Honestly, I never even thought about using a propane grill to bake a pizza, but, now that I’ve tried it, I’ll probably never make a pizza in the oven again.
Disclaimer: the company sent me a grill for review purposes.
Manufactured by Blue Rhino–the company that makes those exchangeable propane tanks sold in most hardware stores and supermarkets–the Mr. Pizza Pizza Grill is essentially a portable propane grill, albeit a slightly large one, which a special door for cooking pizza.
Inside, the grill is pretty normal as well: there’s a porcelain-coated cooking grid with an additional warming surface. It uses a normal propane tank (not included, of course) and has integrated ignition, so no matches or lighters are needed. It also comes with a Cordierite pizza stone.
What sets this apart for a normal grill is the separate front door, which allows you to slide a pizza in and then pull it back out when it’s done without needing to open the grill’s lid, thus preserving most of the heat. The grill heats up very quickly–I didn’t time it precisely, but when I went back outside to check on it, I was surprised that it was already at 500°.
For our first time using the grill, I got pre-made 8″ pizza crusts from a local supermarket. The grill’s surface area is 14″, so I had to cook each pizza individually, which I thought at first would be a problem. However, this oven cooks pizza fast; I put the first one in, then came inside to prepare the second, and when I came back out with that second pizza–only 2-3 minutes later–the first was already done. So cooking four pizzas, one for each of us, took about as long as cooking a whole pizza in our oven in the kitchen (and it was a whole lot less time than delivery), but, of course, it didn’t heat up the house and there was no need to the usual round of negotiation on toppings, as we each got our own.
My 13-year-old daughter proclaimed this as the best home-made pizza she’s had. While that could be a statement about the quality of pizzas we’ve made in the past, it’s nonetheless a great endorsement of this grill.
I haven’t tried the grill out as a conventional grill yet, although, of course, it can work as one. We may have to give that a go this weekend, but in the meantime I think home-cooked pizza will now be added to our regular meal rotation at home. I certainly can’t wait to give it a try again.
I think this is a great alternative for a pizza oven. I have a pizza stone that I place on y gas grill when I want to cook pizza at home and it works great. I think this is an even better alternative to that for 2 reasons. A) The front door allows the oven to keep all that heat in as you slide your pizzas in and out and B) I would imagine it uses less propane than I am keeping my grill up to temp from opening and closing the lid. Great review, and props on the pesto 🙂
I wonder how hot your oven really got, the cheap bimetal thermometers in grills are notoriously unreliable. Ideally you’d get up to 800F like a real brick oven. But I think that’s unlikely given this looks uninsulated, even less so assuming their lawyers made them design it leaky enough to prevent an explosion if the burner didn’t light on the first few tries.
this pizza oven works great no flaws , i use it for pizza only the material is solid, no leaks it has a little chimney , heats up to 500 degrees very quicky about 10-15 on high makes crispy crust . very impresive compared to your local mom &pop local pizzeria . ill never buy a takeout pizza again ..