American

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

A thick (3-4cm deep), buttery, slightly flaky crust pressed into a deep round pan (similar to a cake pan), layered in inverse order from a traditional pizza: mozzarella cheese directly on the dough (so it melts against the crust and doesn't burn under the extended baking time), then meat or vegetable fillings (Italian sausage is the standard), then a thick, chunky, seasoned tomato sauce on top. Baked at 220°C for 25-35 minutes until the crust is golden, the cheese is melted throughout, and the tomato sauce is bubbling. The result is a dense, substantial pie that is eaten with a knife and fork.

‹Swipe for the next dish›

ServesOne 30 cm pie, serving two to four

TotalAbout 1 hour 15 minutes (including par-bake and rest)

Sourced2of 16 in BC

Cook

‹ Previous · Chess Pie|Next · Chicken and Dumplings ›

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

For the dough

300 g

plain flour

plus extra for dusting

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

30 g

fine cornmeal

Your own market

7 g

instant dried yeast

Your own market

1 tsp

fine salt

Your own market

1 tsp

caster sugar

Your own market

80 g

unsalted butter

softened, cut into small pieces

Your own market

180 ml

warm water

approximately 40°C

Your own market

30 ml

neutral oil

for the pan and dough surface

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

For the filling

400 g

low-moisture mozzarella

sliced or torn into even pieces

Your own market

350 g

Italian pork sausage

casings removed, crumbled

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

For the tomato sauce

400 g

whole peeled canned tomatoes

crushed by hand, liquid retained

Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →

2 cloves

garlic

finely chopped

Your own market

1 tsp

dried oregano

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

1 tsp

dried basil

Origin · New ZealandPurely Artisan Foods · San Diego →

1 pinch

caster sugar

Your own market

1 tsp

fine salt

to taste

Your own market

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

The Method

Combine flour, cornmeal, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Work the softened butter into the dry ingredients with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs — this is the step that produces the slightly flaky, pastry-like character of the crust. Add the warm water and mix to a cohesive dough. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth. The dough should be supple but slightly richer and softer than a standard bread dough. Cover and rest at room temperature for 45 minutes, until visibly puffed.

While the dough rests, prepare the tomato sauce. Combine the hand-crushed tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine. The sauce is left raw at this stage — the oven will finish it. It should taste fresh, bright, and only lightly seasoned; it must not resemble a long-simmered marinara.

Heat the oven to 220°C. Oil a 30 cm deep round pan (a cake pan at least 4 cm deep) generously with neutral oil. Press the rested dough into the pan with your hands, working it up the sides to a height of 3–4 cm. The wall must be even in thickness. Par-bake the empty shell for 5 minutes. The surface will look just set and dry — not coloured. This brief pre-bake is essential: the weight of the fillings would otherwise prevent the base from cooking through.

This is the step on which the dish lives or dies. Layer in strict order: lay all the mozzarella directly onto the par-baked crust in an even layer, pressing it gently into any gaps — the cheese goes on the bottom, against the dough, so that it melts through the filling and does not burn under the extended bake. Distribute the raw crumbled sausage evenly over the cheese. Spoon the tomato sauce over the top in a generous, even layer — thick enough to cover, but not so deep that it pools: excess sauce will make the filling soggy. Every stage of the inversion matters; any deviation collapses the logic of the deep dish.

Bake at 220°C for 25–35 minutes. The pie is done when the crust is deep golden at the edges, the tomato sauce is visibly bubbling across the entire surface, and a skewer or thin knife inserted into the centre of the dough wall meets no raw resistance. Underbaking produces a raw-dough centre; overbaking dries the crust. The correct window is narrow.

Remove from the oven and rest in the pan for 5–10 minutes before cutting. The rest allows the molten cheese and sauce to settle so that slices hold their form when lifted. Serve directly from the pan with a knife and fork.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Dough laminated with cold butter in a letter fold before pressing, after the manner of Pequod's caramelised-edge tradition; San Marzano tomatoes hand-crushed to order; fresh whole-milk mozzarella, drained overnight; heritage-breed Italian sausage seasoned in-house.

Estate — Dough enriched with good-quality unsalted butter and fine cornmeal; whole peeled canned tomatoes of reliable provenance; low-moisture block mozzarella sliced thickly; Italian sausage from a reputable butcher.

Market — Standard plain flour dough with supermarket butter; canned whole tomatoes of any origin; pre-sliced low-moisture mozzarella; packaged Italian sausages with casings removed.

House — Dough made with oil in place of butter (still acceptable); passata thinned with dried herbs; shredded mozzarella from a bag; any mild pork sausage.

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The crust wall is deep golden at the rim and has visibly pulled fractionally from the side of the pan.

◇Sight. The tomato sauce bubbles actively across the entire surface, not only at the edges.

◇Touch. A skewer inserted into the thickest part of the dough wall withdraws clean and meets no raw, sticky resistance.

◇Smell. The kitchen carries the smell of baked, buttery pastry rather than raw dough — the cornmeal gives a faint toasted-grain note when the crust is ready.

◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies on the inversion: mozzarella on the crust first, sausage over the cheese, sauce on top — and on the discipline not to drown the pie in excess sauce.

V · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

Neapolitan pizza — the ancestral thin form from which all American pizza, including deep dish, descends New York pizza — the thin-crust American adaptation, and the deep dish's principal rhetorical opponent Detroit pizza — a rectangular thick-crust style with cheese pressed to the edges, sharing deep dish's Midwestern instinct for mass and crust depth Sicilian sfincione — a thick, spongy pizza widely considered the closest Italian ancestor to deep dish in structure and heft

Pillar V

Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.

The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year

What to Pour

A robust American craft lager or a malt-forward pale ale; the carbonation cuts the richness of the butter crust and the fat of the melted mozzarella, while the malt body matches the density of the pie.

The whole pairing

VII · Origin & Lineage

Created at Pizzeria Uno, Chicago, in 1943, attributed to either Ike Sewell or Rudy Malnati — the question is unresolved. The dish emerges from Chicago's Italian-American community and represents the Midwestern instinct applied to an Italian form: bigger, heartier, built to feed more people. It is Chicago's singular contribution to the American pizza canon and the subject of the most polarised food debate in the country — New Yorkers classify it as a casserole; Chicagoans regard New York pizza as a cracker with toppings. Both positions are held with genuine conviction. The debate is noted in American Cookery (James Beard) as emblematic of regional American food identity.

Pillar VII

Origin and lineage are part of membership.

Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year

Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Bosa Foods

Vancouver · whole peeled canned tomatoes

→

Purely Artisan Foods

San Diego · dried basil

→

← PreviousChess PieOne standard · no exceptionsNext →Chicken and Dumplings