We may earn a commission when you click on the affiliate links in this post.
This Chicago Deep Dish Pizza – Gino’s Copycat is so incredibly good. It’s loaded with melty cheese on bottom, then topped with meat and marinara sauce.
Table of Contents
- Gino’s Deep Dish Pizza Copycat
- Ingredients in Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
- Preparing the Crust
- Reader Suggestions for the Crust
- Chicago Style Pizza
- Tips for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza At Home
- Frequently Asked Questions About Deep Dish Pizza
- Even More Pizza Recipes
- How to Make Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
- Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Recipe
Gino’s Deep Dish Pizza Copycat
Years ago, I watched a big special about Gino’s East Italian Restaurant on the Travel Channel and couldn’t wait to try it on my upcoming trip to Chicago. I had a few things on my Chicago to do list, but going to Gino’s East (along with seeing the giant bean and taking an architecture tour by boat) was an absolute must. Gino’s East was everything I had imagined it would be and MORE. Believe the hype. It’s THAT good!
Ingredients in Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Crust:
- Water
- Yeast
- Corn oil
- Sugar
- Cream of tartar
- Bread Flour
Pizza Sauce:
- Plum Tomatoes, Roma or San Marzano tomatoes
- Salt
- Basil
- Oregano
- Black pepper
Toppings:
- Low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (NOT low fat)
- Pepperoni
- Italian sausage
Optional Toppings:
- Ham
- Mushrooms
- Red Onions
- White Onions
- Olives
- Red Peppers
- Green Peppers
- Pineapple
- Spinach
- Grated Parmesan Cheese
- Red Pepper Flakes
- Garlic
- Rosemary
- Fresh Basil
Preparing the Crust
In a large bowl, put water (luke warm), then yeast, oil, cream of tartar, and sugar. Mix with your hand until yeast dissolves. Pour in bread flour a little at a time. Mix with your hand. Just curve your hand like a dough hook, hold the bowl and mix. You can also use a stand mixer with a dough hook on low speed. Then, knead it until it gets firm. Add more flour if needed.
The secret is the kneading. Knead it for about 10 minutes straight. Then, roll it into a ball and put it in a lightly oiled bowl. Next, Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let sit overnight unrefrigerated. Only let it rise once. Finally, Portion and use.
Reader Suggestions for the Crust
Some of our readers have had some great suggestions on how to make the crust more identical to Gino’s. We love the crust recipe that we use and think is tastes much like Gino’s, but not living in Chicago, we can’t say it is identical to the original. We have had rave reviews about this pizza so we don’t want to make any changes to our original recipe. However, here are some of our reader’s suggestions if you would like to try them:
“You actually need a combination of cornmeal or semolina flour to mix in with your all purpose flour. In addition, you need a combination of EVOO and Corn oil. Yes, corn oil is roughly 95% of it, however, it will make a difference. Try the following that we found years ago and have been perfecting for the last 15 years.
Six cups all purpose flour (5 cups All Purpose / 1 cup semolina or yellow corn meal)
Two cups cold water
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup oil (95% corn oil/ 5% EVOO)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
This is the spot on recipe. Compare the two and let me know. Enjoy.” -Heath H.
“There’s no semolina or corn meal in Gino’s East dough formulation. You are missing some yellow food coloring (eggshade) to get the yellow color Gino’s crust has. The oil blend should be corn oil and extra virgin olive oil in that 8:1 ratio.
100% AP Flour
48% Water
16% Corn Oil
2% EVOO
2% Sugar
1% Cream of Tartar
.5% Yellow Food Coloring
.5% IDYTF = .14 oz per square inch (don’t forget the sides). A 12″ pizza dough ball should weigh about 640g.
That’s the recipe. -Loo
Chicago Style Pizza
I am happy to report our version is VERY close to the original. But, don’t take my word for it, read all those comments below from our readers who have made it. I LOVE this Chicago-style pizza pie! It’s so fun that the layers are reversed – the cheese is on the bottom and the tomato sauce is on the top. Probably some of the best home-made pizza I have ever had. YUM! Please, try it and let me know what you think!
Tips for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza At Home
- First, you are going to need a deep dish pan. This Pizza Pan is the one that I have for perfect Chicago deep-dish pizza.
- Use San Marzano tomatoes in the sauce. The flavor is so rich and it really makes it taste like the sauce they use on the deep-dish pies at Gino’s East.
- Don’t have a deep dish pan? Use a couple of cake pans instead. Although the pizzas will be smaller, it will still be delicious!
Frequently Asked Questions About Deep Dish Pizza
Chicago style pizza is a thick crust pizza made in a deep dish pan (or cast-iron skillet) with the cheese and toppings on the bottom of the pizza and the sauce on top.
Chicago Deep Dish Pizzas can have a variety of toppings but they typically have pepperoni and sausage.
There are many Italian restaurants that serve deep dish pizza in Chicago so this is highly debatable! But our personal favorites are Gino’s East, Giordano’s, Lou Malnati’s, or Pizzeria Uno.
There is a lot of speculation on that topic, it definitely originated in Chicago but several pizza chains claim to be the first.
READ NEXT: Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas
Even More Pizza Recipes
Looking for more pizza recipes? Try some of our favorites!
- Authentic Neapolitan Pizza
- Homemade Pizza
- Grilled Pesto Pizza
- Chicken Pizza with Lemons
- French Bread Pizza
- Roasted Butternut Squash Flatbread Pizza
- Antipasto Vegetarian Pizza
How to Make Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 (0.25-ounce) packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ⅓ cup corn oil
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 pound bread flour
Pizza Sauce
- 1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes, undrained
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Toppings
- 16 ounces shredded mozzarella (Low-moisture part skim NOT low fat. It won't turn out good if you use low fat)
- 25 slices pepperoni
- 10 ounces Italian sausage uncooked, pinched into little pieces
Instructions
Crust
- In a bowl, combine water, yeast, sugar, oil, and cream of tartar. Mix with your hand or a whisk until the yeast dissolves.
- Pour in bread flour a little at a time. Mix with your hand or a dough mixer. Knead until firm, about 10 minutes. Add more flour if needed.
- Brush a bowl with oil. Roll the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let sit on the counter overnight.
Pizza Sauce
- Pour tomatoes into a bowl. Using a potato masher or just your hands, mash the tomatoes up so that there are no chunks bigger than a quarter.
- Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Do not use too much basil or oregano.
Assembly
- Preheat oven to 350.Prepare a 14-inch deep-dish pizza pan or a round cake pan with straight sides by coating the inside of it with a very healthy coating of melted butter or oil. Roll the dough out to about 3 inches larger in diameter than the bottom of the pan, then place inside the pan and pinch the dough up along the sides.
- Sprinkle the cheese on the crust.
- Add the pepperoni and sausage pieces.
- Cover with the sauce.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, until the crust starts to brown and the cheese starts to bubble up through the sauce. The little edges of the pepperoni should also start to crisp, and the sausage should be cooked through.
Video
Notes
- Don’t like the toppings? Swap them out for your favorites!
- Try to get tomatoes with the DOP label so you know they are real Italian tomatoes.
- Use low-moisture part-skim mozzarella, not low-fat. It won’t turn out well if you use low-fat.
- To prep ahead, make the sauce in advance. It will stay good in the fridge for up to a week.
- To store, keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
In your description of the recipe you state refrigerate dough 12 hours. However in the recipe you say to leave on counter overnight? Which is it! I know refrigeration slows the fermentation. Am I to refrigerate for 12 hours then allow to sit overnight? I’m confused.
Sorry for the confusion, it is supposed to rise overnight at room temperature. Not in the fridge.
On label above it says refrigerate for 12 hours, what am I refrigerating the sauce?
Its the dough! You let the crust dough sit on the counter overnight.
Made this for a native Chicagoan who’s been to Gino’s MANY times. He said this recipe was actually better than Gino’s!!
I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect clone but it makes a fantastic deep dish pizza! I was a pizza maker in High School and college in NJ and there is an art to making any pizza. I’ve been to Geno’s many times and was so excited to try this, it did not disappoint!
Chicago Pizza is about pressing and moving the dough outward where as for NY (or traditional) you have to press and toss it. Another major difference the cheese, the mozzarella needs to be sliced and layered rather than shredded. I know I may be stating the obvious to some but its something I had to learn.
I would love to make this pizza as a birthday gift. Is it okay to make the pizza, refrigerate it for 24hrs and bake it the next day?
I would imagine that would be okay, but we haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure.
The basil and oregano doesn’t specify if it should be fresh or dried herbs. I assumed it was dried herbs, but when i hit the Amazon like it shows fresh basil and dried oregano. Can you specify is it should be fresh or dried basil and oregano?
I’m super excited to try this recipe!
We used dried herbs in this recipe!
I’m not sure why people say there is cornmeal in this pizza. If you go to Gino’s website, you can order their actual pizza and have it shipped. On the box that arrives it lists all of the ingredients. There is NO CORNMEAL in real Gino’s East Deep Dish pizza.
I actually just made a frozen Gino’s East pizza for dinner tonight. I was looking at the ingredient label and noticed that the flour they use in the crust has both wheat and barley flour. I’ve seen the barley flour in the ingredients for other major pizza places, too (like Uno’s).
My first experience with Gino’s East was over 40 years ago at their Superior St. location in Chicago. It’s been my favorite pizza ever since. Unfortunately, the one that opened close to us didn’t stay open. However, we do have a Giordano’s, a Lou Malnati’s, and a Pizzeria Uno all within about 5-6 miles from my house. The frozen Gino’s East pizza our grocery carries is decent, but I really have been wanting to make my own. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
The sauce in this recipe was near perfect, almost exactly how I remember it at Gino’s East. The crust was off, nothing like Gino’s. Overall the pizza was good but we won’t make it like this again. The best Gino’s East copycat crust recipe I’ve seen had cornmeal in the mix. The crust from this recipe was tangy and flaky, like a pan pizza.
The secret to the sauce is CORNMEAL!
No, it’s not. The yellow coloring of Gino’s East comes from yellow food coloring.
This recipe is off. You actually need a combination of cornmeal or semolina flour to mix in with your all purpose flour. In addition, you need a combination of EVOO and Corn oil. Yes, corn oil is roughly 95% of it, however, it will make a difference. Try the following that we found years ago and have been perfecting for the last 15 years.
6 cups all purpose flour (5 cups All Purpose / 1 cup semolina or yellow corn mean)
2 cups cold water
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup oil (95% corn oil/ 5% EVOO)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
This is the spot on recipe. Compare the two and let me know. Enjoy.
Thank you for these recommendations! We are going to update this recipe soon and will test out your recipe and compare. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I’m excited to try this!
do you have the full recipe and instructions for your version?
along with sauce recipe?
One full package is way too much yeast. There’s no semolina or corn meal in Gino’s East dough formulation. You are missing some yellow food coloring (eggshade) to get the yellow color Gino’s crust has. The oil blend should be corn oil and extra virgin olive oil in that 8:1 ratio.
100% AP Flour
48% Water
16% Corn Oil
2% EVOO
2% Sugar
1% Cream of Tartar
.5% Yellow Food Coloring
.5% IDY
TF = .14 oz per square inch (don’t forget the sides). A 12″ pizza dough ball should weigh about 640g.
That’s the recipe.
What is IDYTF?
No yeast?
Heath, since you are using cold water instead of lukewarm water, I assume the yeast activates once part of the dough. Are there other differences in the process of making your version of the dough? Do you knead your dough 10 minutes?
I’m so excited to try this recipe. We made the dough last night and are preparing the pizza for dinner tonight. We are using a 15″ cast iron skillet. Any last minute suggestions on cooking time? From reading the comments I see 45 minutes at 350 degrees up to 75 minutes. Thanks in advance!
I’m about to try this – can’t wait – but I have a key question.
The info at top says Refrigeration 12 hours.
The instructions say cover with plastic wrap and towel and let it sit overnight UNrefrigerated.
Can you please clarify?
Also, you said it’s okay to begin the process in the morning – meaning 8-12 hours before cooking? And rising during that time at room temperature?
Thank you!
Oh, I apologize, the dough should sit at room temperature, not refrigerated. And yes you can start in the morning!
No salt in the dough? interesting
Why cream of tartar ?
It gives the crust more of a smooth taste and consistency. Hope this helps!
This pizza recipe is so good and so easy and really hits the spot for us missing Chicago style pizza. I followed the directions except used a 9×12 cake pan because I didn’t have a pizza pan. It worked well. We are vegetarian so left the meat out and added spinach, garlic and pineapple and it was fabulous! So glad I found this recipe! Thanks!!
Yay! I am so glad you liked it and were able to tweak it to be what you needed. Thanks for the 5-star rating!