Chicago pizza

How to make a Chicago pizza . Who does not like pizza ? If we ask this question in any meeting of friends or family, surely there will be few or no people who say they do not love this traditionally Italian dish that is already a bit of everyone.

As a pizza lover, I am one of those who enjoy it and I take advantage of any occasion at home to wear pizzaiolo . So today I want to bring you a pizza recipe , but this time a different pizza, a Chicago pizza .

Chicago pizza was born in Chicago, USA. It is a variety of pizza in which we will find a base of thick bread and a large amount of mozarella cheese and tomato sauce. There are two variants of Chicago pizza, one open called deep-dish pizza , and another closed by a second layer of dough, calzone type , called stuffed pizza , that is, a stuffed pizza. Today I got down to work with a stuffed pizza Chicago.

We have to look for the origin of Chicago pizza in 1943, in Chicago, at the hands of chef Rudy Malnati who initially devised deep-dish pizza . The main difference with other pizzas is mainly in the dough.

This is placed in a round mold and climbs up the walls of the mold. It was in the mid-1970s at another Chicago venue, the Giordano’s, where they began experimenting with the stuffed version.

It is a pizza not suitable for diets, the cheese in abundance, the thick bread dough  very different from the pizza dough that I am used to and very tasty, the pepperoni and a large amount of tomato sauce, form a festival of flavors and smells.

Preparation of Chicago pizza dough and preferment

1. In a bowl mix the warm water, sugar and dry baker’s yeast. Let it sit for 30 minutes in a warm place for the fermentation to begin.
2. When the preferment is active we start with the dough. In the bowl of an electric mixer, if we have it, add the flour, salt, sunflower oil and fermented yeast.
3. We begin to knead the mixture until we have an elastic dough. This process will take us between 15 and 20 minutes of work.
4. We can take intermediate breaks of 4 or 5 minutes and resume mixing afterwards. These moments of rest from the dough are equivalent to a kneading session.

Kneading and preparing Chicago pizza base

1. When this time has passed, we dump the dough on a floured surface and work it for 2 or 3 minutes.
2. We form a ball and place it in a floured bowl. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
3. After this time the dough will have grown and we dump it again on a floured work surface.
4. We divide the dough into two parts and reserve one of them. With the help of a rolling pin we stretch the dough.
5. We place the stretched dough in a round and removable mold or another round mold that we have with high walls.
6. We adjust the dough to the walls and the base of the mold without caring, for now there are remains on the outside. We will cut those remains in due course.
7. We distribute all the mozzarella cheese on the pizza base and place pepperoni slices on top to taste. We reserve.
8. We repeat the stretching operation with the second half of the dough, the one we have reserved. Once stretched we place it on the mozarella cheese and the pepperoni, as a pie cover.
9. We place the dough in such a way that it sits perfectly on the filling ingredients and we seal perimeter with the dough that we had as a base.
10. We trim the excess dough leaving a border of 1 or 2 cm. all around the pizza.
11. We make some cuts in the dough that we have put on the lid, so that it breathes during the baking.

Chicago Pizza Baking and Presentation

1. We cover the pizza with the tomato sauce and, with the oven previously heated to 180º C, bake, with heat underneath for 35-40 minutes, until we see that the dough is golden.
2. When the pizza is ready, we remove it from the oven and cover it with grated Parmesan cheese so that it melts with the heat of the freshly baked pizza. We serve at the moment.

A very tasty pizza and ideal to surprise your guests Chicago style. Here you have a step by step in photos where I show you how to prepare this Chicago pizza recipe . Do not miss any detail so that it comes out perfect.