Personally, I'm partial to a thin crust cheese pizza folded and dipped into either hot sauce or ranch. But I also enjoy modest amounts of meat, greens and pineapple.
to me, this is why pizza is called a 'pie' its a big ol' meat and cheeese pie. theres something weird about the sauce being on top that makes the whole thing work
if you ever get to a state with a giordanos please give it a try, its the epitome of deep dish (imho). i spent a year learning to making a carbon copy after i moved away.
2lbs mozzarella/pizza cheese
16 oz pizza sauce
1 cup Warm Water
3 2/3 tablespoons Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Granulated Sugar
3 cups unbleached All-Purpose Flour, Use the Scoop-And-Sweep method
1 1/2 teaspoons Instant Dry Yeast
Prepare Crust
Add the warm water and pinch of sugar to mixing bowl
add yeast and let foam for 30 seconds or so.
Add everything else
mix until just stuck together (3-4 minutes, everything will still be flaky)
Lightly flour a surface
knead the dough ball for about two minutes. Kneading longer than a couple minutes will make the crust more fluffy and bread-like instead of dense and biscuit-like.
Break off 1/3 of the dough ball, this will be the top crust.
Form them both into dough balls and place into a large oiled bowl.
Let the dough rise once at room temperature, punch down and place in refrigerator for at least 7 hours.
Prepare Pan
Take out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature (about 2 hours).
Let rise at room temp for 6-8 hours (although it won't rise much).
roll out the balls of dough extremely thin
take a cast iron skillet or springform pan (high sides are better) grease with butter well
lay the first crust in, it should come all the way up the sides of the pan.
wet bottom of crust with sauce very lightly
layer in all your toppings with a little but of cheese, the add the rest of the cheese.
lay on the top crust, seal it up with the bottom crust.
poke some holes in the top crust toward the middle.
then pour the sauce on, even out.
Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the cheese is melted thoroughly.
nope. the crust is weird in that its very thin, and contains a lot of oil... and theres 2 of them... a top and bottom. after all the sauces i tried, a generic store brand tasted the best.. let me dig out the recipe..
I love that you love Giordano's. I live by one and I've eaten there twice and it was underwhelming for me. The pizza takes like an hour to bake, and it's just too much crust. I liked the chewy stringy cheese and the soupy sauce on top, but the vehicle just didn't work for me.
I know Chicago really blurs the line between "deep dish" and straight up "casserole", but this is a whole new level. What even is this? I'm both intrigued and mildly horrified.