Best Pizza Ovens for Backyard

Everyone loves homemade pizza, and a travel pizza oven is becoming increasingly popular for excellent reasons. They’re portable, versatile, simple to set up and use, inexpensive, and capable of cooking pizzas in as little as one minute. It’s not just about how quickly and easily you may cook pizzas that makes them appealing; and it’s also about how they’re cooked.

A typical pizza oven can reach temperatures as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the crust to become crisp while the interior of the dough remains soft and chewy.

This article will provide you with a comprehensive analysis of some of the best travel pizza ovens on the market. Any of these ovens would make a fantastic addition to your taligate party or backyard kitchen. Here’s a brief description of each travel pizza oven.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall Pizza Ovens

Ooni Pro

The Ooni Pro is the top model of Ooni’s (formerly Uuni) line of pizza ovens, which began selling in 2012 through a Kickstarter campaign. It includes two separate doors (an oven door with a thermometer and a pizza door), a charcoal/wood tray, four pizza stones that make up the floor, and pizza oven gloves. The Ooni Pro is pre-equipped with wood and charcoal, and its setup takes less than 5 minutes. It’s also intuitive.

You will need to preheat the Pro, which takes around 15 minutes, just like any oven. This oven’s cooking surface measures 17.7″ by 17.7,” which is big enough to cook two small pizzas, though we recommend limiting yourself to one. It isn’t exceptionally light at 48.5 pounds, but it’s plenty light for one or two people to carry easily.

You may also buy propane or pellet gas burner attachment separately. We strongly advise you to purchase the gas burner since it makes an extremely easy cooking experience. The Pro’s size makes it extremely versatile, as you can cook it on a baking or skillet dish. You can cook a mean steak with the high temperatures and the ability to cook with wood. This is the best of those we tested for catering or feeding a large group when combined with the gas burner.

 

Ooni 3

The Ooni 3 pizza oven is the Ooni Pro’s smaller brother. The third original Ooni (Uuni) third-generation wood pellet-fired pizza oven has become quite popular since its inception. The Ooni 3 includes a pizza stone, pellet burner, and door. With a weight of just over 24 pounds, this oven is easy for almost any person to lift, making it highly portable.

It also comes with a built-in gas burner (available separately) for quick and easy cooking on the move. The Ooni 3 may cook at temperatures up to 900 degrees, so pizzas cook in as little as 60 seconds like its big brother. The Ooni 3 is a terrific alternative for individuals on a tight budget, offering half the price of the Ooni Pro.

 

Ooni Koda

The Ooni Koda is the newest oven in the Ooni family. The Koda is a 20.4-pound watch that’s similar in size to the Ooni 3, and it’s designed for maximum portability. The Ooni Koda’s simplicity of operation, which enables you to cook with gas simply, is its greatest feature. After removing it from the box, you can use this oven for baking pizzas in less than 15 minutes.

It is really as easy as taking it out of the box, unfolding the legs, placing the stone in an oven, connecting your propane tank, and turning on the built-in electronic ignitor to get started. The Koda is less adaptable than the Pro or the 3 because it solely runs on gas, but if you’re not going to use anything else, this may be the right oven for you. A cover is sold separately that doubles as a carrying case, making it very easy to keep safe and carry around.

 

Best Overall Value

Bertello Outdoor Pizza Oven

The Bertello Outdoor Pizza Oven also made its debut via a Kickstarter campaign and seems to be the most popular new child on the block right now. This oven, like the Ooni Pro, may cook with wood, charcoal, pellets, or gas (optional), but it has a size, mobility, and price that are more comparable to the Ooni 3.

Though it’s not too big, it’s a little on the heavy side at 29 pounds. It may be easily lifted despite its modest size. The major disadvantage is that if you purchase the gas burner (separately sold), it is pretty big and bulky, adding almost a foot longer oven.

 

ROCCBOX Gozney Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven

Gozney, a long-established manufacturer of large precast stone pizza ovens, has recently entered the travel pizza oven market with the Roccbox. It is the first travel pizza oven with an insulated body that allows it to heat up faster and stay at a higher temperature for a longer period of time.

It’s also covered in silicone skin that is non-toxic and pleasant to the touch, which is great when cooking with an oven that reaches 930 degrees Fahrenheit. The Roccbox includes a thick pizza stone, a wood burner, a gas burner with a hose and regulator, a built-in thermometer, and a pizza peel. It is on the heavier side of the spectrum at 44 pounds but still manageable. The Roccbox also has a great case (sold separately) with a handle for easy carrying.

 

Best Priced Pizza Oven

Pizzacraft Pizzeria Pronto

Another oven that only works with liquid propane is the Pizzacraft Pizzeria Pronto. It comes with a hose, stone and regulator, matchless starter, and a built-in thermometer. As a bonus, it comes with an adapter to use a 1-pound propane tank, so you don’t need to carry around a large tank.

It’s simple to pick up and take on the road at 26 pounds. The biggest distinction between this oven and the others examined in this post is that the flame comes from the bottom, heating stone directly and spreading throughout the rest of the oven. The PC6000 delivers only 600 degrees of heat, so it takes 5 to 10 minutes to cook a pizza, which is considerably longer than the other ovens.

 

Pro Tips

There is some learning curve to baking with a pizza oven. Raw dough can be challenging to deal with, and learning how to cook it takes time. I can tell you. I’ve cooked enough with a pizza oven to include meals for 160 people at a family reunion to learn a few tricks.

Working with Dough

The first step is to select a decent dough recipe. You’ll be sorely disappointed if the dough doesn’t taste nice or cook well in a pizza oven. Don’t give up yet! Several excellent, simple dishes are available to try if you don’t like the dough. You may also purchase dough that has already been prepared. I prefer Trader Joe’s brand since it is inexpensive, tastes good, and is simple to use.

The one thing you require to remember is that it sticks to everything when working with raw dough. You may keep the dough from sticking to the surface by spreading cornmeal under the dough. Flour may also be used, but you must act faster than with cornmeal. The more times you transfer it from one surface to another, the more cornmeal you need to spread. Use a little bit of cornmeal at first. The cornmeal will catch fire in the oven if you use too much. Don’t worry; your oven will not go up in flames, but it will mess up your pizza and set off the stone.

Working with a Pizza Peel

I found it finest to make your pizza on a wooden peel to limit the number of moves. The peel is significant as the dough is more likely to stick to a metal peel, even with cornmeal. You still want to make the pizza as soon as possible since this will minimize the time your pizza will stick to the peel. After you’ve finished making your pizza, put it in the oven as soon as possible. If it’s still loose after a few days, shake the peel every so often to keep it from sticking.

This dish’s hardest part is putting the pizza in the oven, so don’t be anxious. If the dough is sticking to the peel, it will not slide in, and you may wind up with a mess of dough and ingredients all over the place. Give it a little shake and see if it moves freely about the peel while the peel is horizontal. If it doesn’t change, you may not have enough cornmeal, or it may have been sitting on the peel for too long.

Give it some tries, and if it still does not work, you may have to use the metal spatula to peel it off. It doesn’t be easy at first, but keep practicing, and you will get the hang of it. If your pizza turns around on the peel, it indicates that you should be able to slide it into the oven effortlessly.

Cooking Your Pizza

You’re done once your pizza is in the oven. All of the extremely fast-cooking travel pizza ovens have a heat source from the rear of the oven, so if you don’t turn it, the pizza will burn at the back. After 20 seconds in the oven, remove it with a spatula or metal peel and rotate it a third of a turn.

If pizza is sticking to the stone, it could be a sign that your pizza stone isn’t hot enough. It’s a perfect idea to use an infrared thermometer to ensure that the pizza stone is hot enough. The stone must be at 700-750 degrees Fahrenheit.

A metal pizza peel is thinner than a wooden one, making it simpler to slide under a pizza. Repeat 2 more times for a perfectly cooked pizza in 60 seconds. If you’d prefer to make things simple, a pizza turner is a pole with prongs on end, making it easier to transfer pizzas from one pan to another. You stick the prongs into the oven, snag a pizza’s edge, and turn the pizza while it is in the oven.

FAQs

1. Is it worth buying a pizza oven?

The fact that the pizza takes less than 60-90 seconds to cook is also a plus. This is an excellent device for making pizza parties simpler! At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal taste when it comes to pizza ovens. However, they’re better at creating Neapolitan-style pizzas.

2. Can we cook other things in the Ooni pizza oven?

Ooni pizza ovens are versatile and can be used to cook a variety of foods, including fish, barbecue, and lamb and mutton. You may cook almost any type of meat in an Ooni pizza oven. The most important thing to consider is whether you have the necessary equipment since your wooden peel for pizzas might not be sufficient.

3. How long does it take to heat a wood-fired pizza oven?

It might take up to one hour for a wood-burning pizza oven to reach cooking temperature. However, this is determined by a variety of factors, including the size and design of your pizza oven, the wood utilized, and the weather conditions outside. The larger the oven, the longer it takes to reach its maximum temperature. Ovens with smaller capacities might be heated up in 40 minutes, while those with bigger sizes may take as long as 2 hours or more to heat up to a proper temperature.

Final Thoughts

If you’re making a lot of pizzas, keeping your oven clean is critical, just like we clean our firepit with firepit covers. Otherwise, future pizzas crammed into the oven will be thrown in among dirty ingredients or dirty cornmeal. I recommend cleaning your oven with an oven brush on a regular basis.

You’re now ready to start baking in a pizza oven with its essential tips.

Now, you have to discover some delicious dishes and get started. I hope you appreciate the best travel pizza ovens available today.