Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
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This deep dish pizza casserole recipe takes your favorite pizza toppings like ground beef and pizza sauce and transforms them into casserole form, with a delicious deep-dish crust and lots of melted cheese, of course.
Fill your kitchen with mouthwatering irresistible aromas from this deep dish pizza casserole recipe. This is another one of my favorite super easy, quick to throw together, family pleasing, and incredibly delicious meals, originally from my mother’s recipe collection. All we need to do is brown the meat and onion, add the sauce and seasonings, and pour it into a casserole dish along with the crust ingredients and all the cheese. 30 minutes in the oven and it’s ready to serve to your hungry family.
One of the best things about this pizza casserole is how incredibly adaptable it is to whatever ingredients you have on hand! For example, I’ve made it with absolutely no cheese before and it was still delicious. I’ve included lots of suggestions below, but feel free to swap ground beef for ground turkey or sausage, make the pizza sauce from scratch, and throw in your favorite veggie pizza toppings like olives and mushrooms. Let this casserole work for you.
For all of my readers with hungry mouths and teenage boys to feed, get ready for a home run with deep dish pizza casserole!
Recipe Ingredients
- Ground beef
- Pizza sauce
- Italian seasoning
- Onion
- Shredded parmesan cheese
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Flour
- Eggs
- Oil
- Milk
- Salt
How to Make Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
In a large skillet brown your beef and chopped onion.
After that, drain any grease and add any other pizza ingredients you typically enjoy, or just keep it as is, as I do.
Had my entire family (except for me) not been dropped on their heads as children (thereby ruining their ability to tell what is good in food), I would be adding bell pepper and mushrooms now. YUM!
Pour in your pizza sauce and stir.
Spray a 9×13 inch pan with baking spray. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the bottom of the pan. Spread the meat mixture over the mozzarella.
Then it’s time to mix up the pizza crust.
In a medium bowl, place milk, flour, eggs, oil, and salt. Stir until well combined and no lumps remain.
Pour over the meat in the casserole dish and sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. It may not look done but it is.
By now, your kitchen is filled with the most delicious smell of this deep dish pizza casserole. Your kids and spouse have been driving you crazy by asking if it’s done yet, and your stomach has set into a continual growl.
Or maybe that’s just me.
Enjoy your quick and easy casserole!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Simply reheat in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
- A different way to make this pizza casserole is to add a layer of canned crescent rolls or refrigerated pizza crust dough to the bottom of the casserole dish and then top it with the mozzarella cheese and the meat mixture instead of making your own crust. It should take less time to cook, about 15 minutes.
- Another option is to substitute the pizza crust for cooked pasta, like rotini pasta or penne pasta. This will take about 20 minutes until the cheese melts.
- For added heat, add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.
Recipe FAQs
What pizza toppings can I add to this deep dish pizza casserole?
You can really add in whatever pizza toppings you like. I tend to keep mine pretty basic because my precious family has no imagination, despite a collective twenty years of effort on my part to change that. However, I will tell you that even basic, this recipe is absolutely delicious and deeply satisfying. Anyway, here are some suggestions:
- Chopped green bell pepper or red bell pepper
- Sliced mushrooms
- Chopped black olives
- A layer of pepperoni on top of the parmesan cheese.
- A combination of ground beef and sausage (spicy Italian sausage would be delicious).
- Ground turkey instead of ground beef
- Homemade pizza sauce
- Different types of cheese, like provolone cheese or sharp cheddar cheese.
- Add 2 minced garlic cloves when you saute the onion and ground beef.
What do you serve with pizza casserole?
I love to just serve my casserole with a simple side salad.
You may also like these pizza recipes:
Barbecue Chicken Pizza, Southern-Style
Air Fryer Pizza Rolls Made From Scratch
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 15-ounce jar pizza sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Brown ground beef, onion, and bell pepper. Drain well. Add pizza sauce and Italian seasoning. Stir well.2 pounds ground beef, 1 medium onion, chopped, 1 bell pepper, chopped, 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning, 1 15-ounce jar pizza sauce
- Grease a 9x13 inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle mozzarella over the bottom and spread the meat mixture over the cheese.2 cups mozzarella cheese
- In a mixing bowl, add flour, milk, eggs, oil, and salt. Stir until well mixed and no lumps remain. Pour over the meat in the baking dish.1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 tsp salt
- Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the batter and bake for 30 minutes.1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Nutrition
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
~Abraham Lincoln
I’ll have to agree with your family about the mushrooms, but I’d be good with the bell pepper. This recipe sounds delicious.
This looks yummy.
Thank you Debbie, I hope you get the chance to give it a try!
Want to try this, but I am on the keto woe. I will try adapting the crust. I’m hoping it will work for all of us. Also going to make a half size (8×8 pan) for this first go ’round. It looks wonderfully flexible!
Make sure you check out the low carb section of the site for more recipes when you can. We did Keto for a good while and I have lots of recipes, with more coming 🙂 https://www.southernplate.com/category/lowcarb/
always enjoy a good keto meal the whole family will enjoy! (I’m the only one doing keto…)
So, I adapted this recipe just a bit, to make it more keto friendly. I used a store bought generic pizza sauce that just happens to be very low in sugar (no added, so all from the tomato base). I tossed in bacon pieces and chopped some pepperoni to the meat mixture (I also had to avoid the veggies for the kiddos…sorry. If it was me, they’d be in. but onion flakes hide well).
Anyway, the biggest changes were in the crust. I subbed almond flour and heavy cream for the regular flour and milk. I was out of eggs, so I added a pinch of xantham gum. Which was probably unnecessary, as it really thickened up in the few minutes it sat while I put the other ingredients into the pan.
I layered more mozzarella over the top and then the parmesan.
It was a very filling hit. (I made an 8×8 (so only 1 lb of meat), and 1/2 to 2/3 jar of sauce.) and still had 1/6th left over)
Thank you.
Robin, I’m not surprised it was filling… swapping almond flour and cream for the flour and milk added about 800 calories to the recipe. Do you really lose weight on this diet?
You’d be amazed. I’ve never seen anything like the keto diet.
Dave, yes you can. Keto isn’t a sustainable diet, but I was strict with carbs and you mainly get good fats while doing Keto. A lot of cream, avocados, fatty omega fish like salmon, chicken thighs (more fat). No white flour, pasta, bread, etc. I lost 35 pounds in four months and kept it off for nearly two years.
Sorry didn’t mean to double post
Made this tonight forgot to add the sauce to the meat but poured it over the crust before baking. I will let you know how it turns out can’t believe both my husband and I forgot the sauce lol.
Seemed to still work just fine.
LOL, it happens. I forget stuff often and then get to have fun experimenting because I forgot something in the first place 😉
Made this tonight forgot to add the sauce to the meat but poured it over the crust before baking. I will let you know how it turns out can’t believe both my husband and I forgot the sauce lol.
I wonder if I could just use some refrigerated pizza dough to cover instead of making my own? Every little shortcut helps
This isn’t a traditional pizza dough, it’s a little bit different texture that you just pour over. Having said that, you could surely try it! It would be a different recipe but might turn out really good 🙂