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 tbsp unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling:
- 12 oz Jones Dairy Farm Sausage Roll
- 3/4 lb mozzarella, thinly sliced (not shredded)
- 1 1/2 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 tsp dried oregano
- 2 ounces sliced pepperoni or additional sausage, optional
- 3/4 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 1/4 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.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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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!
You are most welcome!
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!!
I made this for dinner tonight. So delicious! And very filling as well. Thanks for the great recipe.
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…
P.S. This crust was amazing. I can’t imagine a cauliflower or egg/cream cheese crust working as well.
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…
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!
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.
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!).
Thank you! So excited to try this.
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!
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!
Great tip, thanks!
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.
Thank you, Anne. And prosciutto and roasted veggies sound amazing!
Sounds crazy but can I eliminate the Whey protein? I have to use goat’s cheese due to issues with cow dairy and the whey powder would be a big no-no! (Rice protein powder perhaps?)
Can you use hemp protein or powdered egg whites? The extra dry protein helps the dough be lighter and flakier. More crust like!
Hi, I know this recipe is for the deep dish sausage pizza casserole-y thing, but I was wondering how well this crust would do as a normal, thick, pan pizza type crust. If i layed it out in a pan and baked it, then added sauce and cheese and veggies. We don’t eat meat, but I’ve been searching for a good low carb pizza crust and came acros yours. Have you ever used it as a regular pizza crust?
Yes, I have and it’s great!
Oh, one tip…make sure to roll it out on parchment and keep it on the parchment while you bake. But you can bake it on a pizza stone to get it nice and brown on the bottom, even through the parchment.
Made this last night and it was WONDERFUL!!! DH loved it as well, and he is not too keen on almond or coconut flour. Thank you for the great recipes and your awesome creativity. Love your blog!
Thanks, Stacy!
Making this tonight!
Would it be possible to sub part (1/4 – 1/2) of the almond flour with flaxmeal?
Hmmm, good question. I think you could but just know that it might be a little more fragile and prone to tearing. Or I might be completely wrong and it will be less fragile! 🙂
Do you think vanilla whey protein powder would be ok to use in this?
No, not at all. It would give the crust a sweet vanilla flavour and you really don’t want that.
SO excited to try this recipe! Just out of curiosity (I might try it anyway just for experimentation purposes), can you use a slow cooker instead? I don’t have an awesome skillet like that, but I would definitely like to make this!
I am very doubtful you could cook this in a slow cooker. They keep in too much moisture and your crust won’t firm up properly. But you can cook it in a pie pan.
So glad I found your blog! I’m just starting back on a low-carb diet and this time I’m also completely eliminating wheat–not because I’m celiac, but I’ve learned a lot from reading ‘Wheat Belly’ and ‘Grain Brain.’
I tried your deep-dish pizza this weekend, and although it was a bit of work (I also made my own pizza sauce), we both really liked it! DH pretty much turns his nose up at some of my low-carb creations, but he wants me to make this again. He said leftovers are even better, but I wouldn’t know because it was all gone by the time I got to the frig. 🙂
To speed up construction, I just used shredded mozzarella for the second layer of cheese, and next time I think I’ll purchase the mozzarella at the deli and see if they’ll thinly slice it for me. Also, I added sliced fresh mushrooms and black olives. Yummm.
I think I’ll also use this crust for my favorite quiche recipe, but instead of layering cheese on the bottom, I’ll brush the pastry with beaten egg prior to baking the crust for 10 minutes. I like to freeze that particular quiche recipe and intend to give it a try using this crust to see how it freezes.
I made this last week, it was fabulous, even my low-carb skeptic adult son loved it!
Today I used the same crust with my favorite Spinach Asparagus Quiche recipe:
http://www.sugarfreelowcarbrecipes.com/?p=2950
Since the original is in a 9-inch pie pan, I increased all the filling ingredients by about 1/3. Absolutely delicious!
Another comment… I did not add a layer of cheese on the bottom for the quiche, and the crust was just fine, not soggy at all. I suspect that the pizza may be the same, although there’s nothing wrong with an extra layer of cheese!
Sounds great!