Enjoy pizza night again with this Thick and Chewy Gluten Free Pizza Crust. This crust is soft and chewy, but strong enough to hold up to whatever toppings you put on it.
Last summer I posted a gluten-free pizza crust recipe that was for a thin, crispy pizza crust. This crust recipe is for those that like a slightly thicker, soft, chewy, bendable, holdable, and foldable pizza crust. Now there is something for everyone.
I started making this chewy pizza crust last summer after we got back from a family trip to Minneapolis. While we were there, we went to eat at Pizza Lucé, and I have been craving it ever since. They have some seriously good pizza there, plus they have some pretty wild topping ideas, but so delicious. I would never thought of mashed garlic potatoes on my pizza, but it is so good!
I thought of that pizza the whole 8 hour drive home, trying to figure out how I could recreate such a chewy crust. After a little playing in my kitchen, I figured it out, and we’ve been enjoying it a few times a month ever since.
I’ve served this chewy gluten free pizza crust to numerous teens, and not one of them realized they were eating a gluten free pizza. They went back for seconds. And thirds. Yes – teen approved!
Make your Thick and Chewy Gluten Free Pizza Crust ahead of time, and freeze the crusts for later!
Here’s a note from a reader:
“Hey Jeanine, the frozen pizza crust experiment was a success. I made your chewy pizza crust, baked 10 minutes as directed and when they cooled I put wax paper between them and threw them in the freezer. A week later we thawed them, added toppings, and they turned out every bit as good as fresh.”
- 1 2/3 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/3 cup tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup dry milk powder (optional, can be omitted without a problem)
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 - 1 cup warm water (start with 3/4, and add more until you get a dough that is still soft, but not too sticky)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- Place the flours/starches, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, yeast, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Run the machine just to combine the dry ingredients.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the water, egg, egg white, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix for 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
- With a rubber spatula, divide the dough between pizza pans lined parchment paper. Lightly sprinkle the parchment paper, and the top of the dough with a small amount of tapioca starch. This will keep it the dough from sticking to your rolling pin. If it is still too sticky, cover the dough with plastic wrap and roll it out that way.
- Place dough in a warm, draft free place and let rise for about 30 minutes, or until it is starting to look puffy. Poke the crust with the tines of a fork so that it will not puff up when baking.
- Bake in preheated 425° oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top with your desired toppings (at this point, before you top the pizza, you can remove you partially baked crust from the parchment paper and place it directly on your pizza pan, if you wish). Return to oven and continue baking another 10-15 minutes, or until your toppings are hot and bubbly and the cheese is just starting to brown.
- Remove the pizza from oven and let it sit for 5 minutes before slicing. This helps the cheese and toppings to stay on the pizza instead of sliding off when you cut it.
Bake crusts 10 minutes as directed and when they cooled put wax paper between them and throw them in the freezer. When you want to use them, take them out of the freezer, place them on a pizza pan, add toppings, and bake as directed. They turn out every bit as good as fresh.
Now that you have a Thick and Chewy Gluten Free Pizza Crust, your imagination is your only limitation. You can top it with anything! Not sure what to do? Take a look at some online menus for popular pizza places, you will find an array of ideas.
The pizza that we made was inspired by a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. The caramelized onions, steak sauce, roast beef and Provolone cheese really brought the flavours of the popular sandwich onto a pizza.
- 1 14-inch gluten free pizza crust
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, sliced thinly (if you like onions, feel free to add more)
- 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon gluten-free Worcestershire sauce (note, Lea & Perrins is gluten-free in the U.S., but not in Canada)
- 3 Tablespoons gluten-free steak sauce (I used Hp steak sauce, my family's favorite)
- 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 3-4 ounces (about 100 grams) shaved roast beef (from the deli)
- 5-6 slices of Provolone cheese
- In a large frying pan, over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onions, green pepper, sugar, salt, ground pepper, oregano, minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce. Sauté over low medium heat until the onions are a nice, caramelized brown. Remove from heat.
- Top the partially baked pizza crust with the steak sauce, followed by the Mozzarella cheese, onions & pepper mixture, shaved roast beef, and finally the Provolone cheese.
- Return pizza to over and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheeses are bubbling and just starting to brown.
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
This recipe, and images, were updated in February 2018.
Veronica says
Yum! This looks fantastic! We are always looking for a good pizza crust recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Jeanine says
You’re welcome! Enjoy! 🙂
Sandy says
Isn’t Pizza Luce great!!!! You might be interested to know that the pizza crust there contains no egg, which is why I prefer it to other places as I cannot eat eggs.
Jeanine says
LOVE their pizza, Sandy! Can’t wait to get more sometime, wish they had a place in Grand Forks. 🙂 I had no idea they didn’t have eggs in there, that’s interesting. Wonder how they get that amazing texture without. Hmm…
Lisa says
I love pizza! This looks great. Do you think the second crust could be frozen for later use (prior to the baking stage)?
L
Jeanine says
Our second crust usually ends up being something with toppings the kids will eat. 😉 BUT, I do have some frozen crusts in the freezer right now, I will take one out today, let it rise and bake it, see how it work. I know someone was parbaking them too, I’ll see what she’s doing with them at that point. I’ll get back to you. 🙂
Dee Johnson says
Finally! I have been looking for a thick GF pizza crust. Thanks!
Jeanine says
You’re welcome! If you want it really thick, just don’t spread the dough too thin. I spread it fairly thin, and still get a nice, chewy crust. You may need to add a few minutes bake time if you decide to make it a little thicker (12″ pizza instead of 14″, for example)
Amanda Stubblefield says
Wow! I made this today for my annual pizza and start of the NASCAR season tradition and it did not let me down. It was a great crust that definitely gave me the chewiness of my old deep dish favorite. A few notes: For others who might not have a stand mixer, it worked just fine with my hand mixer. I did modify it with a cup of almond milk that I heated to 120-130 degs instead of the powdered milk and warm water, in order to make it dairy free. I ended up not getting it spread as thinly as recommended (mine was between 11-12″) which was good in one respect because it was really yummy with a nice, thick crust, but I think I will spread it a little more next time because it fluffed up much more than I had expected it to while it was baking before I added toppings. I may also try adding herbs to the mix next time too, I’m thinking garlic salt instead of the regular salt. With this crust I was able to make my absolute favorite pizza with a hearty helping of pizza sauce, pepperoni, green olives, and mushrooms. What was so beautiful about this crust is that it didn’t have any problems with sogginess, floppiness, or falling apart like so many gluten free pizza crusts I’ve tried usually do, especially with as much tomato sauce as I like! This one is truly a keeper! Thank you sooo much for bringing back thick crust pizza for me!
Jeanine says
Yes!! So glad to hear your feedback, Amanda! You’re right, making it dairy free is an easy task, great job on that. 🙂 And you’re right, it does puff quite a bit more than you’d expect. Adding garlic powder & Italian seasonings is a great idea, and I do that quite often, depending on what the toppings will be.
So happy that you have pizza night back! 🙂 I am going to be doing an experiment this week with par-baking and freezing the crust, it would be nice to have a nice, 14″ frozen crust in the freezer for a quick pizza night. 🙂
Amanda Stubblefield says
I’m hoping you have good results with the par-baking and freezing as that’s what I did with my other crust and I plan to try it out this coming weekend! 🙂 Also, I want to say thanks for all the hard work and wonderful posts you provide! I’ve made quite a few of your recipes since I started following about a year and half ago and because of the repeatability, quality, and ease of use of your recipes, you are one of the primary GF bloggers I recommend to others when I find someone who is newly diagnosed and trying to figure out how to make that transition to living GF.
Terris @ Free Eats says
You’ve been busy in the kitchen Jeanine! This pizza looks so delicious. My mouth is definitely watering, and now I know what I want for dinner tonight. 🙂
Lisa @ GF Canteen says
Really nice looking crust and great photos. Those beef people should totally send you to the conference! That pizza looks awesome and if it doesn’t make them drool, they must be vegetarians…
sue says
Thanks for another great recipe-just had the best gluten free pizza in 18 years! Very easy to make though I was a bit worried as I spread it over the baking sheet and it looked just so-so. However, it puffed up nicely and cooked beautifully-nice thick crust but crisp and chewy. My family, who are very fussy when it comes to pizza being still able to eat gluten ones , were very impressed. Will definitely be adding this to the favourites list
Jeanine says
that is saying a lot, Sue! When the non-gf eaters like it, you know it’s good! Now, you have a lot of pizzza-less years to make up for! 😉
Barbara B says
This pizza crust recipe is fantastic! We couldn’t tell it was gluten free. This will be my new go to pizza crust recipe, it’s better than any GF mix. THANKS so much for posting it!
Jeanine says
So glad to hear that, Barbara! It’s our favorite too, glad to hear that it worked well for you! 🙂
Becky says
Chewy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
IT FIRST SAYS 2 1/2 CUPS OF FLOUR
THEN IT SAYS TO SEE NOTE….NOTE: 4 cups superfine brown rice flour, 1 1/3 cups potato starch (not flour), 2/3 cup tapioca starch. Combine all ingredients in a large zipper-top bag. Shake until well blended..
SO HOW MUCH FLOUR DO I USE?
Jeanine says
You use 2 1/2 cups of the all-purpose blend. I’ve also added the measurements for the individual flours, if you don’t want to work with an all-purpose blend. HTH
Rebecca DelSesto says
Thanks so much, I will make it this week….Beautiful page, recipes, pictures, etc..
Terri Davila says
Oh Jeanine, we absolutely love this pizza crust! It is nice, thick and hearty enough to hold a loaded pizza. This crust is NOT tough, hard, nor brittle! I did add garlic powder and dried italian seasonings to the dough as it was mixing since the boys like the seasoning. Hubby & I prefer just as is. I thought the days of sink your teeth in a deep dish pizza were gone. Hands down this is fabulous!!! Our thanks to you for all you do 🙂
Amy says
We had Friday pizza night tonight, for the first time since going GF. I used this recipe for one XL pizza, and another GF recipe from a popular GF site for a second. Hands down, my entire crew (of 6!) enjoyed this far better. Even my husband (who hates all things GF) raved that it was really good. Thanks so much for bringing back pizza night!! 🙂
Jeanine Friesen says
Yeah!!! Amy, that just makes me smile. 🙂 So glad to hear it was a hit for your family, everyone deserves to enjoy pizza night!
Karen Thomas says
This crust was really good! I had pizza for the 1st time tonight since going GF in Feb. Thanks for this great recipe!
Jeanine Friesen says
Glad to hear that, Karen! So happy that you’re enjoying pizza night again!
Aisleen says
Thanks for the recipe. Here’s a tip I found helpful. I split the dough into about five “lumps” around the pizza pan. It made it easier to spread around as the dough is a bit sticky to work with.
Aisleen says
Thanks for the recipe. Here’s a tip that I found helpful. To make it easier to spread out the dough, I split it into about five “lumps” around the pizza pan. It was much easier to “connect the lumps” rather than push and pull the dough from one spot.
Jeanine Friesen says
Great tip, Aisleen! Thanks for sharing!
alliesong says
Loved the recipe! Had been denying my pizza craving for several weeks, finally gave in. What a trip it was, first, I was just sure I had a mix at home. Found, I was wrong, so came here! Began mixing ingredients, then discovered I was out of both brown rice flour and potato starch. So, I substituted white rice flour and corn starch. Then to add something extra I brushed the crust with Olive Oil at the 10 minute spot and sprinkled with garlic salt. It was excellent! Had to run off the gluten eating boys, they wanted to steal our pizza! Thanks for the excellent recipes, I always know I can trust anything you post!
Jeanine Friesen says
Haha, love it! Hard to keep those gluten eaters away from good food! 😉 Thanks for the vote of confidence! 🙂
alliesong says
PS…Do you think I could bake this into a French Loaf? The texture, seemed about right to me.
Jeanine Friesen says
I’ve heard of others that use it for bread, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I haven’t tried it myself, I have no idea why. I will do it in my baguette pan soon! 🙂
Kristina says
Could I use dried coconut milk in place of the dried milk? I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be my last and favorite pizza!!! Thank you
Jeanine Friesen says
I’ve never tried it, so I’m not sure. The recipe works well without the milk powder too, I’ve made it that way many times, or you can substitute with almond flour as well. Fingers crossed for you too! 🙂
Brad says
Have you tried doing this with egg replacer instead of egg? Eggs are a no-go for my wife, and I’d really like to find a better crust recipe than the one we’re currently using.
Jeanine Friesen says
I haven’t tried it, Brad, but I think it could work. I’d do enough for 2 eggs, and then leave out 2 tbsp or so of water, adding it if necessary at the end. You want the consistency of the dough to be quite soft. I spread it out on parchment paper with a wet spatula to form it. HTH!
Terri says
I made this gf pizza crust the other day and it was so good! My husband who has celiac, loved it; first gf pizza crust he actually enjoyed that was homemade! Thank you so much for all your hard work in creating these wonderful recipes! Yours is the first baking site I go to. 🙂
Jeanine Friesen says
Glad to hear that, Terri! I went through many, many bad pizza crusts before creating this recipe. Bring on pizza night! 🙂
Angela says
I just came across this recipe and it look great. Easiest one Ive seen yet, but are there any hints to make it if you dont have a standing mixer?? I havent quite acquired one yet 🙁
Julihana says
Hello Jeannine,
Very early in life I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and worked with a restricted diet. Over the years the symptoms appeared to recede and I was able to eat things containing wheat and gluten. A year ago, the symptoms returned and so I have again excluded wheat/gluten from my diet.
Today I made your pizza crust with my favorite toppings – pizza sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, roast chicken, basil, olives and a blend of cheeses – parmesan, asiago, fontina and provolone. It was delicious!!
Thank You!!
Carrie says
I just made this crust and had a really hard time getting it to spread. I tried wetting the spatula and found it did not work so I wet my hand and spread it that way. It isn’t a pretty looking pizza but an hoping after it rises it will taste great. By the waynis there another trick to spreading this dough? Thanks.
Lexy says
LOVED it! Left the second half of the dough in the fridge overnight for pizza today, and it was even easier to work with 🙂
Amarit says
With two in the family eating GF, I’ve been looking for a pizza crust recipe that we can all enjoy (husband and 2 kids are not GF). This has been the winner! I’ve been making one large rectangular pizza on a large cookie lined with parchment paper and the size is perfect. Tonight I realized we were out of xanthan gum, so I googled substitutes. I read that ground chia seeds can be used 1:1 as a sub and had them around, so I ground some up to use. The crust still tasted great, but fluffed up more than usual. The batter was a bit thinner, when first putting it on the pan, but the end result was great. I’ll be using the chia version from now on. Thanks for the recipe!
Francie says
So now that we’re a wheat free/GMO free family Ive been on the hunt for recipees to save costs from the pricy $6 loaves in the stores. I start out skeptical with any gluten free recipee as the the first 3 I’ve tried we’re utterly horrible. This was the first pizza dough Ive tried & hands down a WONDERFUL recipee. Not only are we glutten free now but also dairy free. I combined this with a vegan mock mozerella which also turned out excellent. We have “missed” our friday night pizza & have now found a healthy way whithout hormones/gmo’s, etc. & it was truly enjoyable not just passable.
I found I liked this a little thicker than spreading into two 14″ pans. 10-12″ is what we did with 1/2 of dough & liked it better than the thinner.
Thank you SO much for posting!!!
Becky says
Just made this as a cheesy flat bread to go with dinner, and it was marvelous! Such a versatile recipe!
Bridy says
What can I say, yet again another fantastic recipe.
I didn’t have instant yeast so I used what I had. I made sure my eggs were at room tempature.
I baked the crust on prch,went first time around and then placed the crust on a preheatd pizza stone.
They turned out so great.
Your recipes are beyond easy and quick to prepare. Thank you again for this great one.
Jeanine says
My pleasure, Bridy! The two pizza crust recipes I have on my site, we LOVE! So many bad ones before finally making my own recipe. Glad to hear it’s a favorite at your place too!
Heather says
Love your recipes, Jeanine! Thanks so much for all your hard work!! Am wondering about this crust or your crispy crust recipe being used for grilling pizza. Has anyone had any success with that? Appreciate any help! Thanks!
Jen says
Have you ever tried doing the dough in a bread machine?
Jeanine says
Hi Jen, I don’t have a bread maker, so I’ve never tried it. If you do, please let me know how it works, OK?
Jen says
I will. We love our bread machine and I plan on giving it a whirl today. I will let you know how it turns out!
Jen says
So, I made the dough in the bread maker (haven’t cooked it yet) and it seems to have come out fine. However, the dough is rather “sticky”. Is this normal? I am not sure what will happen when I try to roll this out.
Jeanine says
Hi Jen! Yes – the dough is sticky. All gluten-free bread dough is much stickier than the wheat-based versions. You don’t actually “roll” this dough out, you spread it on a piece of parchment paper using a spatula that you dip in water to keep it from sticking. HTH!
Rebecca says
We found out that my middle daughter has a gluten sensitivity last October and we are still learning. I ran across your site a couple of weeks ago while I was looking for cinnamon rolls. To be honest, I haven’t fixed anything yet but that’s because I haven’t bought all of the individual flours. Any who. I noticed you bake your pizza on pachment paper. Have you ever tried using a pizza stone? I didn’t know if it would stick to the stone or if the stone would make the crust tuff. Thanks for all your recipes. I will be trying a lot of them.
Jeanine says
Hi Rebecca! I hope you buy the flours and jump right in! It’s not as scary as it seems. 🙂
I always do my prebake on parchment paper, because it is a softer dough (sometimes almost batter like, if I accidentally add too much liquid). After it has prebaked for 10-12 minutes, I remove it from the parchment, and either go directly on a baking stone (make sure it hasn’t been used for gluten-filled pizza) or a baking pan with holes in it for the final bake.
Karen Paletta says
I LOVE this pizza crust. My Grandson just recently told me that “he missed my pizza the good ones that were not gluten free”. That was 6 years ago. I made one pizza crust in a cake sheet pan I wanted it to be more deep dish. Followed your recipe no changes exactly as printed. My Grandson could not get enough which of course made be very happy. I will mention I pre-baked it 20 minutes because of the thicker bottom. I WILL NEVER LOSE THIS RECIPE THANK YOU SO MUCH.
My next recipe will be your Cinnamon Rolls, their goes my weight.
Irene Raymond says
Your recipes look good! Only problem is I’ve got a bad problem with xanthum and guar gums. Have you tried any substitutes for them?
Jeanine says
Hi Irene, sorry, I haven’t tried subbing with anything else. I know you can use psyllium husk and ground chia seed as a replacement, but the amounts & technique would change if you used those.