Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

This is where it's at. It's so dense it's almost like a casserole. I made this and combined a couple recipes to get it just right. All in all it took about 3 hours to prepare and cook.

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The Dough

Start here! It has to raise and while it's doing that you can work on the sauce!

What you'll need:

• 3⁄4 cup water, lukewarm
• 1⁄4 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1⁄4 cup corn oil
• 2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour

Add the yeast, water and sugar together. Allow it to start to bubble (approx 5-10mins). Add remaining wet ingredients and slowly mix in flour with a dough hook. Don't overwork it. Allow it to mix until just sticking together then knead a couple times by hand. Place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise for approximately 1.5 hours.

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The Sauce

What you'll need:

• 2 (28 ounce) cans of whole italian-style peeled tomatoes
• 1.5 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Add contents of cans into a large pot. Crush the tomatoes using the back of a wooden spoon. Add salt and Italian seasoning. Over medium-low heat simmer for 45-50 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken up. Remove from heat and mix in remaining ingredients.

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The Build

What you'll need:

• 1 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced (not shredded)
• 1 lb Italian sausage, raw
• 1⁄8 cup grated Italian blend cheese (for topping)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. If you have a pizza stone place this in the oven on the bottom rack to allow it to heat up. Place a layer of foil on the top rack in the oven. Grease a deep dish pizza pan. Place ball of dough in center and using your fingers flatten it out to the edges of the pan. Pull the edges of the dough up the sides of the pan. Layer the bottom your cheese directly on top of the dough. Using your fingers, tear off pinches of sausage and cover entire bottom of pizza directly on top of cheese. After your sauce has slightly cooled ladle it on top of the cheese and sausage. Sprinkle the Italian cheese blend on top. Place pan on top of pizza stone and bake for 35-40 mins. We are aiming for an internal temperature of 160 degrees F to make certain the sausage is fully cooked.

Take the pizza out and allow to cool an additional 10 minutes or so. If you're brave like me you can transfer the pizza to a board for easier cutting! Eat with a fork and enjoy!

If you enjoyed this let me know and I'll upload some more of my favorite recipes! Thanks! Akuda