A Tailgating Pizza Bar brings camping and tailgating to life, creating a fun, hands-on experience for everyone. Personal pizzas are ideal for gatherings because each guest can build a pie just the way they like it. Adults appreciate the ability to customize toppings and crusts, and kids — of all ages — love inventing their own crazy combinations.
For a recent weekend tailgate we set up a pizza bar using the Green Mountain pizza oven insert for a Davey Crockett tailgater. We made more than a dozen different pizzas in a variety of styles: thin crust, thick crust, and deep dish. With a pizza bar, the only limit is your imagination.
I find dough to be the most challenging part of pizza making. Proper dough can be time-consuming, which is why I often buy 16-ounce premade dough balls. To learn more about dough, I visited Wes at Jim’s Razorback Pizza in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He demonstrated his three-day dough process and showed how he shapes thin, hand-tossed, and deep-dish rounds. His technique is impressive — my dough spinning still needs work!
For our pizza bar I purchased a dozen 16-ounce dough balls and split many in half to make personal rounds. The Davey Crockett grill is portable, making the GMG DC pizza oven a great fit for ten-inch personal pizzas at tailgates, parties, and campsites.
The essential accessory is a pizza peel. Cooking directly on a stone produces excellent results but requires attention; cornmeal on the peel helps the dough slide. For ease and versatility, pizza pans work very well and allow you to create gourmet variations like caramelized cheese crusts. We used pans ranging from eight to ten inches — a 9-inch springform worked nicely for many pies.
At home, Patti and I reserve a weekly date night. Sometimes we cook on our Green Mountain wood pellet grill/smoker, other times indoors, but we always dine outside on our patio. With a rainforest-themed setting — patio heater, lights, candles, lanterns, and music — we enjoy good food, drinks, and each other’s company.
Tailgating Pizza Bar — A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Prep Time: About 1 hour to set up the pizza bar.
Cook Time: Most pizzas cook in 3–5 minutes. Grill temp 375°F (190°C) with a stone temp around 425°F (220°C); thicker crusts take a bit longer.
Grill: Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill “Davey Crockett” with pizza oven insert.
Pellets: We used Green Mountain’s Texas Blend BBQ pellets for smoky flavor.
Ingredients
A pizza bar is about choice, so I won’t list exact ingredient amounts. Use what you like. We offered a red tomato sauce, a white Alfredo sauce, and a “blush” sauce made by blending the two. We had seven cheeses and several cheese blends plus four or five different meats. Add vegetables as you prefer — Patti likes onions, mushrooms, and spinach. Most cheeses should be grated or shredded; quantities depend on taste and pan size.
Notes on Dough and Pans
We split 16-ounce dough balls to make individual pizzas. For direct stone baking, sprinkle cornmeal on the peel to prevent sticking and help transfer. For pans, lightly buttering and topping the edge with parmesan creates a caramelized crust. Use a pizza peel to slide pizzas onto the stone or pan, and be cautious when lifting the oven lid — it becomes extremely hot.
Cooking Directions
Preheat the grill to 375°F (190°C) to achieve a stone temperature around 425°F (220°C). Build pizzas on a floured or cornmeal-dusted peel. If baking directly on the stone, turn each pizza about a quarter turn every minute so the crust cooks evenly. Thin crusts finished in roughly four minutes; thick crusts required longer.
For larger pizzas, lift the lid, place the pizza on the stone or pan, then close the lid. The lid and oven surfaces are extremely hot — use proper protection when handling. For pizzas baked without the lid, rely on the stone’s high heat and close the grill when appropriate to retain temperature.
Note: Many readers ask about pellet choice. A recipe is an outline; feel free to experiment with pellet blends until you find a flavor you love. Smoke impact is most noticeable at temps below 250°F (122°C). At higher temperatures the cooking process dominates and smoke flavor is minimal, so pellet choice matters less when you’re cooking hot pizzas.
About Our Recipes
We test recipes on our patio alongside a variety of grills — pellet grills, wood-fired ovens, charcoal smokers, and more. Our approaches emphasize outdoor flavors, but many recipes can be adapted to other cooking methods. The key is time and temperature: adjust these to suit your equipment and the style of pizza you want to create.
A recipe should inspire you, not constrain you. Tweak ingredients, try new combinations, and make each pizza your own. Live your passion and do what you love.
Ken & Patti
