In Chicago, the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company serves up amazing pizza bowls stuffed deep with loads of cheese and sausage and any other pizza ingredients you love. Sadly, I live out in the suburbs and can’t often get into the city for pizza. For a long time now I have been wanting to figure out how to make this at home. Today I think I’ve perfected the process.
If you like to make your own dough by all means go ahead but I’m trying to make things a little more simple these days so I am using store bought dough. 
This recipe is fun, easy and unique. It’s kind of a hybrid. As if Stuffed Crust Pizza met a deep dish pizza. Because we’re making them in a single serving sizes and because the crust is laid over the top it takes much less time to cook. Once they are assembled they cook for 10-12 minutes at 400°.
They’re made like an upside down pizza. The cheese goes in first into a well greased pan or ramekin. Then all the fixings or “toppings” are added into the middle. Finally the crust is draped over the top and down the outside pressing on the edge to seal the good stuff inside. Then once they’re baked to perfection it’s flipped over onto a plate or shallow bowl and all the good stuff remains inside and the incredible melty cheese sits on top. These personal sized pizza pot pies will be our new go to pizza recipe.
Pizza Pot Pies
Ingredients
- 2 Store bought pizza crust. You can use Phillsberry or fresh made. 
- 3 tablespoons oil or butter
- 1 1/2 cups pizza sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning divided
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage browned
- 1 cup mushrooms thinly sliced
- 10 slices pepperoni chopped
- fresh basil
- fresh spinach
- fresh mozzarella slices optional
- 1 lb. mozzarella cheese sliced
- Additional pizza toppings as desired.
Method
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease four large (5-inch) ramekins or cake pans with oil or butter, being sure to grease the rim and at least 1 inch down the outside.
- Divide dough into four equal sized portions. Roll each into a circle about 6 inches wide. Set aside.
- Cover the entire inside of the ramekins with slices of mozzarella cheese (don’t skimp!), then add browned Italian sausage, sliced mushrooms, and Canadian bacon etc.
- Stir together pizza sauce, garlic, and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning. Pour over the other fillings in the ramekins. Cover each with pizza dough, stretching to fit over the entire top of the ramekin and press to seal edges to the outer rims.
- Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until crusts are golden brown. Once fully cooked, remove from oven and immediately turn over onto plates for serving. Remove ramekins and garnish pot pies with remaining Italian seasoning and fresh basil and serve.
About the Author
Photographer Sally Roeckell specializes in contemporary lifestyle portraiture with an emphasis on food photography. Her Blog, Table and Dish is a website devoted to celebrating and curating the many ways that food binds us. Sally hopes that her recipes and images will inspire you to gather your friends and family in the kitchen to make memories, use the time to connect with busy kids, chat over mixing bowls, get messy, laugh, sing, set the table, clear the table, pass the salt, debate the days topics and pray. You can follow her here as a weekly contributor to 365Barrington and Heinen’s as well as via Table and Dish on Instagram and on her website at TableAndDish.com.
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