Making pizza on the grill requires a little bit of trial and error but once you the process down, it's a great quick and easy way to make delicious meals. Here's all you need to know about how to make pizza on a grill.

1. Give the Grill Time to Heat Up

You want your grill to get really hot for the best pizza results. We recommend at least 500 degrees for best results. Make sure that you start your grill about 30 minutes before you are ready to cook your pizza to ensure that it is hot enough.

2. Use A Pizza Stone

A pizza stone holds heat well and evenly making it the best way to get restaurant quality crust. Because the stone is porous, it draws water out of the wet parts of the crust helping it cook more evenly. Make sure to heat the stone up on the grill before placing the pizza on it. The hot stone will give the dough an initial burst of heat resulting in a tender, puffy crust.

3. Use Semolina on the Dough

If you are using raw pizza dough, make sure to use semolina on the bottom of the dough. Semolina is what pizza shops use to keep the dough from sticking to the pan or pizza oven. Cornmeal will work too but tends to burn quickly and not give the dough the familiar pizza shop taste that semolina does.

4. Keep the Lid Closed

If you're lookin', it ain't cookin'. A crucial part of making good pizza on the grill is to make sure that you leave the lid closed after you put it on the stone. Keeping the lid closed will allow the heat to go all the way around the pizza helping the crust to cook and the cheese to melt.

5. Let it Rest

After you remove the pizza from the grill, let it rest for about 10 minutes. This lets the cheese and toppings cool down and give the crust the time it needs to settle into the perfect crispy finish.

How to Make Pizza on the AKORN

If you are using a Char-Griller AKORN Kamado Grill to cook a pizza we recommend using a Smokin' Stone as well as the Pizza Stone. The Smokin' Stone will help create more indirect heat and get the restaurant-quality crust you want.

The AKORN is a great way to make pizza for a crowd too. Thanks to it's triple-walled steel design, it holds heat for a long time giving everyone the chance to get the pizza on the grill.

How to Make Pizza on a Barrel Grill

For a barrel grill, we recommend following the steps above but placing your pizza stone slightly off to one side of the coals. This will ensure that the crust doesn't burn before the cheese is melted.

You can also cook the crust right on the grates if you want just make sure that they are well oiled and you move quickly.