The Camp Chef Pizza Oven is a propane-powered pizza oven that sits on top of the Sidekick attachment. It produces the most pizzeria-like crust you’ll find outside of a true brick oven, and puts all other grilled pizzas to shame. 

Camp Chef Pizza Oven Review

Last fall, Camp Chef reached out and sent me a grill and some accessories to test out.

The Camp Chef Pizza oven supposedly can simulate the brick ovens that make Italian pizza so famous. Even better, it actually runs on a small propane tank like you would use for any typical Coleman-style camp grill.

This post is going to detail my experiences with the Camp Chef Pizza Oven, give you some tips and tricks for success, and I’ll even give you information on where to buy them too.

What makes a Camp Chef Pizza Oven great?

A pizza oven that can reach 700 degrees in a few minutes and cook real pizza in less than five is impressive. That high temperature is the golden zone of heat when cooking pizza. It helps cook the dough quickly and gives it the perfect pizzeria texture.

With the high heat, the goal is to get the exterior heated so the crust cooks quickly, with just a little bit of scorching. The scorched dough adds flavor complexity, but you still want the inside of the dough to stay relatively chewy.

At the same time, you need the ingredients on top to heat quickly. You need the cheese to melt, and the pepperonis to crisp up a bit. Whatever you prefer on your pizza. The sky is the limit. The most important thing is to have everything come out right at the right time.

Too hot and the bottom burns, and the top doesn’t cook enough. Too cool, and you never get the bottom slightly scorched, which is a delicate balance. You want a bit of scorching, not for the entire bottom to be burned to a crisp.

The stone in the oven is ideal, but this is also the one part you need to be careful with. When stones cool too quickly, they can crack. 

What’s the secret to great pizza with the Camp Chef Gas Pizza oven?

It takes some trial and error.

Pizza oven cooking is different than regular oven cooking, but be patient! My first instinct was to think the oven had issues, but then I realized the obvious. I was just not used to cooking with heat that intensely hot.

Make sure you don’t get over-ambitious and try to cook too many pizzas simultaneously. You need there to be air around the pizza for it to properly bake. You can cook a pizza the size of the oven, but I suggest making smaller ones. They come out better and are easier to get in and out of the oven itself while you are learning your way around a pizza peel. 

I learned the hard way. You will quickly burn areas since the temperature gets uneven without proper air flow.

Also, the Camp Chef pizza oven works best for relatively thin-crust pizza. You can do a semi-thick crust, but you don’t want the crust to rise so high the top gets burned.

Can the Camp Chef Pizza Oven be converted to work with natural gas?

When I first used the Camp Chef pizza oven, I was talking about it later to a neighbor. He asked if it worked with other gas besides the little propane tank. I looked it up, and it does, but I would definitely say to consult a gas company about installation. It requires different hardware, etc.

You don’t want to mess with flammable gas apparatus without the assistance of a trained professional!

Can you cook things other than pizza in this pizza oven?

Sure, but know that it is specially made for cooking pizza. It is like a rice cooker. Sure, you can cook other stuff in it, but it is truly designed to specialize in making pizza. If you are looking for a camp stove, many better options are available.

However, you can get away with doing some flatbread or breadsticks there. Calzones would work, as long as they are not too thick. Pasties would be a great option too.

Final thoughts

I was skeptical about how this thing would work, but overall I’m impressed and I’m glad to have this in my outdoor kitchen arsenal.

Be prepared to fail a few tries before you get the thickness of the crust and the toppings down too. If you make pizza at home in your regular oven that only goes to about 450 or 500 degrees Fahrenheit then it can be a bit of a learning curve.

I highly suggest buying a big bag of corn meal and the pizza oven accessories kit. You can find links to those below. 

While the version I tested requires the Sidekick (an attachment for a Camp Chef Woodwind Pellet Grill) to work correctly, there are standalone versions you can also buy that are very similar.

Overall, I like the Camp Chef Pizza oven. I would recommend it to anyone that loves making pizza. It is great outdoors on the patio, and if you are doing car or camper-style camping.

Curious about other types of pizza ovens? Check out this full review of all of the most popular gas pizza ovens in this The Best Gas Pizza Ovens post by Pala Pizza.