Pie Iron Pizza

I think made those pudgy pies ONCE - cherry pie filling, if I recall - then the pie iron sat unused for the rest of that camping trip.

This year, we started making a different style of camper pies - Campfire pizza pie! - and it quickly became one of our favorite meals for cooking in the great outdoors.

Gotta love being able to cook up delicious food with very little prep, planning, or effort!

Prep the bread, add some favourite pizza toppings, close up the camp cooker, trim the bread, and cook it over the heat of the fire!

The best thing about pie iron pizza is how customizable it is!

Because pie iron pizzas are cooked individually, every makes their own - just the way they want it.

It’s one of the best ways to deal with picky eaters, and it’s just a great way to have a leisurely, low-stress meal at the campsite.

Anyway, here’s how we do them:

Ingredients

The beauty of campfire pie iron pizzas is that

This pie iron post is less of a pie iron recipe, and more about ideas on how you can use a handy camping tool to turn out personal pizzas, suited to everyone’s individual tastes.

As such, I don’t really have a set list of ingredients or amounts. Personally, I like to just have a variety of favorite toppings on hand, and let everyone do up their own campfire pies.

Here are some of our favorite things to have on hand - we tend to vary them based on what we can find at the nearest grocery store, when on the road.

Bread

Generally, we prefer to use a plain white bread for making hobo pies. Your mileage may vary, we just like that nice, neutral base for our favorite pizza filling mixtures.

For Porter, that usually means Wonderbread. Not only is it neutral, it has a freakishly long shelf life.

Just be sure to aim for regular bread thickness - thin slices are more likely to tear, and thick slices are just a bit much for pizza mountain pies.

Anyway, I tend to use gluten-free Carbonaut bread. I use it specifically because it’s low carb, but even if I wasn’t trying to keep keto... it’s by FAR the best gluten free bread I’ve ever had.

Just be forewarned - it takes a lot longer to get Carbonaut to the crispy crust point. Regular bread toasts up a LOT faster.

Pizza Sauce

Generally, we have a jar of regular pasta sauce on hand. Sometimes it’ll be a plain tomato sauce, others it might be one with garlic or mushrooms - whatever!

You only use a small amount of it, so you really don’t need to overthink it.

Also, if tomato isn’t your thing, you can use Alfredo sauce, basil pesto, or even BBQ sauce!

Pizza Toppings

Whatever you like on your pizza, you can use in your pie iron pizzas.

Some of our favourite fillings are pepperoni, chopped mushrooms, chopped green bell peppers, sliced black olives, cooked Italian sausage, etc.

Sometimes we’ll get a bit more fancy, and use things like Pulled Chicken or Caramelized Onions (or the whisky glazed onions from my Venison Burgers Recipe!).

Whatever you use, just be sure to cut it up into small pieces!

For pepperoni slices, we tend to quarter them or cut them into thin strips. Green peppers get chopped into tiny pieces, etc.

Shredded Cheese

Generally, we’ll just use shredded mozzarella cheese, as it’s classic and generally easy to find.

Sometimes we’ll use an Italian blend, or throw a bit of Parmesan cheese in there. When we’re doing something like a BBQ chicken pizza (pulled chicken, BBQ sauce, green peppers, red onions, etc), sometimes I’ll use shredded cheddar cheese.

It’s all good!

Some Kind of Fat

Much like when you’re making a grilled cheese sandwich, you’ll need to brush the bread with fat to get a nice crispy finish on it.

Usually, we’ll just use a cooking spray - generally an olive oil spray.

If we’re feeling fancy, I’ll melt some butter and use a silicone brush.

My personal favourite, though? Melted garlic butter! SO good as a pizza crust!

How to Make Pie Iron Pizza Pockets

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Prepare your desired ingredients - slice pepperoni if desired, chop any peppers or onions you might be using, etc.

Get a good fire going. You can cook your Pie Iron Pizza on a camp stove, over hot coals, or even over an open fire. (The cooking time will vary slightly based on your setup and iron!)

Warm pie iron for a few minutes, then transfer it to your workspace - Using a cookie sheet is the easiest way to protect your food from whatever may be lurking on the picnic table... and picnic tables from getting scorched by hot irons!

Place a bread slice on one half of the open pie iron. Spread with up to 2 tablespoons of your choice of sauce, up to ¼ cup of shredded cheese, a few slices pepperoni, and whatever other toppings you want.

I like to use a sharp knife to trim any excess crust that’s hanging out - anything visible is going to char.

If it’s not quite there yet, close iron and return it to the heat source.

More Grilling Recipes for Camping

Looking for some great meals to cook on a campfire or grill? Here's a few of my favourites!

Bison Burgers with Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Cajun Chicken Foil Packets
Elk Burgers with Bacon & Sauteed Mushrooms
Fajita Chicken Kebabs
Greek Chicken Souvlaki
Grilled Chicken Fajitas
Lemon-Dill Fresh Salmon Burgers
Easy Grilled Shrimp Tacos
Grilled Tuna Tacos
Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs
Venison Burgers with Bacon & Whiskey Caramelized Onions

... But wait, there's more! Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!