Ridiculously Easy Chicago-Style Pizza Pie

Submitted by rpgaymer

"Chicago-style pizza is great, but it can be a pain to make and way too expensive to buy from a restaurant... so I came up with this easy-to-make recipe. The best Chicago pizzas usually feature cornbread crusts, but the pie crusts make a surprisingly tasty substitute! I use this recipe by Dan-Amer #1 for the sausage (http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-bulk-italian-sausage-chicago-style-329000), but store-bought sausage should work just as well."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 1 pizza pie
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 9 inch frozen pie crusts, thawed
• 453.59 g Italian sausage, sliced or crumbled
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 113.39 g mushrooms, sliced
• 236.59 ml mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 59.14 ml parmesan cheese, shredded
• 425.24 g can pizza sauce
• 2.46 ml italian seasoning (optional)
• 9.85 ml parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Bake the pie crust according to your package's directions. I usually prick the bottom and sides of the crust all over with a fork and bake it for 10 minutes, or until it becomes slightly golden. Remove, and set aside.
3. Brown the sausage for about 5 minutes in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the sausage is cooked and the onions are soft and translucent. Drain of any excess fat. (You can add salt & pepper at this point depending on how salty/spicy your sausage is- I usually don't).
4. Sprinkle the mozzarella and parmesan on the bottom of your pie crust. Top the cheese with the sausage mixture, and spread it out evenly. Next, spread the pizza sauce over the top, making sure the filling is completely covered. Finally, you can sprinkle the Italian seasoning and grated cheese on top, if you wish.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Reviews

[weekend cooker]

Being from the Chicago area, and having been to Chi Town numerous times, we have had deep dish pizza plenty of times, and this one ranks up there. I left out the salt and pepper, used the parmesan cheese, and the italian seasonings. I would recommend the italian seasonings on this. Very easy to prepare too, This does top one of the famous pizza eateries in Chicago by far, I won't mention who, because I do not know if I can, so with that being said, next month when I go to Chicago we will stop by one of the Chicago sports legends restaurant, and have a steak sandwich instead. Very easy, and very very good. Made for PRMR tag.

 

[KateL]

A complete change of pace for us, didn't know we were inculcated in NY Pizza until I tagged this recipe. This recipe made me think! This recipe is all about the SAUSAGE, so make sure you have mighty fine sausage. Chicago is the meat-packing capital of the world, so there you can probably find wonderful sausage almost anywhere. I used Johnsonville Sweet Italian, which is about the best sausage we get in the greater Baltimore area, UNLESS YOU MAKE THE SAUSAGE YOURSELF. This recipe almost requires that you make your own sausage. In the past year, I have been disappointed with most commercial sausage I have tried -- too much gristle! Not enough flavor! I found myself dreaming of Wild Boar sausage from DH's past hunting expeditions. The pie crust is not as odd as one might think. Chicago pizza dough DOES NOT CONTAIN CORNMEAL and it does rely heavily on CORN OIL; it is usually THICK, almost like a biscuit base, but tasting more like pastry pie crust in its flakiness. The thin pie crust allowed me to add all of the ingredients for this recipe, but my pie didn't firm up for a decent slice until 30 minutes after I removed it from the oven. I believe that a thicker crust would have sped up that process. As for pizza sauce, I made my own using Recipe #413005 reduced to pizza sauce thickness and jazzed up as I saw fit. It worked fine. Back to the NY pizza bias: normally I would ask for "extra sauce", but in this recipe, that would be ridiculous! In the end, I applaud your effort, you made me think outside my box. Next project: authentic Chicago pizza dough! Made for Rookie Recipe Tag.

 

[rosie316]

I made this tonight for dinner. We loved it! I, too, am from the Chicago-land area. This is pretty close to restaurant quality pizza pies (and even better than some). I used ground Italian sausage in mine. The only thing I changed with this recipe is that I left the mushrooms out (I just don't like them). I look forward to making this again. (It's a lot cheaper than going out for one). Thanks for posting. (Made for Zaar Chef Alphabet Soup tag)

 

[lazyme]

I liked this a lot! It truly tasted like a thin crust pizza to me. I made everything as directed (with optional ingredients), but didn't have quite enough pizza sauce so added maybe 1/4 cup marinara sauce to the mix. Your pic looks great....and a perfect slice of pizza pie. Mine was a little looser and didn't maintain the shape. :lol: Regardless of how mine looked - it tasted great. Thanks for sharing this nice keeper. Made for PRMR Tag.

 

[Erika J.]

Mine came out pretty good. I like the buttery pie crust and I added some fresh tomatoes and basil on top. I had not one but two slices.