How Pizza Is Made: The Chicago Story

How pizza is made

Recipes change from one style to another, but most pizzas follow the same journey.

1. Mix the dough. Flour, water, yeast and salt form the foundation. Some recipes add oil or butter for a more tender crust. Mixing and kneading help develop gluten, the stretchy network that gives wheat dough its structure.
2. Give it time to rise. During fermentation, yeast produces gas that lifts the dough while flavour develops. A slower rise in the fridge can build more complex flavour and make the dough easier to stretch.
3. Shape the base. The dough is divided and shaped to suit the pizza. A thin pizza is gently stretched out; a deep-dish pizza is pressed across the bottom and up the sides of an oiled pan. If dough keeps springing back, a short rest helps it relax.
4. Add sauce, cheese and toppings. Many thin-crust pizzas start with tomato sauce, followed by cheese and toppings. Classic Chicago deep dish usually puts mozzarella underneath the fillings, with tomatoes on top. Draining wet ingredients helps keep the base from becoming soggy.
5. Bake, rest and slice. Heat sets the dough, browns the crust and melts the cheese. The right temperature and baking time depend on the style, size and oven. A deep, generously filled pizza needs time to heat through, followed by a short rest so its layers settle before slicing.

For more on the craft: King Arthur Baking’s pizza-making guide, fermentation tips and deep-dish method.

What makes Chicago deep dish different?

The pan is the starting point. Its high sides support a raised crust and generous layers of cheese, fillings and chunky tomato sauce. The depth comes from the whole assembled pizza, rather than simply an extra-thick slab of bread.

In the classic arrangement, mozzarella sits close to the base, fillings go above it and the tomato layer finishes the top. That sauce helps shield the cheese during the longer bake. Oil in the pan encourages a crisp, golden exterior, while the centre stays rich and soft. It is a pizza made for a plate, a knife and fork, and a good appetite.

Read more about the structure of deep dish and Chicago’s other pizza styles.

A short history of Chicago-style pizza

Italian roots, a Chicago setting

Chicago’s pizza story began before deep dish. Italian communities were making and eating pizza in the city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including around Taylor Street and the Near South Side. The Chicago History Museum traces those early roots.

1943: the beginning of deep dish

Deep dish is widely traced to the restaurant at 29 East Ohio Street that became Pizzeria Uno, which opened in 1943. Ric Riccardo, Ike Sewell and Rudy Malnati Sr. all feature in accounts of its origins, but the exact credit for creating the first recipe remains debated. Research presented by the Culinary Historians of Chicago explains why the story is more complicated than naming a single inventor.

A local idea becomes a city signature

As its popularity grew, deep dish spread to more restaurants. Pizzeria Due followed in 1955, and the style became closely associated with Chicago. The pizza itself evolved too: archival research suggests early versions were shallower than many of the pies served today. See the Chicago Architecture Center’s history of Uno and Due and the Culinary Historians’ account of the changing recipe.

One city, more than one pizza style

• Deep dish: a high-sided crust with layered cheese and fillings, usually finished with tomatoes.
• Stuffed pizza: a related style with an additional thin layer of dough covering the filling beneath the sauce.
• Tavern style: a thin, crisp pizza, usually cut into small squares for sharing.

Each has a place in Chicago’s pizza culture. Chicago Pizza Tours explains the differences.

Find your next favourite at Japes

Explore the pizza styles we serve at Japes, take a look at our menus, or book a table and let the first slice do the talking.