As a pizza lover, we all wish to have the most delicious tasting pizza. For the authentic and crisp pizza taste, a wood-fired pizza oven is the ultimate choice. And, what is better than getting this authentic taste wherever you go. This is possible because of its portability feature. These portable wood fired pizza ovens are your ultimate travel and party partner.
You wish to have a small party in your backyard and deciding on the menu? Then this is your go-to product. With this portable wood fired pizza oven, you can cook pizzas in minutes and serve this tasty delight to all your guests.
Designing kitchens outdoors is the new trend that has picked up recently and is going to stay for long. This too increases your requirement for a portable wood burning pizza oven. With a portable wood-fired pizza oven, you can enjoy numerous pizza flavors that you can’t with a normal gas oven. The making, as well as the taste of these portable pizza ovens, gives you a unique and cheerful experience.
The Best Wood Burning Pizza Oven Reviews
| Rank | PRODUCT NAME | SCORE | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
1st Place |
|
ilFornino Professional Fired Pizza Oven By ilFornino |
4.9
|
Check Price |
|
2
Best Value |
|
Roccbox Pizza Oven By Roccbox |
4.8
|
Check Price |
| 3 |
|
Thor Stainless Steel Artisan Wood Fired Pizza Oven By Thor |
4.7
|
Check Price |
| 4 |
|
GMG Green Mountain Wood Fired Pizza By GMG |
4.6
|
Check Price |
| 5 |
|
Ooni 3 Pizza Oven By Ooni |
4.6
|
Check Price |
There are different types of portable wood fired pizza oven. They can be brick oven, stainless steel oven, barrel vault oven and many more. Let’s have a look at the top 5 best portable wood-fired pizza ovens that we think will suit your needs the most.
1. ilFornino Professional Fired Pizza Oven
You all must be aware of the traditional Neapolitan Pizzas; they are Naples-style pizza made from tomatoes and mozzarella cheese(Read difference between Provolone and Mozzarella Cheese). You can prepare this traditional pizza in Il Fornino Pizza oven. It is specifically known as a traditional Neapolitan oven. If you want to know more about Neapolitan pizzas and how are they different from other pizzas, you can review our article in detail.
If you are someone who wishes to prepare a pizza like that of an Italian restaurant, then this portable pizza oven is the answer for you. With this portable wood fired pizza oven, you can get a perfectly crispy pizza with chewable toppings and gooey cheese which is the signature taste of this oven.
The oven is made up of high-grade stainless steel because of which it can withstand a high temperature inside. It heats up quickly due to its built and high heat retention capacity. This feature allows you to make the pizza effortlessly and rapidly.
The ilFornino Professional Pizza oven has a two-layer insulation system that maintains the ovens high heat retention capacity as compared to the other countertop pizza ovens. To use this portable wood-fired oven, you need to first burn some wood inside. This process hardly takes any time, so preparing your dish is quick and easy.
PROS —
- Easy Installation and Usage
- Spacious oven, can cook large pizzas or 2 pizzas at the time
- Can cook other dishes like bread, desserts and many more
CONS —
- Though it is a Portable Pizza Oven, you can very rarely move it from one place to another as it is quite heavy
Also Read: Best Parmesan Cheese
2. ROCCBOX Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven
The dual-fueled pizza oven known as the Roccbox Portable Outdoor Pizza Oven is a model that can be operated with wood as well as gas. It reaches a high temperature in minutes and cooks a pizza within 2 to 3 minutes. As the portable oven can handle high temperatures, you can also use it for cooking the Neapolitan pizza, which requires high temperatures.
Some people might like a wood fired pizza while some may wish to have a gas burned pizza; this portable wood oven caters to both the needs of the individual. Although this pizza oven cooks excellent propane burned pizzas, it cooks delicious wood burned pizza as well.
The portable pizza oven cooks pizzas up to 12†pizzas. This oven reaches the temperature of 806 to 896-degrees Fahrenheit while the normal home oven reaches only up to 550-degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the Roocbox pizza oven will be displayed on a gauge that you can find on the side of the pizza oven.
If you are confused about whether to go for Roccbox or Ooni Wood-fired pizza oven, you can check our guide on the difference between Roccbox and Ooni Pro Ovens.
PROS —
- Easy Installation and Usage
- Dual-fueled oven – Can work on wood as well as gas
- Comes with Anti-stick peel to remove pizza from oven
CONS —
- Quite heavy and so less portable
- Cannot cook other dishes
3. Thor Stainless Steel Artisan Wood Fired Pizza Oven
The Thor Stainless Steel Artisan Wood Fired Pizza Oven is an outdoor portable pizza oven primarily made of stainless steel. The 430-grade stainless steel makes it strong and sturdy for long-lasting use. The Thor Portable pizza oven is certified in accordance to top quality standards. The oven weighs 220 pounds which shouldn’t be a concern given that it comes with free-moving castor wheels.
The chimney of the portable wood-fired oven is tall enough and comes equipped with a dampener to regulate the flow. Another impressive feature in its design is the inclusion of a steel door. While pizza ovens in the market usually come without this, it helps in heat retention and significantly affects the preheating time.
As impressive as it is, the Thor Stainless Steel Artisan Wood Fired Pizza Oven is easy to use. It comes with all the stuff you need to get started with cooking delicious pizzas including Pizza Stone Surface, Wire brush, Large pizza peel, pizza turner spatula and pizza cutter. However, if you’re more of a pizza scissor person, you might want to buy one separately.
The 430-grade stainless steel pizza oven can heat to 800 degrees Fahrenheit in around 15 minutes. If you are looking to cook regular sized 10″ pizzas, this portable stainless steel oven enables you to cook three pizzas simultaneously in the oven. If you are cooking large-sized pizzas for the family, you will still be able to fill in two of that inside.
PROS —
- Very portable
- Excellent insulation
- Sturdy stainless steel body
- Bakes up to 3 pizzas at a time
- Remarkably quick preheating time.
- Comes with a starter tool kit.
CONS —
- Little expensive, but provides value for it
4. GMG Green Mountain Wood Fired Pizza
Like the Pizzacraft’s PC7001 oven and the Bakerstone pizza oven box, the Green Mountain Grill Pizza oven is also an attachment to your barbeque grill. When you want to transform your barbeque grill into a pizza oven, you can do it by using the GMG wood fired pizza oven.
The Pizzacraft PC7001 can be attached to any barbeque grill while the GMG wood-fired pizza oven can be attached only to the Daniel Boone GMG grill or Jim Bowie grills and comes with an inbuilt pizza stone. There are many pizza stones available, you can check our detailed guide for the best pizza stones in the market. The oven has high heat retention capacity by which, the oven gets heated within minutes and the pizza is cooked within 5 minutes. However, you need to be mindful of the high temperature. You must invariably use a pizza peel to handle pizza coming straight out of a hot wood-fired oven.
The pizza prepared from this portable wood-fired pizza oven tastes authentic, and perfectly wood flavored. You can host a small party at your backyard with this portable wood oven.
PROS —
- Weight – 28 Pounds which is 12 Kgs – Easy to carry around
- Easy Installation and Usage
- Cleaning this oven is easy
CONS —
- Limited to some BBQ grill models only
- Can cook a single pizza at a time
5. Ooni 3 Pizza Oven
A gas burner attached pizza oven, Ooni 3 Pizza Oven, previously known as Uuni 3 Pizza Oven, is a portable outdoor wood fired pizza oven that reaches the temperature of 932-degrees Fahrenheit within 10 minutes and cooks a pizza in 60 seconds.
This entire portable pizza oven is made of stainless steel, be it the oven or the gas burner, which makes it heat as well as weather resistant. The oven’s body is insulated with a ceramic fiber that improves the heat retention inside the oven.
You can easily prepare a Neapolitan pizza in this portable wood fired pizza oven like that in the Il Fornino oven. This pizza oven uses wood pallets as the source of its fuel like the company’s previous versions of the oven.
If you are interested and looking for Ooni 3 Pizza oven and want to know in-depth information about this oven, you can review our article on Uuni 3 Pizza Oven.
PROS —
- Weight of the oven is approximately 13 Kgs which makes it easy to move around
- Easy Installation and Usage
- Dual-fueled – wood pallets as well as gas
CONS —
- Discoloration of steel after the first use
- Takes a little time initially to learn
Things to Consider before Buying a Wood Fired Pizza Oven
Before you make a purchase, you must know why you need a portable wood fired pizza oven and which amongst the best ones you should choose as per your requirements. These are the things you must consider before buying a portable wood-fired oven.
1. How does the Wood Fired Pizza Oven Operates
When we look for portable wood-fired ovens, there are two kinds in its operations that we must select from.
I. Single Chamber or Direct Combustion
Most of the portable wood ovens have single chamber for both cooking and burning. This means, both the operations of the oven, cooking as well as burning happens in a single chamber. Most of the portable wood-fired ovens fit in this category as this operating system allows the pizza to have the wood like authentic taste in it.
II. Dual Chamber or Indirect Combustion
In this type of portable pizza oven, there are two chambers. The lower chamber has the Fire burning and the upper chamber does the cooking with the help of the heat generated by the lower chamber. There are a very few portable wood fired pizza ovens models that has such operating systems. These are generally found in Northern Italy and the UK.
2. Cooking Area
The cooking area you will dedicate to a wood-fired oven is also important while choosing a pizza oven. As these wood-fired ovens reach high temperatures while cooking, they are recommended to be kept in an outdoor kitchen or an open area.
Then comes the amount of area you can give for this oven. Some of the best portable pizza ovens take up a lot of space. So, first inspect the space you would like to provide to this oven and then purchase one that fits best in the area.
A normal cooking surface should be around 55cms or 3.3 sq ft. as minimum for a regular size cooking in a single chamber portable wood fired oven.
3. Weight of the Portable Wood Fired Pizza Maker
For a product to be portable, it must be manageable in terms of weight. If the product is heavy, then its portable feature is of the least use. If you are looking for least mobility of your wood-fired pizza oven, then you can go for a heavy portable wood-fired pizza oven. But, if you are looking for high mobility of your oven then you must go for a light-weight portable pizza oven.
4. Materials Used to Make the Pizza Oven
Your wood-fired oven is going to be used to reach a temperature more than 800-degrees Fahrenheit. For this much heat, it needs to have the materials in it that do not get affected by heat and can retain high heat. So, the materials must be of high quality and must be heat resistant.
Stainless steel, especially the 304 grade one in the inner surface of the oven’s dome or power-coated aluminum sheet on the outsides of the oven are the best materials your portable wood fired pizza oven can have. Along with the high quality, the oven must have sheet thickness to continue heat retention capability for a longer period of time.
Also, you must look for the quality of insulation. Ceramic fiber insulation is very crucial in the best portable pizza oven. Along with the oven’s quality, your cooking area (where the oven is kept) must also have the best quality materials as it will also reach a higher temperature while you cook in the oven. Mostly refractory tiles are recommended over the normal ones.
5. Price of the Pizza Oven
One of the most important factors to look for while purchasing portable wood fired pizza ovens is your personal budget to buy one. How much are you willing to pay for the features that you are looking for? The prices of the above-mentioned wood-fired ovens range from $299 to $700. As per your budget and the features you are looking for, select a wood-fired oven and enjoy your homemade best quality pizzas.
Conclusion
While researching, we considered several aspects that you might be looking for in a wood-fired pizza oven and so have come up with these 5 ovens. From the above buying guide, it will be easier to choose the best possible portable wood-fired pizza oven for you and your family. It is a delightful long term investment that gives you a lot of pleasure in having and serving tasty pizzas. As it would be evident, portable wood-fired pizza ovens are compact and take up less space. If you can spare more of your backyard space and have more members in your family that share the love of pizza; you could even consider a commercial-grade wood-fired pizza oven. Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
What can you Cook in a Wood Fired Oven?
But, did you know, you can not only cook pizza oven recipes in this oven but also several recipes with your wood-fired oven. Wondering what to cook in a pizza oven? Here are the dishes you can prepare other than pizzas in your wood-fired pizza oven.
1. Uniquely Flavored Vegetables – Mix your veggies in a drip pan, coat the veggies with olive oil, sprinkle some sea salt and let it cook on the oven for a few seconds depending upon the type of oven and serve it hot.
2. Fresh Bread – Whip your Dough, let it rise for some hours and then place it in the oven
3. Focaccia (Italian-Style) – Combine the mixture of the dough, yeast, olive oil, rosemary, garlic and herbs and place it in the oven and have it fresh. There are many pizza doughs available in the market, you can review our page for the best store-bought pizza dough.
4. Potato Chips – Who doesn’t like to have potato chips! Slice the potatoes, add salt and cracked pepper and roast it on the pizza oven with a little oil coated on them.
5. Basque Burnt Cheesecake – Use the ingredients required in a cheesecake and heat it on the oven. With a wood-fired pizza oven, you get a cheesecake with roasted exteriors and soft interiors. It is one delicious dish everyone should try.
These are the tasty recipes you can prepare along with pizzas and the different self-tried recipes you can make on a pizza oven.
How to Use a Wood Fired Pizza Oven?
While the food is being cooked, these 3 kinds of processes happen for the oven to heat up
1. The heat is conductively transferred from the cooking base of the firebricks
2. Then, from the refractory dome, the radiant heat is released
3. And finally, convection heat is created from the interaction between the fire and the fresh air coming inside.
All these processes combines and heats up the oven to make it ready to prepare pizzas quickly.
How to Cook Pizza in a Wood Fired Oven?
The working of a wood fired oven differs from product to product. Here, we are going to share a common working system which will have minute changes as per the oven you are using. You can find the difference in the manual that you get with the pizza oven. Let’s look at the working:
1. Pre-heat your oven for sometime before you use it. Pre-heat timings depend on your type of oven. Most of the wood-fired ovens require to be pre-heated for 2-3 hours. If your pizza oven is small, then it might not require that much pre-heat time.
(This differs as per the size of the oven, heat storage, retention and transfer capacity of the oven. Use a simple hardwood for the fire)
2. When the cooking time comes closer (as the oven reaches the required temperature), get your pizza ready and then place it in the oven (near the flames – far enough to not get burnt)
3. When the pizza is almost cooked, pick it up with the peel and place it over the dome of the oven for a few seconds and your pizza is ready.
It might be quite challenging to prepare the correct tasting pizza initially, but, with a little practice you will be able to prepare the best tasting pizzas at home.
What kind of Wood is used in Wood Fired Pizza Oven?
You can use seasoned, dry hardwoods like oak, ash, maple, birch or beech. These are simple hardwoods that don’t affect your health adversely in any form. Out of all the above, the oak woods are the most preferred one since they are more safe ones and are easy to source.
How To Clean A Wood Fired Pizza Oven?
Safety Instruction: Clean the oven only after it has completely cooled down.
Instruments you need to clean the oven are: A shovel, a large brass wire brush, some water, a half-moon shaped copper wire brush, some vinegar and one cloth.
Technique:
Step 1: Pizza oven cleaning starts with cleaning the flue area. Just scrub the flue with brass wire brush till it gets entirely cleaned. Follow the same procedure for the oven floor.
Step 2: Now, you clean the ashes. Please note, you can also clean the ashes just before you use the oven for the next time. To clean out the ashes, use the shovel and remove the ashes without damaging the oven floor. To have it more properly cleaned, later use the copper wire to scrub out the ashes.
Step 3: If you find any food deposits or grease left on the oven, then clean them with water and vinegar. Do not ever use a detergent in place of water and vinegar.
Step 4: If you find the oven moist, clean it with a soft clean cloth and your wood-fired oven is cleaned and ready for the next use!
What are the Advantages of a Wood Fired Pizza Oven?
1. Cooks the Food Quickly – Once you place the pizza, it gets cooked in minutes
2. Adds Great Flavor – As compared to a normal home oven, the taste and flavour of a wood-fired pizza oven is unique, crispy and authentic
3. Healthier Alternative – As compared to the other ovens, wood-fired ovens maintains the vitamins and nutrients of the vegetables that are being used as toppings on your pizza
4. Environmental-Friendly – A wood-fired oven doesn’t make use of any electricity and gas which makes it eco-friendly as compared to other ovens
Do you need a Brick Oven for Neapolitan Pizza?
A wood-fired oven can be made with bricks which are called a wood-fired brick oven. You can prepare a Neapolitan pizza in this oven. But, you can also prepare this pizza in a stainless-steel wood-fired oven or any wood-fired oven and you can get the same taste as that of a brick oven.