Listen Up to the Most Brilliant Idea for Frozen Pizza

My household is made up of two busy working parents and two school-aged kids, so pizza makes a weekly appearance in our kitchen. Some weeks we make our own, but more often we turn to our favorite frozen variety for quick dinners, late-night sleepover snacks, and the occasional weekend lunch. Frozen pizza is a gift to your future self in all respects.

Still, having to heat the oven for a pizza that takes just 10 to 12 minutes to bake is problematic in the summer, when our already small kitchen seems to shrink in the heat and go from warm to blazing in just a few minutes. Recently, a stroke of genius from my husband taught me the best method for cooking frozen pizza in the heat of summer — and I’m honestly not sure if I’ll ever cook it another way again.

Grilling frozen pizza is a total game-changer when it comes to summer cooking on the fly. If you’ve ever grilled pizza made with fresh pizza dough, you know that the high heat of the grill makes for a charred, super-crisp crust and bubbly, caramelized cheese. The same is true for grilling frozen pizza — and there’s way less prep work involved. You’ll preheat the grill, unwrap you favorite frozen pizza, and then chill as the grill does all the work. In my house, that means sipping summer ales while the kids play outside.

Standard 10-inch frozen pizzas work best for the grill. Costo’s larger 16-inch frozen pizzas can be a bit tricker to grill from frozen — lowering the heat and cooking it for longer will help.

Preheat your grill to high heat for at least 15 minutes. Completely unwrap your pizza and place it directly on the grill grates. Reduce the grill’s heat to medium (or medium-low if your grill runs hot). Cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the pizza’s crust is charred. Use a large metal spatula and a pair of tongs to slide the finished pizza directly onto a cutting board or baking sheet. Cool for a few minutes, then slice and serve.

The resulting pizza is extra crisp, with plenty of charred flavor and deeply caramelized cheese. It’s so much better, even for frozen pizza, than any oven can produce, and it’s likely why I’ll never cook my frozen pizza another way again.