The Easy Swap For Cracker-Thin Pizza Crust

Making pizza at home is a fun, easy way to cook dinner for your family or friends. You can use store-bought pizza dough or even make your own homemade pizza dough from scratch — but if you're a thin-crust person, it can be hard to stretch the dough as thin as you might prefer. Rather than put in the work with a rolling pin to thin out your dough, try switching the crust base entirely and prepare your pizza on a flour tortilla instead. It will be perfectly even, crispy, and just about as thin as possible.

Flour tortillas are easy to find and inexpensive; they're often sold in packs, meaning you can purchase a single pack of tortillas and easily have a week's worth of lunch or dinner ideas. However, there's one important rule when it comes to cooking with flour tortillas: Make sure you toast them first. Otherwise, your pizza base will have a starchy taste and waxy texture.

There are a few ways to prepare your tortilla pizza. If you want to broil it, try toasting both sides of the tortilla in a pan first to ensure the crust becomes as crispy as possible. Then, add your toppings and place it under the broiler on high for no more than five minutes. You can bake the pizza as well — if you go this route, it's best to place the tortilla directly on the oven rack to make sure the underside gets nice and crispy.

Preparing the pizza in a cast iron skillet is another great option; the cast iron will make it nice and toasty while also getting hot enough to thoroughly cook those pizza toppings. Alternatively, you can use a regular pan. Just toast one side of the tortilla by adding a little olive oil to the pan, then flip it over, and add the toppings. Covering the tortilla with a lid on the stovetop will help the other side to toast up while the cheese melts. The pizza is done once the cheese is fully melted and the underside of the tortilla is crispy.

Another important rule: Don't overload the tortilla with sauce and toppings. Since tortillas are so thin, they can easily become soggy. Just spread thin layers of tomato sauce and cheese, with a few of your favorite toppings, to avoid making the pizza too heavy — you need to be able to pick it up, too!

A flour tortilla is an easy option, but if you want something just a little bit sturdier, there are a few other choices you can make. Pita bread or naan works great as well; while neither is as thin as a tortilla, they're both typically thinner than traditional pizza crust and don't require any kneading or rolling. Store-bought bagel thins are a great option, too. These differ from traditional bagels in that they're designed to be extra thin, so they're perfect to serve as the base of a homemade thin-crust pizza. Plus, you can split these in half and make two separate pizzas.

For an on-the-go option, you can take that flour tortilla and turn it into a pizza burrito. Fill the center with sauce, cheese, and the toppings of your choice, then fold it up and toast each side with a little butter in a pan. You can wrap the tortilla in aluminum foil, and it instantly becomes a thin-crust pizza on the go.