How to Cook Frozen Pizza on the Stove When Your Oven Isn’t Working

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Sometimes we’re in the mood for a homemade margherita pizza, and other times we’re opening the freezer, praying to find a frozen pie. The ease of putting a pre-made pizza in the oven for mere minutes makes up for its average flavor, thank you very much. But can you still enjoy a frozen pizza if your oven is not working, while living in a dorm without an oven, or perhaps in the peak of summer, when turning on the oven means flirting with heat stroke? Yes, you can; frozen pizza can be made on the stove, in a simple pan.

While stovetop pizza is not a new concept, making it from frozen rather than from scratch is a slightly different process. You definitely want to defrost the pizza first — putting a fully frozen pizza in the oven is quite forgiving, but you won’t find that with the stovetop method. It has to be defrosted to cook evenly. If you’re feeling extra hungry and have a microwave at your disposal, you could use the defrost setting to speed up the process a bit. Once defrosted, place the pizza in a non-stick pan or cast iron skillet and let the bottom get gently brown, then cover it with a lid to melt the cheese and soften the toppings.

Frozen pizza can be finicky in a pan and doesn’t always come out entirely perfect. If you find that the crust is sticking to the pan, coat it with cooking spray or oil, especially when opting for a cast iron. Another issue with the crust can happen if the heat is set too high — the bottom of the pizza will burn before the top is cooked. Use medium heat and keep an eye on the crust. Is the pizza coming out too dry and crispy? Add some water to the pan before you put the lid on to trap more steam. Not only will this yield a softer texture, but it will also melt the cheese better. On the flip side, if the pizza is coming out too flimsy, leave it on the stove without the lid for a few extra minutes at the end.

There is something to be said about the quality of pizza, too. Even the best cooking hack won’t be able to fix a bad frozen pie; that’s why we sampled 30 popular frozen pizzas to find the best ones. Tombstone Roadhouse Loaded Double Down Deluxe Pizza got the winning spot, while the Screamin’ Sicilian Cheese Pizza Bessie’s Revenge and Red Baron Classic Pepperoni Pizza came in as second and third, respectively.