Chicago-style pizza

Chicago-style pizza is a special kind of pizza that comes from the city of Chicago. It has two main types: deep-dish pizza and thin-crust pizza. Deep-dish pizza is baked in a pan that makes the edges very high, so there is plenty of room for cheese and tomato sauce. This type of pizza can be made normally or stuffed with extra ingredients. The thin-crust version is rolled very thin to make a crisp crust, and it is usually cut into squares instead of traditional slices.

One of the most popular toppings for Chicago-style pizza is Italian sausage. Many pizza places in Chicago offer this tasty meat as a favorite choice for pizza lovers. Whether you like the thick, cheesy deep-dish style or the crispy thin-crust, Chicago-style pizza has something special for everyone who enjoys pizza.

Deep-dish

Chicago-style deep-dish pizza was invented at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago, started by Ike Sewell and Richard Riccardo in 1943. The original recipe, shared in 1945, used special dough made with scalded milk, butter, and sugar. Later, a cook named Alice Mae Redmond changed the recipe to use water and olive oil, plus a secret ingredient to help the dough stretch. Over time, the dough got bigger and richer.

Many people helped create the deep-dish pizza style. One chef, Rudy Malnati, and his sons Lou and Rudy Jr. went on to open their own popular pizza places, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria and Pizano's, in the 1970s and 1990s.

Deep-dish pizza has a thick crust, sometimes with cornmeal to give it texture. It is often partly baked before adding toppings. The pizza is filled with meats, vegetables, and mozzarella cheese, with a layer of tomato sauce on top, all baked together.

Stuffed pizza

In the mid-1970s, two Chicago pizza places, Nancy's Pizza and Giordano's Pizzeria, created a special kind of deep-dish pizza called stuffed pizza. This type is even deeper, with an extra layer of dough on top, more cheese, and less sauce compared to regular deep-dish pizza.

Tavern-style pizza

Main article: Tavern-style pizza

There is a type of thin-crust pizza called "tavern style". People in two cities, Milwaukee and Chicago, say they created it in the 1940s. This pizza has a firm crust that makes a nice crunch, and the slices are cut into squares instead of wedges. It is called "tavern-style" because it was first served in taverns to encourage people to drink. The square slices were practical because taverns often didn’t have plates and could just put the pizza on napkins.