Grilled Pizza: BBQ Chicken, Hawaiian (Pineapple) and Frozen

On a night like tonight, after running my AC all day to keep the house cool and comfortable, the last thing I want to do is turn on my oven for dinner and defeat the day's effort of the AC.

So, instead, I turned to my favorite summer time cooking method…the grill.

This was my first time personally experimenting with grilled pizza, specifically frozen, but it worked like a charm.  Preheat it like you do any over for cooking a pizza and throw it on.

In my opinion, Aldi has the best frozen pizza…crunchy crust, good sauce and decent toppings all for a great price.  I'm a big fan!

The timing was even pretty true to the package instructions, I may have overdone it a bit, but I happen to like my pizzas well-done.

Boys were elated to be having 'just' frozen pizza for dinner!  They do really well with all of my dinner experiments, but can't blame them for enjoying something familiar from time to time.  

As far as the two homemade pizzas on gluten free crusts, BBQ Chicken and Hawaiian, I thought as long as we are having grilled pizza, lets grill all the way.

So, I started with some grilled chicken. 

And, just a couple spears of fresh, sweet, juicy pineapple. 

(Turns out this was a big hit with the kids and we had to make some additional pineapple kabobs sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar for grilling.)

While the pineapple and chicken were being prepared for pizza toppers, the gluten free crusts went on the grill for a little pre-cooking.  

I did this for two reason.  

1.  I hate a soggy crust and this would stop the liquid from the toppings from soaking in. 

2.  Provided a more rigid, less floppy crust for topping and grilling.  

For the Hawaiian pizza, start with tomato-based pizza sauce.

Add grilled pineapple, Canadian bacon and some grilled onions. 

If you have yet to try pineapple on your pizza, don't delay!  

MMMMmmm, the sweet, juicy pineapple is such a perfect contrast on a pizza.  

CANNOT GET ENOUGH!  

Finally top with mozzarella and this is ready for the grill.  

As for the BBQ Chicken….

The second homemade pizza starts with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, grilled chicken and onions. 

And, a generous layer of shredded cheddar.  

Both pizzas are placed on the grill and probably only needed about 10 minutes, especially since most of the toppings were freshly pre-cooked.

Pretty simple flavor profiles and so excited about the grilling potential.  

While hopping back and forth between the kitchen and the grill tonight, I informed Jerry that I would love to have an outdoor kitchen, so that I could have just put the pizzas together right outside by the grill instead of the constant back and forth.  

(I'm sure that's on his to do list for the weekend…oh, wait, no…it's baseball!)

Try whatever flavor profile you prefer with your favorite crust and enjoy the summertime pizza!