If you're just popping your frozen pizza out of the box and tossing it in the oven using the cooking instructions, then it's not exactly like the pizza will come out bad. But the truth of the matter is that it could be better. A little bit of additional effort can go a long way toward making a desperation meal into a lovely dinner. So what steps can help? Doing a little additional preparation with the toppings and cheese, changing up your cooking method, and using a little more patience overall can really make a difference. Avoid these big mistakes everyone makes with frozen pizza.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00It may seem impossible to mess up frozen pizza from a box, but there are some definite do's
00:05and don'ts. Are you cutting the pizza too soon? Not baking at the right temperature?
00:09Keep watching for what not to do.
00:11Sometimes, when you pull the frozen pizza out of the box and remove the plastic sleeve
00:15that's usually encasing it, the toppings are all over the place. Your instinct might be
00:19to just shove them all back to the center or get them scattered as evenly across the
00:23surface as possible if they've all gone to one side. Even if this topping side shift
00:27hasn't happened when you pull the pizza out, it's actually still a good idea to methodically
00:31rearrange the toppings before baking it.
00:34Per Taste of Home, if you envision where the cutter is going to slice through when the
00:37pizza is frozen, you can easily assemble the toppings so that you can guarantee space for
00:42a, quote, clean cut when you slice. If you employ this hack correctly, when you slice
00:46the pizza, the pizza cutter doesn't have to cut through anything except the bread, sauce,
00:50and cheese. This trick yields a lot less mess and whole pepperonis still intact.
00:55It might sound odd to not follow the exact instructions on the side of the frozen pizza
00:59box, but hear us out on this one. You know how pizzeria pizza is always the perfect texture
01:04of crust combined with cheese melted to the ideal consistency? A big component of how
01:09they pull that off in restaurants is an industrial oven that's designed to get extremely hot
01:13for cooking pizzas. You can replicate this at home without an official pizza oven if
01:17you crank up the temperature of your kitchen's oven to 550 degrees, according to the pizza
01:22experts from Giordano's Pizza. Then, just bake the pizza for about 5 to 8 minutes,
01:27as opposed to the usual 12 to 15 minutes.
01:30While it may be tempting to slide that pizza cutter right into that pie as soon as you
01:34pull it out of the oven, try to hold off on cutting into it too soon. There are a few
01:37reasons why you might mess up the pizza if you cut into it the minute it's done. For
01:42one, the cheese and toppings need a chance to set. The suggestion from the Kitchen Warriors
01:46is to let the pizza sit at room temperature for just three minutes before cutting into
01:50That way, the toppings and cheese are still piping hot, but set enough to where you won't
01:54pull the pizza cutter up with a lot of melted cheese along with it. Also, when you cut into
01:58the pizza too soon, you run the risk of the oil from the cheese running into the crust,
02:03soaking it, and therefore making it less crispy. Oh, and also, your pizza isn't going to taste
02:07as good if the roof of your mouth is burned, so it's best to wait if you can.
02:12Pizza stones may seem like the tools of advanced pizza chefs, not someone popping in a pepperoni
02:16di Giorno at home, but they're actually a very easy way to enhance the taste of any
02:21frozen pizza, too. Pizza stones serve to imitate the magic of a real-deal brick oven that a
02:26legit pizza place would use, because the stone easily takes in high heat, then keeps that
02:31heat in for an extended time. If you're going to use a pizza stone with a frozen pizza,
02:35make sure to preheat the stone in the oven for at least 30 minutes after the oven has
02:39reached the temperature you set it to, and to let the pizza thaw to room temperature
02:43before you place it on the hot stone. Having a pizza peel on hand would also be helpful
02:47for safely retrieving the hot, hot pizza from the stone when it's done.
02:51Who wants cheese? Me, please.
02:53There is nothing wrong with wanting to add some extra cheese to a frozen pizza,
02:57but there is definitely a wrong way to do it. It's important to keep that in mind when you
03:01add the extra cheese. Serious Eats recommends sprinkling it on halfway through the cooking
03:05process, but the placement can also depend on the type of cheese you're adding. For example,
03:10per Cooking Chops, most frozen pizzas already come with a layer of shredded mozzarella,
03:14so you can probably get away with adding it before you place the pizza in the oven. However,
03:18if you're adding cheddar cheese to the frozen pizza, it cooks a lot faster,
03:22so you may want to add it on when you hit the halfway mark of baking.
03:26Adding extra vegetable toppings to frozen pizza isn't necessarily a bad idea,
03:30but you can really mess up the final product if you don't do a little prep work on the veggies
03:34prior to adding them. Basically, the vegetables need to be sliced, softened, and or roasted first,
03:39and the exact prep will depend on the vegetable. For instance, the Guardian relays that mushrooms
03:44can end up disastrous if you don't sauté them with some butter first to soften them.
03:48Onions will emerge even more raw-seeming than before if you don't sweat them prior to adding
03:52them on top of the pizza. Bell peppers should, in a perfect world, be both skinned and roasted
03:57in advance of going onto the pizza.
04:00Part of the appeal of frozen pizza is all the hard work is done for you. It's convenient and
04:04quick already, so why add more work? Well, certain tweaks are less than a minute of work,
04:09so they're worth the effort. You can actually take the frozen pizza from mediocre to insta-worthy
04:14by supplying the pie with an extra dash of herbs prior to cooking it. Add some dried or fresh
04:18oregano to frozen pizza to enhance the flavor. Thyme is also a great add-in because it's kind
04:23of sweet and therefore a nice contrast to the savory cheese on the pizza. Garlic makes everything
04:29better, but it's technically a vegetable unless you want to go with the powdered kind, in which
04:32case we'll toss it in as a contender for the added herbs on pizza. A little salt and pepper never hurt
04:37either.
04:38One of the most basic ways you might be messing up your frozen pizza is not utilizing the grill
04:43if you've got one. Sure, the oven is the standard go-to for cooking a frozen pizza,
04:47but the grill is virtually just as easy and the results might really wow you. According to The
04:52Kitchen, this hack works best with a 10-inch pizza. Make sure the grill is preheated for
04:56about 15 minutes on the high setting. Then add the frozen pizza, reduce the heat, and cover the grill.
05:02Keep watch on it, but the cooking time frame should be about 10 to 12 minutes.
05:05Place the grilled pizza onto a cutting board with a spatula as soon as the cheese has fully
05:09melted and you see that good char has developed around the crust.