Rest Your Chicago-Style Pizza After Baking And You'll Have Deep Regret - Tasting Table

"Compared to chewy thin-crust pizzas, Chicago-style pizza crust is generally a bit crispier, flakier, and butterier. If you let the pizza, loaded with melty mozzarella below a generous helping (ie. ladlefuls) of chunky tomato sauce, rest after baking it in its pan, all of those piping hot toppings quickly seep into the bottom layer of crust and make it wet."

"Instead, it's crucial to serve deep-dish pizza pretty soon after it comes out of the oven. You can remove it from the hot baking dish, if possible, and let your pizza cool on a ventilated cooling rack, such as a cookie sheet, for a few minutes before slicing it. However, Gemignani recommends keeping this time relatively short - about 10 minutes."

Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is prone to a soggy bottom if allowed to sit too long after baking because piping hot toppings steam into the crust. The crust is typically crispier, flakier, and butterier than thin-crust pizzas, and heavy mozzarella plus ladlefuls of chunky tomato sauce can quickly wet the bottom layer. Remove the pizza from the hot pan when possible and cool it briefly on a ventilated rack before slicing. Keep the cooling time short—around ten minutes—and serve promptly. Consider switching to a sturdier deep-dish dough recipe if the crust remains damp.

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