough charcoal – so make sure you fill up to the top of the fire bowl. We like to use Oak & Hickory – it’s our favourite charcoal, not too smoky and a nice even burn.
Direct or Indirect? Legs up or down?
Indirect cooking (with the ConvEGGtor in place) is essential for baking pizzas, it allows the EGG to deflect the heat from the flames and mimic your classic wood‑fired oven. The ceramic walls deflect the heat meaning that your pizza will bake from the base and the top, for an even cook. Attempting pizzas using direct heat would result in a very charred base!
We personally recommend having the legs of the convEGGtor down, rather than up. The space above the coals means the EGG, and specifically the baking stone can get nice and hot.
- As always, open up your vents fully, light a BGE natural Firestarter and nestle it within the charcoal. Here is a link to our how to light your Egg.
- Once it has burnt away, close the dome but keep the vents open.
- When the temperature reaches 250°C add your cooking surfaces.
- Put the convEGGtor in legs down, then the stainless steel grid and finally the baking stone.
- Let the temperature come back up to 300°C and then close your draft and rEGGulator door halfway. You can then close it down by a fingernail at a time until you reach a steady temperature.
The Pizza Wedges
If you have the pizza wedges, even better – go ahead and line them up on the rim of the EGG so they meet at the back, with the wider edge facing forwards. Close the dome on top of the wedges to create the perfect ‘pizza portal’ to slide your creations in and out without having to open and close the lid. Make sure you keep the rEGGulator closed and just use the draft door to control the temperature.
Don’t forget that when the party is over, you’ll need to remove the wedges to close down your EGG – it sounds obvious but make sure you protect your hands from the hot wedges with your EGGmitts.
(No worries if you haven’t invested in the wedges yet, you’ll still get epic pizzas.)
Ideal Temperature
Hotter than hell! Keep your EGG firing at around 300–350°C to ensure a crisp base. And if you don’t have the wedges…remember the EGG golden rule to ALWAYS burp before opening fully – these are the sort of temperatures that will eat your eyebrows.
Tools for Pizza Perfection
We personally find that a baking stone really helps to get that much sought after crisp yet chewy base. It works by drawing moisture from your pizza base. Just sprinkle it with a bit of semolina to stop the base sticking.
If there’s one tool we couldn’t live without, it’s the pizza peel. Again, sprinkle with semolina before carefully placing your pizza base onto the peel. You can even build your pizza on the peel itself, then simply slide it off into your baking stone.
The Cook
At this sort of temperature, your pizza should take around 7 minutes. If you’re not using the wedges, try to close the dome and don’t peek until around 4 minutes so your EGG can do her thing. Top tip – make sure your baking stone has been in the EGG long enough to get sufficiently hot before you put your pizza in – a good 20 minutes of warm up will do the trick.
Use the pizza peel again to remove the pizza from your EGG once it’s charring a little around the edges and the cheese is bubbling.
Ingredients for Success
The Base
If you have the time, a homemade base will be delicious, and fun to make with the kids (if you can handle mess!!) – there are plenty of recipes, just make sure you use 00 flour with a high gluten content. If you’re short on time (or don’t like hoovering up flour), the ready‑made bases from Pizza Express or Waitrose are great.
The Sauce
Again, a homemade tomato sauce is going to be your healthiest, tastiest option (top tip – roast the onions and tomatoes on your EGG first for real depth of flavour) but if you need a ready‑made sauce, we personally love the Mutti Pizza sauce.
Toppings
Here’s where the fun starts….pineapple (yes or no way?!), pepperoni, toasted pine nuts, caramelised onions, barbecued chicken, goat’s cheese…the options are endless and you can have fun preparing some of them on your EGG beforehand. (Just remember you’ll need direct heat for this, rather than the indirect set up for the pizzas.)
Pizza on the MiniMax
We love to take our Minimax for those long summer days on the beach. We take enough food for lunch and dinner, and having the Minimax means we can find a secluded cove and settle in for the day, knowing the kids (and us!) can have hot food after those toe numbing dips in the sea. (Freshly cooked pizza on the beach? Literally every kids dream.)
To keep it simple we just buy some Crosta and Mollica pizzas, kept chilled in a YETI Roadie. We put the convEGGtor legs down and just cook the pizza straight on the convEGGtor as it means we don’t need to carry a baking stone – works a treat!
Now you’re all set to take your pizza nights from great to legendary – check out the full collection of accessories here!