🍕 Chicago Deep-Dish Calculator
Chicago deep-dish is a pie, not a flatbread. Two inches of pan depth, a sturdy butter-and-cornmeal crust built up the sides, cheese first then meat then chunky tomato on top. The calculator below is pre-filled with the ratios that give you a crust crisp enough to hold the weight.
🍕 Open the calculator →Chicago Dough Specs
The Chicago crust is closer to a savoury pastry than to Neapolitan dough. Protein content is similar to NY (bread flour, 12-13%), hydration sits mid-range at 60-65%, but the killer addition is 15% fat — butter is traditional, oil is the shortcut — and 10-15% cornmeal or semolina in the flour blend. The fat gives the crust its flakiness. The cornmeal gives it the crunch on the bottom.
Lou Malnati's and Giordano's both publish versions of this approach. The difference between the two styles is mostly fat ratio (Lou's leans butter, Giordano's uses more oil for a thinner stuffed crust) and whether you build a true stuffed pizza with a top layer of dough. This calculator gives you the base dough; add a second ball in the form if you want stuffed.
The Reverse Assembly
Toppings in a Chicago pie go in reverse order compared to any other style. First you press the dough up the sides of the pan. Then cheese goes directly on the dough — a thick layer of low-moisture mozzarella slices or shred. Then meat (Italian sausage crumbled raw, not pre-cooked). Then crushed tomato on top, finished with Parmigiano and oregano.
The reason is physics. A deep pan needs a long bake, and cheese on top would scorch before the dough cooked through. Burying the cheese under the tomato protects it. The tomato acts as a heat shield and reduces down to a chunky layer instead of going watery.
Pan Choice Matters
You need a round pan with straight sides, 9-10 inches across, 2 inches deep. Cake pans work if nothing else is available but they tend to be too shallow. Chicago Metallic makes a dedicated 10-inch deep-dish pan that's the standard. Season it once with oil before the first use. Non-stick coatings fail at 250°C — avoid them for this style.
Before the dough goes in, butter the pan generously. The fat between the dough and the pan is what fries the bottom crust during the long bake and turns it golden instead of pale.
Calculate Your Chicago Dough
Pre-filled with bread flour, 15% butter, and the cornmeal addition. Ball count defaults to 2 for a 10-inch pan.
🍕 Open the Calculator →🛒 What Chicago deep-dish actually needs
The pan is the whole game. Thin or shallow pans give you a thick crust pizza, not deep-dish.
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