How to mimic Giordano's Pizza CRUST at home ? (part 1) Yesterday I indulged in a real luxury, I had Giordano's Pizza, (from Chicago) delivered to me in Oklahoma. It takes two days notice and six hours to thaw the pizza before you can 'finish' baking it; BUT OH IT IS WORTH IT...

Of course, what would be better is if I could make Giordano's style pizza at home. There are really only two things I need to accomplish this, the CRUST and the sauce (part 2). How do you make a deep dish pizza crust that will mimic Giordano's? 

The crust at Giordano's is in (what I would call) the 'hand tossed' thickness, but when baked is 'substantial enough' to hold up the (considerable weight) of the pizza but is not 'too crispy'. It browns up nicely on the outside and on the top layer (is this possibly a 'different crust') it bakes thoroughly while inside the pizza. (possible 'technique' sidebar: should the pizza be partially baked before the top most layers of sauce and cheese are added?). When I have tried to make this style of pizza at home the crust has either failed to bake through, when burnt on the outside it isn't 'done' (too doughy) on the inside.

(note: this 'recipe request' falls under the "restaurant mimicry" rule for Seasoned Advice)
Unlike Neopolitan pizza crust, Chicago pizza crust is made with a heavy, relatively low-moisture dough with a LOT of oil (or, in some cases, butter) in it.  These crusts are not blind-baked in any way; instead, they depend on the long cooking time (45min) and the high oil content to become crunchy despite being buried in toppings.   If the frozen one doesn't take that long, it's probably because they're par-baking it before they ship it.

Having had Giordiano's pizza at the restaurant, the crust seemed to me to be typical for a chicago pizza crust, so try a general recipe and then tinker with it if it doesn't seem quite right.

Cooksillustrated did their typical workup of a butter-based Chicago Pizza crust in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue; I know people who have made that one and liked it (you can get it from Cooksillustred.com with a fee; there's also a video).  Other internet resources:


Discussion of the recipe for crust and sauce for Gino's East
Food.com Chicago Crust recipe