The Best Pizza Ovens to Make the Perfect Slice

I test pizza ovens over the course of a few weeks, using homemade dough (I like Ooni’s classic pizza dough recipe), store-bought fresh dough, and frozen pizzas. I use an infrared thermometer to make sure the temperature of the cooking surface is consistent (and is what the built-in thermometer says it is). Pizza ovens are also quite a bit more versatile than you might think—I also use them to sear steaks, quick-cook salmon, and pan-fry broccoli.

It’s taken me many years, and many thousands of pizzas, to refine my technique. And to be honest, my Neapolitan-style pizzas don’t really meet the standard set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the world authority on Neapolitan pizzas. (The Karu is the only oven here that the AVPN recommends.)

But over the years, I have accumulated a few tips for those of you who find making a pizza to be a little bit awkward or intimidating. If you’ve refrigerated your dough, bring it to room temperature first. Sprinkle flour or cornmeal generously on the peel before you assemble your pizza. Be patient and stretch it from the inside out. It is cheating, but I also am guilty of using a tiny rolling pin ($10) to help me get the dough as thing as possible.

An authentic Neapolitan pie will use a few specific ingredients. When you’re making your own dough, reach for 00 flour, which is milled specifically for pizza and pasta. Fresh mozzarella will make your pizza damp, so I use a mix of fresh and shredded, low-moisture cheese for the cheesiest, meltiest pie. If you’re not sticking to a strictly Neopolitan recipe, we also have a few favorite pies we’d like to recommend. Cizmar and I like a good Buffalo pie with Frank’s Red Hot and pickles. I also recently tried Brightland’s Pizza Oil in a squeeze bottle; while it’s good as a finishing sauce to drizzle over pies, you could make your own for much cheaper by putting olive oil and herbs in a squeeze bottle.

Pizza ovens are more versatile than you might think: I cook everything from salmon to steak to chicken thighs in mine by preheating a cast iron pan in a hot oven and popping the food right in. For more guidance, Ooni has a cookbook; chef Francis Mallman’s books are also a good source of inspiration.

Is your patio already occupied by a giant Traeger? Your grill or smoker probably has a pizza attachment that you can buy for less than a new oven. Cizmar’s favorite is the Yoder Smoker wood-fired oven attachment ($499), which has saved him from many a night of pellet fire flameouts. It sits under the smoker’s hood, atop a steel sheet that sits over the firebox. The sheet is a diffuser and has holes of increasing size as you move away from the fire so that the section farthest from the flame gets more exposure. The design provides a consistent temperature along the oven’s floor, and it works well, with the farthest corners of the oven still cresting 650 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can also turn your normal, indoor oven into a pizza oven. While your oven maxes out at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, there are ways to increase the thermal mass of your baking surface—that is, store heat so that you’re baking your pizza at a much higher temperature. An easy way to do this is by using a pre-heated cast-iron pan or baking steel. Several of our favorite grill and pizza oven manufacturers also make ceramic pizza stones, like Kamado and Weber. Check out our guide to the Best Portable Grills and Grill Accessories for more.