Last summer I posted a gluten-free pizza crust recipe which was for a more crisp pizza crust. This crust recipe is for those that like a slightly thicker, soft, chewy, bendable, holdable, and foldable pizza crust. So, now there is something for everyone’s preferences.
I started making this pizza last summer, after we got back from a 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 (seriously, I’d never thought of mashed garlic potatoes on my pizza, but it is so good!). This recipe was created after our trip there (actually, thought of for the whole 8 hour drive home), and we’ve been enjoying it (nearly weekly) since. No one would ever know they are eating a gluten-free pizza unless you tell them.
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.”
Chewy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
Makes two 14-inch crusts
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (see note) OR 1 2/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup tapioca starch
- 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
- 1 Tbsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup dry milk powder (optional, can be omitted without a problem)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
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.
Directions:
- Place the flour, xanthan gum, yeast, salt, sugar and dry milk powder 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 olive oil, egg, egg white, water 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. Dip your spatula in water and smooth the dough out into a 14-inch circle.
- 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.
Now that you have the 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. (I’m not a fan of onions, and even I could have used more of these sweet onions on my pizza. It was that good!)
Philly Cheese Steak Pizza
Toppings for one 14-inch pizza
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, sliced thinly (if you like onions, feel free to add more)
- 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
(note, Lea & Perrins is gluten-free in the U.S., but not in Canada)
- 3 Tbsp 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
Directions:
- 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 is being linked to Canadian Beef, in hopes that I can win an all-inclusive scholarship to Eat, Write Retreat in Washington, D.C. so I can learn to write gooder. 
The contest runs until Monday, February 24th, so expect a few more beefy recipes between now and then.
Yum! This looks fantastic! We are always looking for a good pizza crust recipe. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
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.
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…
I love pizza! This looks great. Do you think the second crust could be frozen for later use (prior to the baking stage)?
L
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. 
Finally! I have been looking for a thick GF pizza crust. Thanks!
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)
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!
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.
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. 
So happy that you have pizza night back!
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.
Thanks for sharing great pizza dough recipes! Freshly made dough’s are more tasty that those that are frozen. I like the idea of storing unused dough. It can spare me some time when I like to make pizza again.
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.
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…
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
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!
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!
So glad to hear that, Barbara! It’s our favorite too, glad to hear that it worked well for you!
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?
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
Thanks so much, I will make it this week….Beautiful page, recipes, pictures, etc..
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
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!!
Yeah!!! Amy, that just makes me smile.
So glad to hear it was a hit for your family, everyone deserves to enjoy pizza night!
This crust was really good! I had pizza for the 1st time tonight since going GF in Feb. Thanks for this great recipe!
Glad to hear that, Karen! So happy that you’re enjoying pizza night again!