Deep Dish Pizza
This recipe is another one of my favorite super easy, quick to throw together, family pleasing, and incredibly delicious meals, originally from mother’s recipe collection. One of the best things about it is how incredibly adaptable it is to whatever ingredients you have on hand! I’ve made it with absolutely no cheese before and it was still delicious!
This recipe is a testament to just how many family recipes we have. I have an original family cookbook that I made eons ago which lists where every recipe came from and notes about it so I always go and look up that information when I am about to post. I have been bragging to my mother about how delicious this is for ages and telling her that she MUST make it soon! I finally got her intrigued enough to ask for the recipe and she bought all of the ingredients yesterday saying “That does sound good, I’ll have to try that this week!”. This morning when I went to my original cookbook to see where the recipe came from originally, I find out its hers!
NOW I know why it tastes so familiar and where I’ve had it before! I remember having this when I was a little girl but I guess Mama got busy with other recipes and busy work and it eventually faded into the background. Well I am reviving this puppy once more, Mama, coz it is SO GOOD!!
For all of my readers with hungry men and teenage boys to feed, get ready for a home run with Deep Dish Pizza!
For the filling you’ll need: Ground beef, Pizza sauce, italian seasoning, onion, parmesan cheese, Mozzarella, and a bit of pepper.
I already have my beef browned and bagged in the freezer so any ground beef dish is a lot quicker for me. The original recipe (posted at the bottom) calls for one pound of ground beef and one pound of sausage. I just used two pounds of ground beef. See how adaptable this is?
Of course, I use the generic pizza sauce because it is awesome anyway.
For your super easy crust, you’ll need milk, all purpose flour, eggs, bit of salt, and a wee bit of vegetable oil.
Yes, you can use olive oil in place of vegetable oil but I don’t. Why? Because Olive Oil is so expensive it just doesn’t make sense to me. If I ever start drinking oil, I’ll look into more “refined” options 
.
In a large skillet, add your beef and chopped onion. You can also add any other pizza ingredients you typically enjoy. Had my entire family (except for me) not been dropped on their heads as children (thereby ruining their ability to tell what is good in food), I would be adding bell pepper and mushrooms now YUM!
Of course, this is the step where you would normally brown your beef but I’m just heating mine up a bit here. I’m not really worried about sauteing my onions that much either, just getting them started cooking because they will finish just fine as it bakes in the oven.
I love getting pizza at this little market near our house because they will put all of my favorite toppings on just one or two pieces and leave the rest of the pizza pepperoni only for the unimaginative folks in my life ~grins~
Pour in your pizza sauce and stir.
Now we’re done!
Spray a 9×13 inch pan with baking spray.
Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over the bottom of the pan.
I am so glad I have leftovers of this to eat right after I am done with this post!
Leftovers of deep dish pizza are EXCELLENT by the way!
Spread meat mixture over the mozzarella.
Now its time to make our crust, you’re just not going to believe how easy it is!
Pour milk into a medium sized bowl.
Add flour
Add eggs and salt
Add your oil.
Stir all of that up well with a large spoon, making sure you get your eggs broken up and mixed in.
That’s it, you’re totally done!
Pour crust batter over meat.
Bake at 350 for thirty minutes. It may not look done but it is .
By now, your kitchen is filled with the most delicious smell. Your kids and spouse have been driving you crazy asking if its done yet, and your stomach has set into a continual growl. Or maybe that’s just me .
Ingredients Instructions
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“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ~Abraham Lincoln.
How happy have you decided to be today?
Gratefully,
Christy
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jan 27 2009. Filed under Main Course, Quick&Easy.
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I made this along with pizza rolls Saturday. Let’s just say yum!
I made with without the sausage…just ground beef, no green peppers, but a small can of drained mushrooms and instead of the pizza sauce used my Bertolli’s Organic Olive Oil, Basil and Garlic spaghetti sauce (about 3/4 of the jar). It turned out fantastic as did the leftovers whether reheated in oven or microwave! Thanks for a new addition to my tried and true recipes!
I made this lastnight and it was a HUGE hit!! thank you so much for the recipe. I will be maing this often:)
This is so quick and easy, I do not have a lot of time. I travel for work so when I am at home I have sooo much to do. But my 21 year old son likes this pizza and he is skinny as a rail so I am so happy to find something he will eat. I do put a little sugar in the with the flour. And my Kroger here in Dallas does not have Pizza sauce..Go Figure. So I use Barille Basil sauce. And I have to hide the onions, so I use the powder. But it is a Hit! Thanks
I made this Saturday, using an 8 oz. package mix of pizza cheese, chopped some link sausage up with the meat sauce, and we ATE IT ALL UP! I think we might have made inroads into a second one, but I only made one. Everyone expressed interest in me making more in the near future.
I’m cooking this meal right now & I can alread tell it’s going to be a keeper. The only thing I’m doing to tweak it to make it my own is just adding a little Italian Seasoning Salt to the meat – only because I like the taste of this seasoning so much.
Everything I’ve made thus far have all been winners.
Alisa
It was fantastic! We had no leftovers. We changed the name to upside down pizza. Thank you so much for a most needed addition to the dinner rotation.
This was a 4 thumbs up from my family last night!!! Quick and easy, got to love that! Thanks for the additional ideas.
Julie
I have been a fan of your blog for a couple months now. This will be my first recipe from it tonight!
I have never wanted to take a bite out of my computer monitor… until now…
Wow! The pizza was fabulous! My hubby & daughter were almost fighting over it LOL. He said “You can fix this anytime you like!” Super simple and satisfying. Thanks Christy.
[...] Friday night is pizza night and we just make different styles each week. We’ve done deep-dish, taco, potato, blt (three favorites from Stevi B’s) , and of course the standard pepperoni [...]
Oh this looks so easy and so yummy!!!
I am so making this.
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Hi Christy,
I just made this for my family. As soon as my husband walked in the door he asked what smells so good. The smell that fills the house while this bakes is amazing. My oldest daughter declared this her new favorite meal! I like to try a new recipe a week and I always check your site first. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes and great craft ideas. Congrats on your book deal! I can’t wait to pick myself up a copy.
Made this last night for supper and it was a hit. I customized, not to my family’s taste, but to my need to make it FAST. I left out the onions and peppers just because I was in a major rush. The family still loved it.
[...] Deep Dish Pizza [...]
Christy, I made this tonight and I messed it up SO BAD!! First mistake, I put my husband in charge of browning the beef, sausage and onions, while I took care of some other things. He did OK on that, but then I called out to him how much of each seasoning to add. He is a very smart man, but evidently has no idea how to use measuring spoons! There was WAAAAAAY too much salt, red pepper flakes (my addition), and oregano, and there’s just no way it got that way sticking to the amounts I told him.
Then I contributed to the disaster. Since there’s only two of us, I cut the recipe in half, but forgot and mixed up the full amount of crust batter. I thought, “That’s OK…I’ll just use part of it.” Nope…apparently my latent ADD kicked in and I poured all the batter over the top. Oh, you should have seen it. It looked nothing whatsoever like yours. What a salty, too spicy, doughy MESS it was! And it was totally the cook’s fault.
I consider myself a good cook, so this just made me mad. I HAVE to make this again (ALONE this time, thank you very much!)just to redeem myself!
Maybe you could do a post telling us about some of your own cooking disasters! It would sure make me feel better!
Hi there ! Made this the first time by the recipe. Well ‘cept I did half it. I loved it! My sweet boy (5yrs old) didn’t like all the hamburger meat…. SO Mama decided to use Pepperoni instead. AND I flipped it out onto a platter. He loved it this time too
Now he is full & sleepy so off for a nap we go 
Thank you for all that you do. You remind us making the foods we grew up on is not beyond our crazy schedules. I’d rather feed him with love than save a little time going thru a drivethru !!
I just wanted to say thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. I made this last night for the second or third time, and we all loved it. What I like about it is that you can adjust it to what your family likes. I don’t add peppers or onion, but I do add a layer of pepperoni and canadian bacon on top of the hamburger mixture to make a meat lover’s pizza. That’s my family’s favorite. I think mushrooms and olives would be good, too. I run it under the broiler for a minute or two to brown the top and melt a little more mozarella on the top. This is one of our favorites. I am a full time working mom (kindergarten assitant teacher) and a part time college student along with wife and mom, and I come to your recipes when I do my meal planning. Thanks again!
is it 1/4 cup of oregano or 1/4 tsp? just gettin it straight in my weird little brain here.
Mama Jane, if you got a weird little brain, I hate to think of what mine would be classified as!
It’s 1/4 cup if you use fresh oregano. But I just nix that and use 2 tablespoons dry italian seasoning and its WONDERFUL! YUMMM
Hope this helps!
CJ
This looks soooooooo good! I can’t wait to try it. I saluted to the White Lily flour in the background.
This sounds like a great recipe. Think I will make this on Saturday for the ballgame-”GO DAWGS”.Everything will go in except the kitchen sink -black olives, mushrooms, jalepenos -I can hardly wait for this one. You “DONE” good on this one. Thanks girl !!!!
I am going to make it tomorrow night,sounds delish!!!!!! I just love your recipes because I grew up on southern home cookin and that is exactly how I cook. My mom was a wonderful teacher.
I will be making this one for sure!! I make my own pizzas and this one sounds much easier…thank you, I received my coupons in the mail today! Again, thank you so much!
~~~~~~~~lots of hugs
If you’re feeding vegetarians, replace the ground beef with spinach and it’ll be a big hit!
this looks sooooooooo good. I make something a lot like this but I cheat a little and use a 10 count can of butter-me-not biscuits and I make it in my iron frying pan. When I cook for just my husband Gary and myself, I use the 5 count can and my small iron fry pan. Always done in just the time the can says to cook the biscuits! The iron pan makes for a wonderful crisp deep dish crust. I am loving SOUTHERN PLATE!
This is another great recipe that I have you to thank for!
I make this for my family about once a month!
Thanks!
[...] Deep Dish Pizza [...]
Oh yes, we will be making this. And there will be mushrooms and green peppers. C’mon over!
Made this tonight and it is great! It will ease my day tomorrow by giving us delicious leftovers! My grandsons will love this!
After all these fabulous reviews, I’ll have to give this one a try. I’ll definitely be adding green peppers! It looks delicious, and would be great for a crowd.
One more cheating step, use frozen, chopped onions!
You’re my kinda cook!
do you think a person could make up this casserole, pour the ‘ crust’ over the top, and then immediately put in the freezer for baking at another date? I’m trying to make up unbaked casseroles to have in the freezer, but not sure how crust will come out…have you ever done that?
I haven’t done this recipe that way but it should work. Try it out and let me know!
You might try cooking it a little (like 10 or 15 minutes) then freeze.
I was thinking the same thing, but I was also thinking if I made the recipe all the way through and froze it without the dough topping and just made that right before baking it.
I think I am going to try it that way. You could always put the flour mixture, minus the liquid items, in a ziploc and freeze it between foil layers with the directions to finish the topping and baking instructions on it.
Oregano herb can really spice up every food that you can cook, i love to add it on our foods ‘:’
I made your Beef Stew last night (a huge hit!) and I’m making this tonight! I changed it up a bit by adding another layer of cheese and some pepperoni. Also, I put garlic salt in the dough instead of plain salt. Looking forward to diving in!
I just used can of Hunt’s Traditional spaghetti sauce that I had got on sale for 99 cents. I added a little salt to the meat, and didn’t add any Italian seasoning…only salt. I had some Pecorino Romano cheese and added it along with a little Parmesean. I used Mozzerella, but I think if all you had was cheddar, it would be excellent also. It tasted great! So simple to make!
I made this tonight & my husband & 17 month old son LOVED it! I LOVED IT! YUM! It has a lasagna feel without the lasagna preparation. Delicious! This is going to be a staple in our household. Thank you so much, Christy!
I’m looking forward to trying this! It sounds good.
Can this be made without the meat as just a cheese deep dish pizza? I am a vegetarian, but it looks so good!
I just made this pizza dish for dinner. The hubby and my 18 month old son scarfed it up!!! I couldnt believe how easy it was and it was cooked in no time. I have made multpile dishes from your site and every one has been wonderful. Keep them coming. Any ideas for a picky 6yr old? Thanks
[...] Griffin – This week he had deep dish pizza and cheesy chicken and [...]
Made this for dinner tonight and everyone loved it, this one goes in my keeper file!/bj
[...] cakes from her on out Fire and Ice Salad for a teacher luncheon….everyone loved this too! Deep Dish Pizza and my step daughter says this is the best pizza [...]
Thank you so much for the “print this recipe” button. I’ve been wondering what we were going to have for supper as last nights supper was so good we ate it all! And hubby is bringing a friend home. And I’m trying to pack to go to the beach, go to the library, and clean the house so I can come home to a clean house from vacation. This looks easy and yummy! I bet I can even get the 11 yo to do everything but brown the ground beef and onions!
Can’t wait to try this one!! Also, thanks for the link back to your previous post on processing large quantities of ground beef. I’m going to be doing that from now on!!!
I can NOT wait (nor I bet can my hunna) for me to make this some night SOON!!! Thx Christy for yet another AWESOME recipe
I’m thinking I could use my leftover spaghetti sauce that’s real thick & not runny at all & make this a super easy dinner. What do y’all think?
Christy,
I want to make this. I am sure the house smells so good when it is baking. Does the cheese get crispy on the bottom? Do you miss the mozzarella cheese on the top?
Linda
Made the pizza, but of course, I can’t leave anything alone. Added a can of black olives plus stems & pieces mushrooms to the sauce…after jazzing it up a bit with 1/2c red wine..
…used an organic sauce which was good. I also covered the top of the “dough” with a layer of pepperoni. Simple, yet awesome. Of course, EVO instead of plan ole oil…