Pizza is pretty basic — dough, sauce, cheese, done. But when there’s nothing to hide behind, every ingredient has to pull its weight. That’s why pizza dough is the backbone of a good slice. While many pizza chains take the easy way out with frozen dough, there are some that take their dough seriously.
Here are nine pizza chains that use fresh, never frozen dough.
Anyone from the West Coast who’s tried Pizza Factory and then moved away probably still craves its hand-tossed crust — puffy and soft on the inside with a lightly sweet flavor. The chain has more than 100 locations across the Western U.S. and makes its dough fresh daily.
People love Blaze, and a big part of what makes its pizza top-tier is the dough and how it's made. The founders, Rick and Elise Wetzel previously ran Wetzel’s Pretzels, so they know a thing or two about baking.
Blaze makes its dough fresh daily with no preservatives or frozen shortcuts. The pizza dough — made from unbleached flour, filtered water, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and a touch of sugar — goes through a 24-hour fermentation process that enhances flavor and makes the crust light and digestible. The pizzas are then cooked in a 3-ton oven with a stone hearth and flames on three sides for 3 minutes.
Most people probably assume Domino’s uses frozen dough for its pizza, given its spectacularly “meh” flavor. However, Domino’s, the world’s largest pizza chain with over 6,692 locations in the U.S., runs one of the country's most efficientpizza dough supply chains, with 18 supply centers producing fresh dough daily. The East Granby, Connecticut, facility alone makes 126,000 dough balls a day, supplying about 425 stores. Every five minutes, a 500-lb. batch is mixed from six ingredients: flour, water, salt, sugar, yeast, and oil. The dough is then shaped, tracked, and chilled before being shipped out — sometimes reaching stores within hours.
Another West Coast favorite, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, makes its dough fresh daily. With more than 250 locations in the Western U.S., their thick-crust pizzas like The Everest and Pikes Peak are loaded with toppings and built for serious pizza lovers.
There’s a theory that the specific mineral composition of New York City’s tap water is the secret behind its great-tasting pizza. That’s why Brooklyn-born Grimaldi’s Pizzeria not only makes its dough fresh but also replicates the city’s water profile at its 40+ locations across the U.S. to keep the dough consistent.
Jet’s Pizza has a loyal fan base, because making quality deep-dish pizza at a chain level isn’t easy — but they’ve nailed it. Founded in Michigan in 1978, they craft their dough fresh daily using a unique flour blend. The dough is hand-pressed into deep rectangular pans, allowing it to rise before baking. Detroit-style deep-dish crust is thick, crispy on the edges, and irresistibly soft in the middle.
If you love flavored crust, you have Hungry Howie's to thank. They introduced it back in 1985, changing how people enjoy pizza. Hungry Howie's dough is made fresh daily at more than 550 locations across the U.S. With eight crust flavors like garlic herb, Asiago cheese, and Cajun, they’ve made the crust the star of the pizza — no dipping sauce needed.
Famous for its deep-dish pizzas since its founding in Chicago, Uno’smakes dough fresh daily for that thick, buttery crust. It’s the sturdy foundation every deep-dish pie deserves.
Texas-born Pizza Patrón puts a Latin twist on classic pizza, swapping pepperoni for chorizo and adding jalapeños for extra heat. They also make their dough fresh in-house every day.
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