Chicago Tavern Style Pizza with Italian Sausage
Make your very own extra thin pizza just like the neighborhood Chicago tavern. A handcrafted thin crust dough makes a super crispy, cracker-like crust to hold classic Italian sausage. Bonus? No need to cook the sausage ahead either. Save some coin and make the best Chicago-style thin crust pizza straight from your home oven!
Servings 2 14" pizzas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 recipe thin crust pizza dough ingredients and recipe below
Pizza toppings - quantities for 2 pizzas
- 1 ⅓ cup pizza sauce or your favorite jarred version
- ½ lb uncooked bulk Italian sausage out of the casing; mild or hot
- ½ lb mozzarella cheese grated
- 1 cup fontina cheese grated
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Thin crust pizza dough recipe -enough for 2 pizzas
- 473 g bread flour
- .3 g instant yeast I use Saf-T
- 236 g water
- 12 g salt
- 47 g olive oil
- semolina flour for rolling and baking
Instructions
For the dough
- To a large mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer with the paddle attachment but you can also mix by hand), add the flour. Stir in the yeast followed by the water then add in the salt. Run mixer and add in oil until completely mixed and the ball of dough softens incorporating the oil.473 g bread flour, .3 g instant yeast, 236 g water, 12 g salt, 47 g olive oil
- Let the dough rest and hydrate in the bowl for 10 minutes. Remove the paddle attachment and replace with the dough hook. Knead in mixer for 5 minutes or so then let it rest again for another 10 minutes.
- Use a pastry cutter to divide the dough into 2 balls. Place each in an oiled small container or resealable bag in the fridge overnight to ferment.
- The next day, remove the container of dough to sit out at room temperature and allow to sit out for about 6-8 hours. Time this so that it works around your planned dining time.
For the toppings
- Grate the cheeses and set aside.½ lb mozzarella cheese, 1 cup fontina cheese, ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
To roll and bake
- Remove the dough from the container and shape the dough into as perfect of a round ball as you can.
- Add some semolina flour to a clean pizza peel or cutting board. Start to roll upwards with a rolling pin and then rotate a bit, roll upwards and rotate. Repeat this until you can eventually roll at 1:00, 10:00 and 6 (picture the pizza crust as a clock) until you get to 14”. Be patient —this might take a bit.semolina flour
- Preheat the oven to 500°. After the oven has reached temperature, place a baking stone or steel in the oven for at least 20 minutes to heat.
Assemble the pizza
- Spread pizza sauce on the crust to within ½" of the edge.1 ⅓ cup pizza sauce or your favorite jarred version
- Sprinkle over mozzarella and then top with fontina.
- Pull off pieces of sausage and place around the dough, spacing evenly. Sprinkle over some parmesan cheese.½ lb uncooked bulk Italian sausage
- Place the front edge of the pizza at an angle at the back edge of the pizza stone in the oven. Gently shake the peel back and forth, slide the pizza to the preheated stone in the oven.
- Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 500° until crispy and the top is golden and melted.
- Cut in squares with a long pizza cutter.
Notes
There is no need to pre-cook the sausage as the high heat will cook the sausage as the pizza cooks —just like the Chicago pizza pros do it!
Rolling tips
- To shape the dough into a round ball, hold the dough in both hands and tuck the sides underneath, creating a domed round ball.
- Keep making sure there's a healthy amount of semolina flour under the crust as you roll. This will keep the crust really crispy and also not stick to the pizza peel.
- My thin crust pizza dough makes the best crispy crust - give it a go! Just allow yourself time to make it the day before.
