Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza is a leftover inspired dish made with a venison roast. It’s extremely easy to make. It tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen when really all you needed was just over 30 minutes.
I take waste not, want not to heart. I always find a way to use leftovers when I have them. Most of the time, today’s leftovers are tomorrow’s lunch, but sometimes you have way too many leftovers and who wants to eat the same food over and over? Not me!
That’s why I try to find new ways to use leftovers. For example, when I have leftover pinto beans, I make fried bean cakes or refried beans the next day. When I have leftover chicken, I might make chicken salad, chicken soup or a chicken pot pie the next day. Sometimes I pull all of the leftover veggies from the fridge and make a veggie pizza.
So, this is a leftover inspired deep dish pizza. I have made these several different ways, but this is our favorite, but basically, you can put whatever you want in them. If you don’t have a venison roast or you don’t have enough, that’s ok. You can always use leftover ground venison, sausage, or whatever you have on hand. Throw in a little of this and a little of that–experiment and have fun!
Feel free to print our recipe card:
Ingredients
- 1/2 Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix
- 3 cups of leftover venison roast
- 8 oz. tomato sauce
- 2 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 cup fiesta cheese
- 5 sticks of string cheese, mozzarella
- 2 Tbsp. of butter
- 1 Tbsp. of garlic, minced
Instructions
- Fix 1/2 of a Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix according to the box directions for pizza. While the dough is rising, drain the leftover venison roast of any liquids and remove any veggies.
- Shred or chop the roast and heat on medium-low heat. Add the chili powder, cumin, and tomato sauce. Still well and remove from heat.
- Once the dough is ready, place in a 10 or 12 inch cast iron skillet (number 8 or 9). Press the dough evenly in the bottom, making sure it's not thin.
- Bring the dough all the way up the sides--it's OK if the dough tries to fall down from the sides. We will fix that later.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spread the venison mixture in the skillet. Place the string cheese on the inside edge of the crust--it doesn't have to be perfect--just lay it on top of the venison mixture around the crust.
- Fold the edges of the dough over the cheese. If needed, gently pull up on the dough and stretch it. You can roll the dough inward to enclose the cheese or you can simply fold it over.
- The dough will slightly overlap, so pinch the overlaps together to help keep them in place as it bakes.
- Heat the butter and minced garlic in the microwave for about 8 seconds and brush it over the exposed dough.
- Top with fiesta cheese and bake until the crust turns golden brown--about 7 minutes. To make sure it's done, poke a toothpick in the thickest part of the crust. If it comes out clean, it's done.
This recipe is for one pizza. If you want to use the whole box of Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, but don’t have enough venison roast leftover you can always make the whole box, cut the dough in half, use half for this recipe and the other half for cinnamon rolls–yum!
The good, the bad and the delicious…
- Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza is low in sugar, very high in protein, and calcium.
- It also might be too high in sodium for those of you on a low-sodium diet and maybe a little high in fat for some.
See my tips below for making this a more diet-friendly recipe.
Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza Nutrition Facts
| Yields: 1 Pizzas – 8 Slices | Serving: 1 Slice |
| Calories 366 | Calories from fat: 34 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 14 g | 22% |
| Saturated Fat 5 g | 23% |
| Monounsaturated Fat 1 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g | |
| Trans Fat 0.0 g | |
| Cholesterol 22 mg | 7% |
| Sodium 1001 mg | 42% |
| Potassium 415 mg | 12% |
| Total Carbohydrates 24 g | 8% |
| Dietary Fiber 1 g | 4% |
| Sugars 3 g | |
| Protein 36 g | 73% |
| Vitamin A 11% | Vitamin C 2% |
| Calcium 20% | Iron 1% |
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA, but were calculated by MyFitnessPal, Inc. by Under Armour, Inc.
To make this recipe more diet-friendly…
- The mozzarella cheese and the dough contain the most sodium, so to lower the sodium, look for low-sodium mozzarella cheese sticks and low-sodium fiesta cheese or use a different type of cheese. You could also use less cheese–maybe omit the mozzarella cheese. For the crust, you could use a lower sodium dough mix. Making your own would probably be best. This way you can control the salt better.
- To lower the fat, use low-fat cheese. You could also lessen or omit some of the cheese.
- Whatever changes you make, you can recalculate the nutrition facts at myfitnesspal.com or many other places online.
Bon Appétit
This looks amazing! I wish I had more time cooking! I like saving food too- left overs especially. I like how creatively you made this with the idea of avoiding waste. Awesome recipes on your site. Hard to read as it makes me salivate and crave the food!
Thanks so much! I feel it is important to avoid waste and I actually feel bad when I have to throw food out. I’m happy my food makes you hungry 🙂
I have a giant venison roast that my friend gave me. It’s still sitting in my freezer because I literally have no idea what to do with it! This though…this looks pretttttttyyyyyy darn good! I’ve saved it – I’ll have to give it a try!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. There are so many things you can do with a roast. Check out our Crock-Pot Venison Shoulder Roast and our Easy Deer Pot Roast. They both are easy recipes and you can always use the leftovers for the Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza.
We had some ground venison left over that needed to be used and were just going to make some tacos… then I saw this idea. We used mozzarella sliced into strips for the stuffed crust, jalapeno jack cheese on top, and used ready to bake pilsbury pizza dough. I threw some sliced jalapenos and cherry tomatoes on top of the cheese. We also did the beef with lots of chili powder and cumin and salt and pepper. It was incredibly delicious and fun to put together. Thanks!!
You’re welcome. That sounds wonderful! Very creative!