A deep dish Chicago-style pizza made low carb and gluten-free. This is the low carb pizza recipe you’ve been looking for! This post is sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm.
Now, I’ve made some really great pizza alternatives, as have other low carb and paleo food bloggers, and I have been pleased with my efforts heretofore. But this low carb deep dish pizza takes the cake. Or rather, it takes the pie. This is truly a “pizza pie”, with a tender-crisp crust and filled to the brim with goodies. It’s Chicago-style, of sorts, because of course I didn’t even attempt to make a flour-and-yeast based crust – that would be breaking the low carb code of ethics. But it’s definitely Chicago-Style deep dish pizza in spirit and I think you will love it. And what I loved about it is the way the toppings take precedence over the crust, because there’s just so much of them, but the crust still has great flavour and plays its part in keeping the whole thing together. You can eat this with a knife and fork, certainly, but if you let it cool a bit before serving, you can also pick it up with your hands.
I made this delightful thing because the folks at Jones Dairy Farm reached out and asked if I wanted to partner with them and showcase some of their pork products. I’ve started noticing their white and green packaging in some of my local grocery stores, giving other brands of sausage and bacon a little competition. And good competition it is too, because Jones Dairy Farm is made without many the icky additives of other brands. Their all-natural pork sausage roll, which I featured in this recipe, contains 4 ingredients: pork, water, salt and spices. No high-fructose corn syrup, no MSG, and many of their products are certified Gluten-Free, making it a much healthier choice.
I’ve had this recipe in my head for a while now, so armed with a few rolls of Jones Dairy Farm sausage, I got to work. Originally I thought it might be fun to use my Cheesy Drop Biscuits as the crust. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the sausage, mozzarella and other fillings to take center stage. So I opted for an adaptation of the crust from my Mini Brie and Bacon Tartlets and I am so glad I did. With a little pre-baking, it crisped up nicely and it held up admirably to the fillings. Unlike flat pizza, the trick to deep dish is to layer your cheese and meat at the bottom, so the sauce doesn’t make your crust a soggy mess. And sliced mozzarella instead of shredded helps you create a good barrier between sauce and crust. I decided to throw a few slices of pepperoni on ours, to appeal to my kids, but another layer of sausage would be great too!
This post was sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm. All thoughts, opinions, recipes, photography, random tangents and incoherent ramblings are my own.
Deep Dish Skillet Sausage Pizza
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3 tablespoon unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- ¼ cup butter melted
Filling:
- 12 oz Jones Dairy Farm Sausage Roll
- ¾ lb mozzarella thinly sliced (not shredded)
- 1 ½ cups marinara or pizza sauce no sugar added - try my 15-Minute Tomato Sauce if you want to make your own
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 ounces sliced pepperoni or additional sausage optional
- ¾ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat oven to 325F and lightly grease a 12 inch oven-proof skillet (preferably cast iron but regular skillets will work well too).
- In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, whey protein, coconut flour, baking powder, garlic powder, salt and xanthan gum.
- Stir in eggs and butter until dough comes together. It will be quite sticky.
- Turn out dough onto a large piece of parchment, and then pat into a rough circle.
- Top with another piece of parchment and roll out to a large circle about 14 inches in diameter and ¼ inch thickness. Peel off top piece of parchment paper.
- Carefully flip crust with bottom parchment still attached into prepared skillet. Gently peel parchment off (don't worry if it cracks or breaks a little, it's easy to patch back together).
- Press crust into pan evenly and push down the edges of crust to below the edges of the skillet. Crimp edges of crust a bit.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and set aside while preparing the filling.
Filling:
- Increase oven temperature to 400F.
- In another large skillet over medium heat, brown sausage until cooked through, breaking up clumps with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Lay half of the mozzarella slices over the bottom of the crust, making sure to cover it well. Top with cooked sausage.
- Spread sauce over sausage, sprinkle with garlic and oregano and layer remaining mozzarella slices over sauce. Top with additional cooked sausage or sliced pepperoni, if desired. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
- Cover the edges of the crust with strips of tin foil and bake pizza 30 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and browned.
- Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Vicky Y Weimer says
My husband and I made this last night as our Date Night At Home dinner. We’ve been trying different keto pizza recipes, and have never been happy with the results.
This is, by far, the best keto pizza recipe I’ve tried! It’s so close to my favorite pizza restaurant’s crust texture that it was amazing!
We used only a half pound of mozzarella slices, will try the thicker slices next time.
Maryann says
This was sooooo amazing. I didn’t have whey protein so used powdered egg substitute.
Family likes kielbasa, Caesar dressing, and peanut sauce. lightly dabbed the sauces over the meat and topped with the cheese. Thank you for an awesome deep dish pizza recipe,
Angela W Broyles says
Really good crust! It did get crispy- just don’t expect the chew of a regular bread crust. We enjoyed it
Ioana says
This is exactly what I was looking for. I have almost all the ingredients ready. I hope it will turn out as great as yours without the xanthan gum
Matt says
Wait a minute. You’re pulling your nutrition info from 10 portions of a skillet pizza? Those are some tiny portions. I could make a low carb maple syrup by portioning 1/10th of a gram of ordinary maple syrup. Am I missing something, or is this a total fraud?
Carolyn says
How about you actually try it and see just how filling a piece of this pizza actually is.
Carla says
Looks greatbut hubby is allergic to all nuts, which would inxluse almond flour and coconut flour, any ideas?
Carolyn says
Oh dear, I am sorry I don’t have too many good ideas. The almond flour can be subbed with some sunflower seed flour but not so sure about the coconut. Maybe oat fiber?
Holli says
My family liked this pizza a lot, which was a relief because I wanted to make them a healthy crust. Thank you because the crust was fairly easy to make. Thanks! I want to make it a regular crust on a pizza stone next. I used egg white powder for the protein powder.
Carolyn says
So glad you liked it!
Shannon says
Do you think Pysillium Husk powder could be used instead of the protein powder? I finally bought some, and now can’t find any recipes using it. ?
Carolyn says
No, it’s not a good replacement for protein powder. Here’s my main recipe that uses psyllium. You can turn this into pizza crust too…roll it out and pre-bake for at least 10 minutes before adding toppings. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2015/04/multi-purpose-low-carb-bread-recipe.html
Tom says
This is so delicious. The crust is a tiny bit dry, but tastes great. It totally satisfied my pizza cravings and there are leftovers. Thanks for the great recipe, first low carb pizza I’ve made.
Carolyn says
Glad you like it!
LuAnne says
First, thank you so much for sharing all of these wonderful recipes! I made this pizza today and, although it’s the best low carb pizza crust I’ve tried so far, I’m still hoping to find one that tastes more like the real thing. If I make this one again, I’ll press the crust into the pan instead of rolling it and trying to transfer it to the pan…that attempt ended up being an epic fail. I was able to easily peel the top layer of the parchment off but, when I flipped it over into the pan the bottom layer was really stuck. Peeling it off was impossible so I ended up patting most of it into the pan anyway. I was afraid it would stick and not come out of the pan easily for serving but it was fine. Pressing it in would eliminate the rolling step, which would make it even easier to make. I did use a cast iron pan (greased with a little lard) and the crust was a perfect golden brown.
Leslie says
Hi Carolyn,
Just wanted to tell you I was out of almond flour so I made this with hazelnut meal. It took an extra egg and one more tablespoon of butter for the dough to come together, but it came out very well. The end result was a lot like a whole wheat crust, and was stiff enough to pick up like normal.
Carolyn says
Glad it worked out!
Inez says
I am adding some nutritional yeast to this crust just for yums. Hubs is excited to see this on tomorrow night’s menu. 😉
KathyJND says
I know this is not a new recipe, but it is new to me, and it is wonderful!!! I made it tonight for dinner and the three of us here — me, my hubby, and daughter — just loved it. It was beautiful, first of all, I took a picture of it I was so impressed. And it was delicious! The crust was just right, and the fillings and toppings were balanced just right. Thank you so much for taking the time to develop these recipes. What a difference this makes being able to eat deep dish pizza without 1,000 carbs!
Carolyn says
You are most welcome!
Melissa says
Wow. This is really excellent. The crust was a little dry but the flakey quality was really nice. I wonder if I buttered my pain instead of using Pam to grease it if it would’ve given it a little more moisture. Regardless, this is the absolute best pizza crust alternative that I’ve tried. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that we LOVE deep dish pizza. Thank you for the great recipe!!
Lori says
I made this for dinner tonight. So delicious! And very filling as well. Thanks for the great recipe.
Vicky says
In the oven now and smells delicious. As a Chicagoan and low-carber I am very interested in pizza recipes. Let’s face it- it’s the crust that’s hard for us low carbers. In addition to this almond-based crust, I’ve seen recipes for cauliflower crusts and crusts made mostly of egg and cream cheese. Carolyn: did you experiment with the other ones and decide that this one was best? I have not yet tried those other options out yet, since you are my go-to recipe writer 🙂 so if you have already gone through the pain, then I will save myself the effort…
Vicky says
P.S. This crust was amazing. I can’t imagine a cauliflower or egg/cream cheese crust working as well.
Carolyn says
I haven’t experimented that much. I had a few fails on zucchini and cauli crusts and this for me is the thing that resembles pizza crust the most. Although I am currently experimenting with psyllium husk…
Julie says
So could be no one is still following the comments here, but I have now made this pizza three times and it is a great hit, even with my non-low carbing kids. However, my skills at rolling out dough are zero, and I quickly gave up and simply pressed the dough into the oiled pan. SO MUCH EASIER. I love how I can make and bake the crust to the first stage, let it cool and then fill to be baked later. I am all about convenience where it can be found. In this world, eating low carb is definitely more work than picking up a phone and having something delivered!
Nicki says
What can I substitute for unflavored whey protein and the coconut flour? I have peanut flour and oat fiber. Or golden flax seed or meal? Any suggestions would be so helpful.
Carolyn says
You can sub oat fiber for the coconut flour and leave out the protein powder (crust won’t rise as much but it should still be good!).
Nicki says
Thank you! So excited to try this.
jo says
This was excellent pizza! One serving with a salad (and red wine, of course) is completely satisfying. As I have a slightly smaller skillet, I used most of the dough for the deep dish recipe as written, but rolled a small quantity out to a flat pizza. Used the same trick with the sliced mozzarella against the base and worked really well. I was able to pick it up with my hands without it flopping sauce all over my shirtfront. Success!
Jo (again) says
Just a note to add that I froze one slice, rewarmed on parchment, from frozen, in a slow oven – tasted even more fabulous the second time around!
Carolyn says
Great tip, thanks!
Anne O says
So amazingly fantastic Carolyn! No sausage but I used prochuttio & roasted veggies (peppers/onions) & sautéed mushrooms & fresh tomatoes. My husband can’t believe how good it is….enough for our dinners all week. Many thanks for your awesome service. Hope you and your family have a fantastic Christmas in your new community.
Carolyn says
Thank you, Anne. And prosciutto and roasted veggies sound amazing!