Grilled Shrimp Pizza

I love pizza but it is so hot outside that I don’t want to heat up the oven.  So I decided to make a pizza on the grill.  It is extremely easy and the crust is amazing.  Using a basic pizza crust you can create an awesome pizza in minutes.

The grill adds such a great flavor to the crust.

Grilled Shrimp Pizza

• Pizza Dough – Either homemade, store bought or one from your local pizzaria. – Try my Basic Pizza Dough.
• Pizza Sauce – Recipe below
• 1/2-1 cup Mozzarella Cheese – Fresh or grated. 
• 1/4 cup parmesen cheese
• 1/2 lb shrimp
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs cajun seasoning
• 1 tbs sriracha
• 4-40 dashes of hot sauce – Up to you on how spicy you like your shrimp
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Pizza Sauce

• Can whole peeled tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 15 basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flake – (optional)

The first step is to peel the shrimp and cut them in half.  By cutting them in half you are making it so that they will cook quicker on the grill and so that the pieces are bite size and not too thick for the pizza.

Next put the olive oil, cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, sriracha, and hot sauce in a zip top bag.  Then add the shrimp and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Make sure to mix them up so that they get seasoned.

Grilling pizza is easy, but without proper instructions it can be extremely hard.  The first thing is that you need to partially grill one side of the dough before you top the pizza.  Since we have to start cooking the pizza, take it off the heat, and top it, it is best to have all of the toppings ready. 

Start your grill and have it preheat.  Start a indirect fire on one side of the grill.  We will quickly cook the dough over the fire and then move it to the cooler indirect side to melt the cheese and cook the toppings.  If you have a gas grill light only half of the burners. 

If you are going to use a store bought pizza sauce you can skip the next couple steps.  Otherwise, pour the can of whole tomatoes into a bowl and crush with your hand, a potato masher or a pastry cutter.  Once you have all of the big chunks broken up you are good.

Now take the 15 leaves of basil and roll them together like a cigar.  Then thinly slice them into ribbons.  The technical term is chiffonade.  Sounds fancy doesn’t it.  It means breath of butterflies, joking it really only means thin long strips.  Sorry to dissappoint.

Add the chiffonade basil to the bowl with the three cloves of garlic finely minced.  Add the salt, pepper and red pepper flake.  This is a good time to taste the sauce.  If it needs more salt or pepper feel free to add it.

I used fresh mozzarella so I removed it from the water and sliced it about an 1/8th of an inch thick. 

I also grated some fresh parmesen cheese.

Now it is time to start forming the pizza. Take the dough and slowly start pressing it out into a circle.  Start with the center and slow start pushing it out toward the edges.  Make sure to constantly rotate the dough.  Once it is about a foot in diameter, you can toss it, or just pick it up and spin it in your hands to stretch it out into the proper size. 

Place the dough on a dusted pizza peel, pizza pan or a upside down sheet pan.  Any of these work as a way to get the pizza onto the grill.

Before you place your pizza dough on the grill, oil your grates with a vegetable or peanut oil.  You need to use an oil with a high smoke point as you don’t want it catching fire.   Olive oil will not work.

Place the pizza dough halfway over the hot coals/hot side of the grill.  Cook for a minute to a minute and a half and then rotate the dough 180 degrees and cook for another minute to minute and a half.  Rotate the dough when it starts to brown.  Make sure to keep the lid shut in between rotations.  This will help you make sure that the dough doesn’t burn. 

Once the bottom of the dough is browned remove it from the grill and place it cooked side up on a pizza peel or pan.  Make sure that you use cornmeal or flour on the peel/pan.  I forgot to add more cornmeal to my pan and after I added the toppings, it did not want to come off the pan. 

Add your toppings.  I added the pizza sauce, shrimp, mozzarella, parmesen and a little chiffonade of basil.

Then place back on the grill in the middle so that it is once again on the hot and cold side.  I rotated mine 4 times, 1/4 of a turn every 2 minutes.  Once I made a full revolution, I move the pizza over to the indirect side to finish melting the cheese.  It took an additional 2 minutes on the indirect side to finish melting the cheese and cooking the shrimp.

Remove from the grill and serve. 

The pizza had a super crispy crust that was amazing.  The charcoal added a unique flavor to the crust.  I am definitely going to be grilling more pizzas.

If you have any questions or comments on grilling pizzas let me know.