10 Things to Cook in an Ooni Pizza Oven (Besides Pizza)

I absolutely love my Ooni pizza oven. My gas-powered Ooni Koda 16 has cranked out many delicious Neapolitan and New York-style pizzas over the last two years. But, lately, I’ve been exploring what other types of foods I can cook in my Ooni. So, if you’ve ever wondered what else you can make in your Ooni pizza oven besides pizza, I’m here to help!

Here are 10 things you can cook in an Ooni Pizza Oven besides pizza:

1. Salmon Filet
2. Steak
3. Marinated Chicken Thighs
4. Marinated Shrimp
5. Salsa Verde
6. Focaccia
7. Dinner Rolls
8. Cinnamon Rolls
9. Cast Iron Skillet Cookie
10. Peach Cobbler

Before we dive into how to cook these dishes in your Ooni, let’s talk tools. Depending on which dish you’re making, you’ll need either a cast iron pan or a metal cake pan. Tongs and a few other tools will also be useful. Here are the tools you’ll need for each specific dish:

Tools Needed for Each Dish

Nowadays, I use the Ooni Koda 16″ gas-powered pizza oven. Here’s a link to the same pizza oven on Ooni’s US site, and here’s one for the Ooni UK site. That’s the particular model of oven that I use, but these recipes will work with any Ooni pizza oven model.

Let’s look at these dishes one-by-one and explore some recipes and techniques that you can use while cooking. The first five dishes on this list can be cooked with a live fire – so build up a flame in your Ooni and keep it rolling!

1. Salmon Filet

Because salmon does well with high-heat cooking, you can easily cook a salmon filet on a cast iron skillet in your Ooni pizza oven.

Get the flame rolling on your Ooni, and wait until the stone reads at least 500°F/260°C on an infrared thermometer. Then, place a small, oiled, cast iron skillet onto the pizza stone. You can use any cast iron skillet that fits your Ooni or the Ooni Cast Iron Grizzler Pan.

Once the pan is heated up and the oil is sizzling, remove the pan and drop in one salmon filet (any size) with the skin side down. To the top of the salmon, add a few pinches of salt to cover the filet, the juice from half a lemon, 3-5 pats of butter, and 3-5 lemon slices. Slide the skillet back onto the hot pizza stone and let the salmon cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 145°F.

You can keep the flame gently rolling during the cooking process for this dish. The heat is more important than the flame, so don’t stress about it. Once you’re salmon is ready to go, remove from the oven, let it rest, and enjoy!

2. Steak

Steaks are a great meat to cook in an Ooni pizza oven because of how well they cook at high temperatures. You can even use the Ooni Cast Iron Grizzler Pan to cook one large steak, or two small steaks at once.

For thick-cut steaks, bring them up to room temperature and prepare them with a generous amount of salt and pepper on each side. Then bring your Ooni pizza oven up to a very high heat with a rolling flame – shoot for a stone temperature of about 900°F/482°C.

Launch your cast iron skillet, greased with a little bit of vegetable oil, onto the stone and let it preheat for 5-10 minutes. When the pan is preheated and the oil is sizzling, remove the pan carefully and place one or two steaks into the pan (however many you can fit). Slide the steaks back into the oven.

Cook the steaks for about 90 seconds to two minutes on each side. Remove the steaks when they reach your desired doneness level and set them on a cutting board. Let the steaks rest for a few minutes before serving.

My Favorite Pizza-Making Tools
Wooden Pizza Peel
Baking Steel
Non-Stick Focaccia Pan for Detroit-Style Pizza
Backyard Pizza Oven: Ooni Koda 16″

3. Marinated Chicken Thighs

Chicken thighs are amazing to cook in an Ooni oven because they are delicious when cooked with high heat and, unlike chicken breasts, they are very forgiving and hard to overcook. Marinated chicken thighs have turned out succulent and juicy every time I’ve made them in my Ooni Fyra.

Marinate five to six bone-in or boneless chicken thighs in your marinade of choice (I personally like a chicken tikka marinade). Once your chicken has marinated, place the thighs into a cold, greased, cast iron skillet and fire up your Ooni as hot as it will go. I shoot for a stone temperature of about 900°F/482°C.

With the flame rolling, launch your cast iron skillet onto the pizza stone. Keep the flame going on the Ooni and cook for about 2-3 minutes on the first side. Then, flip the chicken thighs with a pair of tongs and cook for another two minutes on the other side. Remove the chicken and look for an internal temperature of about 170°F/77°C. Cook longer if necessary, and enjoy!

Like these ideas? Check out my not-so-traditional pizza topping combinations for your Ooni pizza oven.
6 Ooni Pizza Topping Combinations [Inspired by Pasta Dishes]

4. Marinated Shrimp

Shrimp cook up very well in a cast iron skillet in an Ooni pizza oven. Simply marinate a pound of raw shrimp with the seasonings of your choice, cook them for a few minutes per side on medium-high heat, and you’ll have perfectly cooked, flame-broiled shrimp.

I like to marinate one pound, or about 500 grams, of raw shrimp in this Honey Cajun Grilled Shrimp marinade from Rasa Malaysia. While your shrimp are marinating, preheat your Ooni as hot as it will go – about 900°F/482°C. After the oven is at temperature and the shrimp are ready, move your cast iron pan onto the pizza stone for five minutes to preheat. Take the pan out of the oven and add in the marinated shrimp.

Cook the shrimp on high heat with a rolling flame for about two minutes. After two minutes, rotate the shrimp with a pair of tongs and cook them again for another minute or two on the other side. When the shrimp are cooked to your liking, remove from the oven and serve them while they’re still sizzling.

5. Salsa Verde

With bright green tomatillos and a few other vegetables, you can prepare delicious, Mexican-style salsa verde in your Ooni pizza oven.

Preheat your Ooni oven as hot as it will go – shoot for a stone temperature of 900°F/482°C and maintain a strong flame. Then, place a dry cast iron pan or Grizzler pan onto the stone to preheat for five minutes.

Remove the cast iron pan from the heat and add three husked tomatillos, one whole jalapeno, half of a red onion, and two cloves of garlic. Return the pan to the pizza stone and keep the flame high. Roast the vegetables for 3-5 minutes at high heat, turning the vegetables with a pair of tongs half way through the cooking time. When the tomatillos are softer and lightly charred on the outside, you can remove the pan from the oven.

Let the veggies cool for a few minutes, then add the juice of one lime, a tablespoon of chopped cilantro leaves, a pinch of salt, and all of the vegetables into a blender or food processor. Blend the vegetables until they form a smooth green sauce. Serve hot or chilled on top of tacos or wood-fired meats.

The next five dishes on this list should be cooked in a “falling-oven.” You’ll let the heat build up in the oven, then you’ll allow the fire to die down before you start cooking. (It’s called a falling-oven because the temperature is slowly “falling.”)

In this method, the food will be cooked by the residual and retained heat of the oven. Breads, desserts, and dishes requiring a lower temperature are perfect for this method of cooking.

6. Focaccia

As a general rule, you can prepare almost any focaccia recipe in your Ooni pizza oven. Focaccia is versatile in that it can be cooked either with a live fire, or in a “falling-oven” without any flame. So, it’s perfect for cooking in an Ooni, which can do both.

Since I use a wood-pellet powered Ooni Fyra, I prefer to bake focaccia with no flame so that I don’t have to tend to the fire while it’s cooking. Whatever model of Ooni pizza oven you have, focaccia can work for you.

Once your focaccia dough has gone through bulk fermentation (or the first rise) grease a 9″ cake pan generously with extra virgin olive oil. Transfer around 700 grams of dough into the pan and gently stretch the dough out as far as it can go to the edge of the pan without pulling back. Cover the dough and let it proof for a couple of hours until it has doubled in size and jiggles when you shake the pan.

After proofing, preheat your Ooni oven as hot as it will go – about 900°F/482°C. Now, cover the dough with more olive oil, then dimple the dough down with your fingers. Sprinkle with salt and dried or fresh rosemary (optional). Once the flame dies down, move the focaccia pan directly onto the hot pizza stone. Bake the focaccia for around 30-35 minutes in the oven as the temperature slowly decreases, turning the pan one time in the middle of baking. If you suspect the temperature is getting too low in the oven, feel free to turn on the flame to heat it up a little bit. Remove the golden brown focaccia after 30-35 minutes and enjoy!

7. Dinner Rolls

Dinner rolls are a great item to cook in an Ooni pizza oven since they make good use of the residual oven heat that’s left after you’re done baking pizza.

Prepare your dinner roll dough according to the recipe directions. (Try my sourdough dinner roll recipe here.) After the first rise, shape the dough into balls and place them into a buttered 9″ cake pan to proof. When the dinner rolls are almost ready to bake, preheat your pizza oven to about 900°F/482°C, then turn the flame off or let it die down. Once the flame is gone, launch the cake pan onto the baking stone. Bake the dinner rolls for 30-35 minutes, turning once during the middle of baking.

The temperature in the oven should be slowly falling throughout baking process, but it should remain high enough to bake the dinner rolls completely in 35 minutes. However, you can always turn the flame back on or light a fire to boost the heat. Enjoy your stone-baked dinner rolls!

8. Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are a great sweet treat to cook in your Ooni pizza oven. After you bake your pizzas and the heat is starting to decrease in the oven, you can place a pan of cinnamon rolls into the oven to bake. They will bake to perfection with minimal supervision.

Any cinnamon roll recipe will work in your Ooni, but here’s the one I like to use from the Vanilla Bean Blog.

Simply prepare your cinnamon rolls according to the directions. Once you roll them and cut them, place them into a greased, metal cake pan. Cover them up and let them proof again according to the directions from your recipe. Once they’re proofed, they’re ready to bake.

Fire up your Ooni until the pizza stone is at about 900°F/482°C , then turn off the flame or let it die down. (You can also cook a few pizzas and then let the heat start falling down to the desired temperature.) Launch your cake pan onto the pizza stone. Let the cinnamon rolls bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan half way through.

Ideally, the temperature in the oven is slowly falling from 900°F down to around 350°F during the cooking process. If you feel like the oven is getting too cold, you can turn the flame on low for a minute to heat it back up.

Once they’re done, remove the cinnamon rolls from the oven, top with icing, and enjoy.

9. Cast Iron Skillet Cookie

You can use homemade or store-bought cookie dough to cook an amazing cast iron skillet cookie in your Ooni pizza oven. A skillet cookie requires lower heat and no flame, so it’s perfect for using up the residual heat from your oven after you’ve finished making pizza.

Lightly grease a cast iron skillet with butter. Then, press down prepared cookie dough in a 1/2 inch layer evenly throughout the skillet. When your Ooni pizza oven has a stone temperature of around 750°F/400°C, launch your cookie skillet onto the stone. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the cookie are brown and slightly puffy.

Let the cookie rest for an hour before digging in – or just dive in whenever you can’t resist any more.

10. Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler couldn’t be easier to cook in an Ooni pizza oven, especially if you use a quick, cake mix style cobbler where you can just throw all of the ingredients together.

I like this particular recipe from AllRecipes.com, but I usually cut the recipe in half for my 9″ cake pan.

Grease a metal cake pan with butter and dump in one can of peaches in syrup. Cover the peaches with yellow or white cake mix (about half of a 15.25 oz. box). Press down the cake mix firmly with a spoon. Then top the cake mix with four tablespoons of cold butter cut into cubes (1/2 of a US stick, or 57 grams). Let the cobbler rest until your oven is ready.

Preheat your Ooni pizza oven as hot as it will go. Then, remove the flame and let the temperature start to fall. Immediately slide your cobbler pan onto the pizza stone and close the oven door (if your Ooni has a door). Let the cobbler cook for about 30-40 minutes, turning about half way through the baking time. As usual, if you feel the temperature in your oven is dropping too far below 350F, just put the flame on for a little bit to raise the temperature.

When the cobbler is done, remove it from the oven, let it rest for five minutes, and enjoy.

Conclusion

There are a bunch of different foods that you can make in your Ooni pizza oven besides just pizza. Try a few of these out as soon as you can!

If you have an Ooni pizza oven and you enjoy cooking in it every chance you get, why not try out a few more dessert recipes in your Ooni! Stay tuned to GrantBakes.com for nine desserts you can make in your Ooni pizza oven.