How to BBQ a pizza using just a piece of tin foil and a beer

pizza

If MacGyver taught us one thing, it's that mullets look bad on pretty much everyone. But if he taught us a second thing, it's that you can do a lot of cool things with some pretty mundane stuff around the house. Case in point: we got together with the pizza wizard behind West Coast 'za empire Patxi's to learn how to BBQ a pizza using only a piece of tin foil and a beer.

tin foil

Step 1: Get some tin foil.

lagunitas pale ale

Step 2: Get some beer.

Step 3: Open the beer and drink it. Nice work!

bbq thermometer

Step 4: Set the BBQ between 375 degrees and 400 degrees (bonus: wait until it goes over 400 degrees, and take a picture that contradicts what you just suggested).

bbq tin foil pizza

Step 5: Put a sheet of the tin foil on your BBQ, and a pizza on your tin foil. Close the lid.

Patxi Pro Tip: "Use as many pieces of tin foil as you need to make sure the flame won't touch the ring of dough."

half baked pizza

Patxi recommends going the half-baked-pizza route to make this thing even easier. Tons of pizza places actually have these -- all you usually have to do is ask.

Patxi Pro Tip No. 2: "Get a cheese pizza and throw whatever leftovers you have in the fridge on top. Chinese. Mexican. Whatever."

pizza cheese

Half-baked thin crusts only need about 10mins to cook, whereas deep dishes take almost twice as long. The best way to know when those are ready? Stick a knife in the center and see if the cheese pulls like so when you dig it out.


Step 6: Once it's ready, pull it off the now molten-hot tin foil with the little cardboard disc your pizza comes on. Didn't get a cardboard disc? Use the cardboard from the box your beer came in. Bought cans and don't have a cardboard box? WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS SO DIFFICULT???

cardboard pizza

Not only is the cardboard circle/beer box an awesome spatula, but it also works as a cutting board. Which means when you're done eating this thing, you literally don't have to clean up anything.

taking a bite of pizza

So why BBQ instead of just throwing your pie in the oven? Well, as Professor Patxi explains it, the moisture produced when you're cooking a pizza in the oven has no where to escape, so it sogs out some of the pizza and in particular the crust. The BBQ, conversely, lets that moisture escape, giving you a super-legit pizzaiolo-caliber pie rim. Also: you look like a badass BBQing a pizza. Also also: the not-cleaning-up-anything thing!