This thin crust poutine pizza is topped with a thick, dark gravy, crispy french fries, and lots of melty cheese curds. If you love poutine you’re really going to love this poutine pizza! This is basically a whole poutine on top of a pizza crust, baked in a super hot oven until everything melts together. What’s not to like? this poutine pizza doesn’t have a tomato sauce base. Instead, the pizza sauce is a classic, dark brown beef poutine gravy.

Poutine — french fries topped with a dark gravy and cheese curds — originated in Quebec and is considered the national dish of Canada.

INGREDIENTS

Here’s what you’ll need to make a poutine pizza. It’s basically the things you need to make poutine, plus pizza dough and some extra cheese.

• Pizza Dough – Any pizza dough you like is fine. I tested this with store bought and homemade pizza dough and a homemade pizza dough like this basic thin crust overnight pizza dough is much better. If you use a store-bought pizza dough, you’ll want to divide it in half or in thirds ahead of time to make it easier to hand stretch your pizza dough.
• French Fries – Your fave frozen french fries or even left over french fries from a restaurant. You can make french fries from scratch if you want to, but it’s not necessary here. I really liked Alexia Foods’ frozen “house cut” french fries, but any french fries you like or can get should work. I haven’t tested this with thicker fries like steak fries or waffle fries, but even they should work!
• Poutine Gravy – Yes, you can use store bought gravy but again I do think it’s worth taking the time to make the gravy from scratch. The gravy is such a star of this poutine pizza — and it’s very easy to make!
  • Beef Stock – Look for unsalted beef stock. If you don’t have beef stock, chicken will work (or a blend of chicken and beef stock). But beef stock will give you that classic, dark and richly flavored poutine gravy.
  • Flour – All purpose flour or any of the 1-to-1 gluten free flours will work here.
  • Butter – Unsalted or salted, either one is fine.
  • Corn Starch – Crucial for getting the gravy to the right thickness! Whisk it well with water before adding it so it doesn’t get lumpy.
  • Garlic and Onion Powder – These add some really nice flavor to the gravy. I tested a version using fresh garlic and fresh onion, but it made the gravy lumpy.
  • Salt and Pepper – To taste!
• Low Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese – This is the best type of shredding, melting cheese for pizza. My cheese of choice for pizzas is Galbani’s which comes packaged as a shrink wrapped brick. You don’t want fresh water or brine-packed mozzarella here.
• Cheese Curds – The shining star of any good poutine! You really can’t have poutine without it. You can find cheese curds at Target and Wegman’s, or you can even order them online from places like Murray’s Cheese. Depending on where you live they may be easy or difficult to find. I would recommend calling ahead to ask if your grocery store has them.

INSTRUCTIONS

As with all my pizza recipes, I recommend using a baking steel to get perfect pizzas at home. Make sure your oven is preheated to 500F for at least an hour with the baking steel (use code TPK10 for 10% off!) inside before you plan to bake the pizza. Generously flour your pizza peel with semolina or semolina and all purpose flour to make it super easy for the pizza to slide off the peel. If you don’t have a pizza peel you can use the back of a baking sheet. Just slide the pizza off the sheet and onto the baking steel.

MAKE THE POUTINE PIZZA SAUCE — AKA POUTINE GRAVY

The gravy needs to be warm when you use it, but you don’t want it to be super hot either. It’s best to make the gravy first and give it a little time to cool down before assembling the pizza. Making gravy is very easy! The most important thing is that you have a good, sturdy whisk and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. First, melt the butter in a small sauce pot. Once the butter melts, whisk in the flour all at once. Keeping whisking well as the flour toasts and turns a dark golden brown color. This can take a few minutes. Give it time.

Add the beef stock, onion powder, and garlic powder. Whisk well to make sure the thick flour mixture is evenly incorporated into the stock. Then, in a small container, whisk together corn starch and water. Pour the corn starch “slurry” (I didn’t come up with the name, I’m sorry) into the gravy and whisk well. Bring it to a low boil, then reduce to a simmer and stir until thickened. Add more cornstarch slurry if needed to adjust thickness. Whisking the corn starch into water before adding it to the gravy prevents clumps. Never add corn starch directly to the gravy! Finish with salt and pepper to taste. Then remove from heat to cool until ready to use.

PREP THE FRENCH FRIES

Once the gravy is made and set aside to cool, heat up the french fries. If you’re using frozen fries, follow the instructions on the bag. If you’re using leftover fries from a restaurant, take them out of the fridge so they can come to room temperature. The pizza oven is so hot that even though the pizza only cooks for a few minutes, it’ll be plenty of time to heat up the fries!

POUTINE PIZZA ASSEMBLY

The first layer you put down on the pizza crust is the poutine gravy. It should be warm enough to spread easily but not so hot that it starts cooking the pizza dough on contact. A thin layer of gravy is more than enough. The second layer is the shredded low-moisture whole milk mozzarella cheese. Normally I’m all about a thiccccccck layer of mozzarella on my pizza, but the cheese curds are so melty that you really don’t need a lot of mozzarella here. Its job is mostly to help provide even cheese coverage.

Next you’ll want to put down a layer of fries. It’s okay if some of them overlap, but do try to get a fairly even layer. Finally, top the whole dang thing with cheese curds! The cheese curds are super melty and will spread out a lot so I should probably caution you that “less is more.” But… they’re so delicious that you should honestly just follow your heart. Bake it for 3-5 minutes, then broil for 30 seconds to get some nice browning on top.

Once the pizza comes out of the oven you’ll give it a final drizzle of gravy and top it with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley or chives.