Viral Dominos Pan Pizza

The viral cheeseburger-adjacent pan pizza: garlic cream sauce, three cheeses, bacon, ribeye, and sautéed onion in a cast iron.

Time: 18 min | Yield: 1 12 inch pizzas | Difficulty: Intermediate | Serves: 4 | Published: 2026-07-24

This one went around the internet for a reason. It's the Domino's-style pan pizza formula, thick buttery crust, cream sauce, an absurd amount of toppings, done properly at home in cast iron.

The garlic cream sauce is a five-minute bechamel with Parmigiano, and it's what separates this from every other pan pizza. Over that: mozzarella and cheddar (saving a quarter for the top), crispy bacon, sautéed onion, and pan-seared ribeye. The steak gets a quick sear only, it finishes in the oven, overcook it now and it's shoe leather later.

Use a par-baked dough in the pan (my cast iron method covers it), stack it up, and bake until the edges frico. This is a knife-and-fork pizza and it makes no apologies.

Ingredients

CREAM SAUCE

PIZZA

Directions

  1. I used my Cast Iron dough for this recipe. Par bake the dough then you're ready for step 2.
  2. Melt butter in sauce pan on low/medium heat and sauté garlic for about a minute. 1 tbsp butter, 1 clove chopped garlic
  3. Whisk in flour, then slowly add milk while continuing to whisk and simmer for 2 minutes. 1 tbsp flour, 2/3 cup whole milk
    You'll know it's right: Whisk constantly as the milk goes in, the sauce should thicken to coat a spoon in about 2 minutes. Lumps mean the milk went in too fast.
  4. Stir in the Parmigiano Reggiano, pinch of salt and pepper. 2 tbsp grated Parmigiano , salt, pepper
  5. Pre heat oven to 500 degrees.
  6. Lightly oil your cast iron pan and place your par-baked dough in the pan.
  7. Add a healthy amount of the cream sauce on the dough.
  8. Spread the cheeses evenly. save about 1/4 of each to top at the end. 2 cups low moisture shredded whole milk mozzarella, 1 cup shredded American or Cheddar cheese
  9. Fry/bake your bacon strips. Chop and spread on the pizza evenly. 6 bacon strips
  10. Finely chop your onion. sauté in a lightly oiled pan for 5 minutes. Then spread on the pizza evenly. ½ chopped onion
  11. Thinly slice and chop your ribeye. Pan sear for 5-6 minutes. Don't over cook because it will cook more in the oven. 8 oz ribeye steak
    You'll know it's right: Sear the ribeye 5-6 minutes max, it should be browned outside and underdone inside. The oven finishes it; overcooking now means chewy later.
  12. Spread the remaining cheese on top. 2 cups low moisture shredded whole milk mozzarella, 1 cup shredded American or Cheddar cheese
    You'll know it's right: The reserved quarter of cheese goes on top of everything, it's the glue that locks the toppings in place during the bake.
  13. Put into the oven and bake for roughly 10 minutes.
    You'll know it's right: Pull when the edge cheese has gone deep golden against the pan wall and the center is bubbling. Cast iron keeps cooking after the pull, so err a touch early.
  14. Finish with Parmigiana and Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

Cream sauce was lumpy

Milk added too fast without whisking. Slow stream, constant whisk. If it lumps anyway, whisk hard off the heat, it usually comes back.

Steak was tough

Fully cooked in the sear. 5-6 minutes in the pan, browned but underdone. It rides 10 more minutes in a 500°F oven, plan for that.

Center of the pizza was undercooked

Too many wet toppings, oven too cool. Sauté the onion first (it dumps water raw), keep the oven a true 500°F, and give it the full bake. This is a heavy pie, it needs the time.

Bottom didn't crisp

Pan wasn't oiled or dough wasn't par-baked. Lightly oil the cast iron and use par-baked dough. Raw dough under this topping load steams instead of fries.

Cheese toppings slid off in slices

Skipped the reserved cheese on top. That final quarter of cheese is structural, it melts over the toppings and locks everything together.

Nutrition (1 slice (1/6 of the pan)): 520 calories, 27g protein, 34g carbs, 30g fat.