Pie Iron Pizza Sandwich
Two slices of bread, sauce, cheese, and whatever else. Clamped shut and held over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 74
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 8 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Wheat sandwich bread | 2 slices | day-old holds together better than fresh |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza or marinara sauce | 2 tbsp | single-serve cups avoid opening a jar you can't finish |
| Shredded mozzarella | 1/3 cup | shredded melts faster than sliced |
| Pepperoni | 8 slices | |
| Oil or butter | 1 tsp | for greasing the iron |
Method
- Let the fire burn down. You want coals with a low flame, not a blaze.
- Grease both halves of the pie iron. Skip this and the bread welds itself to the metal.
- Lay one slice of bread in the open iron. Spoon the sauce on, keeping it off the edges.
- Add the cheese and pepperoni, top with the second slice, and clamp the iron shut. Trim any bread hanging over the seam.
- Hold it in the coals about two minutes, flip, and give it two more. Open it to check before you commit to another minute.
A pie iron is a sealed cast pan on sticks, which is why this works. The two slices of bread press together at the crimped edge and become a closed pocket, so sauce and melted cheese stay put instead of running into the fire. Nothing needs a pot and nothing needs water.
Heat management is the whole skill. Flames char the outside before the cheese moves; coals cook it through. Grease matters more than it sounds like it should, and overhanging bread just burns off, so trim it before you set the iron down.
Packing
Bread rides on top of the cooler where nothing crushes it. Cheese and pepperoni stay cold; sauce cups do not need to.
Variations
- Swap rye bread, ham, provolone, and honey mustard for a hot deli sandwich.
- Two flour tortillas with leftover taco meat, rice, beans, and cheddar work the same way and need an extra minute.
- Dessert version: two toaster waffles, chocolate hazelnut spread, and sliced berries, two minutes a side.
https://thervatlas.com/food/pie-iron-dinners