Hosting a build your own pizza night is a huge crowd pleaser, whether it’s for your own family or for friends and guests! You can go all out with grilled fresh pizza crusts, or keep it simple with readymade crust alternatives! Find all my top tips in this post, from cooking the perfect pizza to prep-ahead tips to topping ideas.

Multiple personal sized pizzas for a build your own homemade pizza party.

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We love to invite friends and neighbors over for dinner, and throwing something on the grill captures just the right not-too-fussy vibe for a casual get-together. But I like to go beyond serving basic burgers. Having a build-your-own pizza bar where kids or guests can assemble their own personal restaurant-quality pizzas is loads of fun for everyone involved.

Having done this many times for both my immediate family and for guests, I have a few tips to help your build-your-own pizza night go smoothly.

Prepared pizza toppings in divided food storage containers.

Ingredients: Crusts and other pizza bases

While I like to parcook pizza crusts from storebought fresh pizza dough, you can also use alternate crusts for an easier DIY pizza bar! Here are some other options.

Premade pizza crusts
Flatbread
Pitas
English muffins
Bagels

Ingredients: Homemade pizza topping ideas

Build-your-own pizza night is one of my favorite times to use those viral “snackle boxes“. It’s a space-efficient and easy-to-refrigerate solution for storing a variety of ingredients and toppings. Extras can be kept in baggies in the fridge and used to refill the snackle box compartments.

Here are some classic and unique pizza topping ideas you can prepare.

Olive oil, pastry brush, and kosher salt. These toppings are a non-negotiable! Remind guests to oil and salt crust edges for best flavor and proper browning! At our last pizza party, I was wondering why one of my guests’ pizzas wasn’t browning well on the grill until I realized I hadn’t told her to brush the edges with olive oil. Without it, the crust will be pale and flat instead of golden brown and glossy. A sprinkle of salt adds irresistible flavor to the edges. If a kid or guest forgets, you can always brush a little oil on the edges after the toppings are on.
Sauces: You can stick with classic pizza sauce, or add other options too. Some ideas are olive oil and garlic, pesto, buffalo sauce, cheese sauce, alfredo sauce, and balsamic glaze.
Cheeses: Keep it simple with shredded mozzarella, or offer fresh mozzarella slices, blue cheese, or ricotta.
Meats: Pepperoni, turkey pepperoni, Italian sausage (brown crumbles in advance), diced cooked chicken, sliced chicken apple sausage, crumbled bacon, sliced meatballs, diced ham or Canadian bacon.
Fresh ingredients: red or green bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, Roma tomato, thinly sliced fennel bulb, pineapple (I know, I know!), basil, spinach, or kale.
Jarred or canned ingredients: Sliced black olives, sliced green olives (Mario has some canned green olives without pimentos), Kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, or jarred jalapeños.

Recommended Equipment

My favorite way to make pizza at home with fresh pizza dough is with my gas grill and a pizza stone. The grill allows you to get higher temperatures than you can achieve in your oven, making it closer to a professional pizza oven.

You can also use a pizza stone in your oven, or just use a baking sheet. If using a pizza stone, a pizza peel helps easily slide the crust on and off the stone.

Love homemade pizza night? Consider an extra-large pizza stone so you can cook two pizzas at once!

How to Prep for Pizza Night

Steps 1-3 are for if you are parcooking pizza crusts from fresh or homemade pizza dough. Skip to Step 4 if you are using a prepared crust or crust alternative!

Buy or make pizza dough. Before your guests ever arrive, you'll want to buy or make your own pizza dough. I usually get fresh balls of pizza dough near the deli section of my local grocery store, or in the freezer section (let these thaw completely before shaping). A one-pound ball will make two 10" personal pizzas. You should get enough dough for each family member or guest to have their own pizza, plus a couple extras to share.

Shape and parcook crusts. Once again, this should be done before guests arrive, the morning of or even the night before. Parcooking, or partly cooking, the crusts in advance is a great way to still get that homemade crust taste without the fuss and mess of stretchy, sticky raw dough for your kids or guests.

Step by step collage showing preparing pizza dough.

Shaping the dough: Lightly flour a clean surface, shape each half-pound of dough into a ball, and flatten (image 1). Stretch the dough with your hands, fists, or a rolling pin (images 2-3), letting the dough rest for 5-10 minutes at a time in between stretches so the gluten can relax. The crusts are ready to parcook when they stretch to a 10" circle and don't shrink back.

To parcook in the oven: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and sprinkle a baking sheet with semolina flour or cornmeal, or simply lay down a sheet of parchment paper. Lay a pizza crust on top (image 4) and bake for 2-3 minutes, just until the outside of the crust loses its raw, doughy appearance.

To parcook on the grill: Preheat a pizza stone on your grill on high heat until your grill is at maximum temp. Sprinkle a pizza peel with semolina flour or cornmeal, and lay a raw pizza crust on top. Give the peel a little shake: if any parts of the crust stick, pick them up and add a little more semolina flour underneath. When the whole crust slides smoothly when you jiggle the pizza peel, slide the crust onto your preheated pizza stone (image 5). Cook for 1-2 minutes, just until the outside loses its raw, doughy appearance (image 6).

Store your crusts. After crusts are parcooked, stack them on top of each other with a layer of parchment paper in between each one and store covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator until pizza time.

Parcooked pizza crusts stacked with parchment paper between each crust.

Prep your toppings. Cook, slice, and chop your toppings in advance so they're ready to add to the pizzas!

Setting up Your DIY Pizza Bar

Before pizza time, set up an assembly line where guests can build their own pizzas.

From left to right, you should have:

Empty plates: Dinner plates are perfect for a 10" pizza.
Prepared crusts
Olive oil in a bowl with a pastry brush and kosher salt
Sauces
Cheeses
Toppings
Space at the end: If people build their pizzas faster than you can cook them, they can leave their assembled, unbaked pizzas at the end of the line.

How to Cook your Pizzas

In the oven: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit while people are assembling their pizzas. Add prepared pizza to a baking sheet (or two if they will fit!) and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melty.

On the grill: These instructions are for fresh, parcooked pizza crusts. Preheat a pizza stone on your grill at high heat while people are assembling their pizzas. Use a pizza peel to transfer prepared pizza to pizza stone and cook for 7-10 minutes with the lid closed, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melty.

A man adding toppings to his homemade pizza crust.

Tips & Tricks for the Perfect Pizza Night

Store onions separately until ready to serve if you're using a snackle box, or everything will taste slightly like onions.
Serve an appetizer. Everyone's pizzas will be done at a different time, so having an app ready ensures nobody will be hungry while they wait for their pizza. Try crostini or focaccia with olive oil, pizza sauce, or pesto for dipping. Learn how to make crostini here!
Start with a couple communal pizzas. I like to prep a couple gourmet combos people may not try on their own, like this chicken apple sausage and fennel pizza, buffalo chicken pizza, or balsamic chicken pizza. You could also start with simple crowd favorites like pepperoni or Margherita pizzas.
Make kids' pizzas first. When my kids get hangry, boy do I know it. Cook their pizzas first so they have time to cool.
Repurpose your leftovers! Don't worry about having extra pizza toppings. Use them for a salad bar night, add them to stir fries, or make an omelet station!

What to Serve with Homemade Pizzas

Homemade pizza is certainly a meal in itself, but you may want to add something extra. For a build your own pizza night, I certainly recommend an appetizer or a "starter pizza" of some sort so people don't get hungry waiting for their pizza to cook.

Starters or appetizers

Serve crostini, bruschetta, a charcuterie board, or focaccia with whipped ricotta and tomato sauce for dipping.

My favorite pizza place used to serve an antipasto board that included one type of cured meat, marinated mozzarella, sliced heirloom tomatoes, toast points, and some kind of pesto, bruschetta, or Giardiniera (pickled vegetables). It was the best!

Side dishes

Serve breadsticks or cheesy bread with your pizza, or add a green salad for a fresh contrast.

For cheesy bread, brush one parcooked crust with olive oil and plenty of crushed garlic. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese from edge to edge and bake. Cut in half and then into strips and serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

For salad, try Greek, Caesar, or my personal favorite: grilled romaine hearts, which are super impressive and ridiculously easy. Since you have the grill on high already, it's a no-brainer to throw on a couple romaine hearts while you're at it. While I make my own dressings 95% of the time, I love grilled romaine with Olive Garden dressing and some shaved parmesan.

Desserts

Try a light, creamy dessert like tiramisu or lemon mousse!

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