Full disclosure, I’ve never been to Malnati’s, never even been to Chicago. I’m just a guy who loves pizza, any kind of pizza. I do mostly focus on NY and Neapolitan style pizza making though. A few years ago we had a terribly cold winter and I couldn’t get outside too often to cook on my outdoor oven so I started working on some Chicago deep dish pizzas in my kitchen oven. Made about 6 pies but never really got results I was happy with so I’m back at it. Recipe is from member “pythonic” over on pizzamaking.com. I frequently browse that site but don’t post much, he is considered the Chicago guru though so thank you. Here’s a few pictures of the pre cooked product, let you know how it was.
I have a decent recipe from a cooking mag. I've made some in the mud oven in cast iron pans. I pre-heated the pans to get them warmed up. It helped make the bottom and side crust slightly crunchy. I am no expert on them, or how to build them, but they were good. The crust was great on these two pies.
Mine came out pretty good. Tomatoes weren’t drained enough, too wet still. Sausage was just some Italian links I had in the freezer, usually like to make my own. All in all not bad. I’m a pizza perfectionist though so we will be eating a lot of deep dish this winter!
When I was a kid there was a deep dish pizza joint in a local mall here. Only place I've ever seen it offered around here. It was the best pizza I've ever had. Next best was a small family chain in NYC called Grandpas Pizza. Great pizza and they had what they called a meat hoagie. It was basically a rolled up pizza crust stuffed with whatever you wanted and a big side of dipping marinara. The local joints around here have ruined pizza skimping on toppings and making crust 3/4" thick. A good buddy of mine who works for a wholesale food distributor keeps yanking my ear about starting up a shop. He says there's good $ in pizza shop food. These pics are mouth watering
