Chicago Style Pizza

What's the big deal about Chicago style pizza anyway? What makes it different from other kinds of pizzas? Quite a bit, actually!

First, take your standard pizza crust and throw it out the window. Now, make a new crust from corn meal and olive oil, and curve the outside of the crust up high and thick, so you have a sort of dough-y platter. Bake the crust just a touch to give it some cushion and bounce. Then add your toppings, which in Chicago means sausage, pepperoni, onions, green peppers and black olives and cheese. Finally, add your sauce on the very top. This is what sets Chicago style pizza apart from all the other kinds.

The resulting pizza is gooey, deeper than your normal deep dish, and more textured than that stuff you get at Domino's or Pizza Hut.

Chicago produced a number of other variants of your normal pizza, too!

Chicago pizzerias are world-renowned for the deep, sauce on top wedges of sausage, cheese and tomatos. What many people may not know is that Chicago also churned out the awesome thin crust pizza.

The thin crust pizza that comes out of a Chicago pizzeria is going to have a few distinct qualities. First, of course, is the crust. Crackerlike on the bottom, and soft on top, these pizzas have a supported crunch to them. Unlike the deep dish, Chicago style thin crust pizzas have the cheese on top, but overall the pizza is pretty much flat. Don't let that fool you! Flat does not mean flavorless.

Another Chicago based creation is the 'stuffed' pizza. No no, not the stuffed crust, the stuffed pizza.

This kind of pizza is made just like the deep dish is made, but with one primary difference. The first layer of toppings goes down, then a second layer of dough is pressed over them and the edges of the dough are pressed flat together. Then the next layer of toppings and cheese, and finally the sauce are all added.

It is difficult to tell a normal Chicago style deep dish apart from a stuffed pizza, on first glance. Then, when you cut into the pizza it's easy to tell as you see two stories of pizza heaven right before your eyes.