If you’re a grill fanatic or simply love cooking, then making pizza in your own backyard could be a dream come true. This is something that I love doing and you can end up with hand-cooked artisan pizza without a large amount of time or effort. What’s more, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to build (or buy) a wood fire oven.
Instead, there are various portable pizza ovens for your backyard that are much more practical and realistic than building or buying a giant brick oven. In fact, it’s arguable that this type of pizza oven often better because it takes less effort to make delicious homemade pizza! Plus, you can tuck these ovens under an awning when the weather is particularly bad, or even take them with you camping, tailgating, or traveling.
You’ll notice on this list it’s all gas-fired pizza ovens. There are some portable wood fired pizza ovens, but the word “portable” changes for many of those. While these can be hauled around quite easily, and you could even take them camping or tailgating, many of the wood fired ones are limited in their mobility. They may have wheels on them, which make it convenient for storage or to move around for specific events, but you probably wouldn’t make the effort tot take it to your friends house, let alone on a camping trip.
Still, there are a few very mobile wood-fired options on that list, so it’s worth checking out. But let’s take a look at these gas-powered versions first!
Cuisinart Portable Pizza Oven
Cuisinart seems to produce just about every type of kitchen tool that you can imagine, including this fairly impressive pizza oven. The oven cooks one pizza at a time (up to 12-13 inches), although it does have a warming tray as well. It also has a smoker cup, allowing you to impart some wood fire flavor into your pizza.
As the image shows, the model is a tabletop pizza oven. This makes it extremely easy to use both outdoors and indoors. For that matter, it is lightweight (less than 40 pounds) and has handles, so carrying it really is simple.
You can also buy grill stands to go with this model. That would give you the ability to have a freestanding grill outside and then just take the portable component inside for the winter and/or when the weather isn’t playing nice.
= = > Get The Cuisinart Portable Pizza Oven Here
Pizzacraft PizzaQue
The Pizzacraft brand produces two fairly similar pizza ovens, both of which can be used to make pizza in your backyard. The PizzaQue is the first of these and is a very inexpensive example of a portable pizza oven. Like the Cuisinart option from before, this is also a countertop option, although the company sells a leg kit that you can use to make it free standing.
According to the company’s information, this particular model preheats in around 15 minutes and will typically make a pizza in 6 minutes. The numbers here are just rough estimates, as the way any pizza oven heats can be strongly influenced by outside weather conditions.
In terms of end results, the pizza oven will let you make up to 13-inch pizzas, which is a fairly common size across similar products. As with the previous example, this would be very easy to transfer between indoors and outdoors, meaning you could use it regardless of the weather.
= = > Get The Pizzacraft PizzaQue Here
Pizzacraft Pronto
The Pronto is the other pizza oven option from Pizzacraft and it is fairly similar to the previous option. In fact, the biggest difference between the two is probably the visual style, with the Pronto looking better overall. This pizza oven is also slightly more powerful, cooking pizzas in 5 minutes (versus 6) and preheating in 10 minutes (versus 15).
As you can see, those differences aren’t dramatic. But, they may still be significant if you need to cook multiple pizzas back-to-back. The design may also make this model more reliable in the long-term and easier to move. Still, either this or the previous option will fill roughly the same function and both do get positive reviews overall.
= = > Get The Pizzacraft Pronto Here
Camp Chef Artisan Pizza Oven
As the name suggests, the Camp Chef range is mostly designed for camping. But, this particular product also works well as a backyard pizza oven, especially because it is so portable.
Like many of the other options, this pizza oven runs off gas. Because of the camping focus, you can use a standard gas tank or a 1 lb disposable propane bottle. The oven itself takes around 15 minutes to preheat and can be used for pizzas of up to 13 inches.
With these stats in mind, this oven is functionally similar to many of the other options on this list. Personally, it wouldn’t be my first choice, as some of the other brands have a better design or are less expensive. However, this could be a good product to go with if you plan to go camping, especially if you do happen to like the brand.
= = > Get The Camp Chef Artisan Pizza Oven Here
Mr. Pizza Pizza Oven Here
The brand for this pizza oven is fairly obscure and the product isn’t nearly as popular as the other options on this list. Nevertheless, it is still an interesting pizza oven and has some advantages as well.
In this case, the pizza oven goes up to a 14-inch pizza. That’s a little higher than most of the other pizza ovens that have been featured but the difference isn’t huge. The handle on the side means you could pick the pizza up and carry it like a suitcase. This is great for bad weather, or if you just want to take the pizza oven to a friend’s place.
But, the more unusual aspect of this pizza oven is that it also doubles as a grill. In fact, the entire top part flips open and you can use it as a grill to cook burgers, steaks and the like. This could be good for small backyards, as it means you don’t need two different products and you can avoid having a large barbecue.
= = > Get The Mr. Pizza Pizza Oven Here
Blackstone Outdoor Pizza Oven
This pizza oven follows a different style, as it is all one piece, rather than being a countertop product. However, this approach isn’t a bad thing. For one thing, the style is still very portable, especially as everything is contained in one place. This makes it easy to wheel the pizza oven out of the rain or the snow.
This particular model would also work well for people who don’t have many (or any) counters in their backyard. After all, a countertop pizza oven isn’t very useful if you have nowhere to put it – and having to buy a separate leg kit is a pain. If you wanted to, you could potentially use this model indoors when the weather is bad, even though it isn’t as elegant as some of the other models and takes up more space.
One other reason for considering this option is that it has a rotisserie model that turns the pizza stone. This means that you don’t have to turn the pizza yourself using a pizza peel and helps make sure that the pizza is cooked evenly every time you use the oven.
= = > Get The Blackstone Outdoor Pizza Oven Here
Final Thoughts
Most of the pizza ovens on this list are specifically designed to go in the backyard. There are some other options that are promoted as indoor pizza ovens but they typically run on electricity and many are impractical to use outdoors.
Models like the ones on this list can all easily be used outside and they can typically be carried inside if you have a miserable day. Likewise, you could even set them up in the kitchen (or the garage, for the Blackstone Pizza Oven) over the winter.
If you really dig pizza ovens, then you should check out the KettlePizza Gas and KettlePizza Charcoal. Both are awesome accessories that go with your current barbecue grill to create amazing pizza in your backyard. Instead of buying a standalone pizza-cooking unit like we saw on this page, it fits with your current grill (both gas and charcoal) to create a pizza oven environment. You can get them hotter, and even get wood-fired smokiness with the charcoal version.
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