Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Americans love pepperoni pizza. According to a 2023 YouGov poll, pepperoni was nearly twice as popular as the second-place pizza topping, with a quarter of all respondents ranking it as their favorite. There’s something about the way those little spicy red discs interact with creamy melted cheese, tangy tomato sauce, and crispy crust that makes a pizza seem complete. Just take a look at the pizza emoji, and what do you see? That’s right — the universal visual symbol for pizza in this digital age is a classic golden piece of pie laden with crimson slices of pepperoni.
Perhaps the reason Americans love pepperoni pizza so much is because it was actually invented in the United States. While on the surface it may seem like an old world Italian dish that made its way across the ocean, it was actually first created in New York by Italian-American immigrants. In fact, if you order pepperoni in Italy (spelled with only one p, but pronounced the same), you’ll get bell peppers, not spicy cured sausage. When you’re in the mood for America’s favorite pizza, you have plenty of options, from delivery chains to gourmet pizzerias to even making your own from scratch. The cheapest and most convenient way to get your pepperoni fix, however, is simply popping a frozen pie into the oven. Not all frozen pizza is the same, however, so here’s a ranking of nine popular brands to help you choose the best pepperoni pizza based on taste and value.
9. Market Pantry Pepperoni Thin Crust Pizza
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Target’s Market Pantry brand offers the least expensive pizza on this list, so if you’re on a strict budget, this may be the pizza for you. If you’re not, though, there’s no reason to opt for this pie over any of the others here. The only thing to highlight about this pizza, besides its wallet-friendly price, is the pepperoni itself, which is abundant and flavorful with a nice spicy kick. Every other element is easily outdone by the other pizzas this one was up against.
I pulled this pizza out of the oven nearly a full minute earlier than the shortest recommended cooking time because I smelled burning, and sure enough, the entire outer edge was overcooked — not quite charred beyond repair, but definitely unpleasant to eat. The crust is ultra thin, almost cracker-like with its crispiness, and since it was nearly burnt it was quite dry and created sharp edges in my mouth as I chewed it (if you’ve ever eaten too much crunchy cereal, you’ll know the feeling — that sensation of something grating the roof of your mouth). The cheese coverage was uneven, with most of it melted into a puddle in the center, while the edges were mostly sauce. The sauce itself wasn’t bad, but with all of the other problems this pizza presented, good pepperoni and decent sauce were not enough to save it from the lowest depths of this ranking.
8. Chicago’s Home Run Inn Uncured Pepperoni Classic Pizza
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Not every hit gets knocked out of the park, and not every pepperoni pizza is going to be a home run — even if that’s its name. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of positives with this pie, but in baseball terms I’d call it more of a ground-rule double. The cheese coverage is exceptional, with a thick even blanket of blistered mozzarella coating the entire surface — this pizza is par-baked before packaging, so the cheese is already half-melted. There’s a decent amount of evenly spaced pepperoni, which cupped up nicely in the oven, although some of the meat slices’ edges got a bit charred.
It’s the other two main elements that I bumped up against. Home Run Inn’s tomato sauce is pretty darn sweet, which may be your thing but as a matter of personal preference, it’s definitely not mine. The crust, which is described as flaky, crisp, and buttery, didn’t particularly strike me as any of those three things. I found it to be dense and crumbly, and thicker than I was expecting considering it’s touted as a tavern-style pizza, which is meant to be very thin. I have no beef with thick crust pizzas, but the compressed texture of this one made it seem way too heavy on my palate. Still, Home Run Inn gets points for its simple, natural ingredients list, and if cheese is the element of pizza you care most about, it’s worth checking out.
7. Italpizza 10×15 Uncured Pepperoni
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
I’ve eaten far more than my fair share of Italian pizza. From grabbing a square of pizza alla taglia while sightseeing in Rome, to stuffing my face with pizza fritta in Naples, to making the trek to what’s touted as the best pizzeria in the world at Pepe in Grani in the hills of Caiazzo, I’m fairly well-versed in the carb-laden delights that the boot has to offer. Perhaps my expectations were set a bit too high, then, for this pepperoni pie from Italpizza, “made in Italy with Amore,” as it says on the box.
What is clearly made with love is the crust. Beautifully browned on the bottom, crisp yet pliable, it has a flavor reminiscent of sourdough bread. Plenty of air pockets give it a pleasant lightness and soft chew, making it taste a lot more delicate than it looks. The pepperoni on this pizza is also quite delicious, with a bold paprika-driven flavor and deep savory taste. The problem is there’s not enough of it. This is a big rectangle of dough, yet the pepperoni — and the cheese and sauce, for that matter — are not plentiful enough. I sliced it into six evenly-sized pieces, and two of them ended up with only one piece of pepperoni, and one had almost no cheese. If the toppings were more abundant and evenly spaced out, this would be a winner, but as is, it’s a bit of a disappointment.
6. Jack’s Original Thin Pepperoni
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Considering its price, I wasn’t expecting too much from Jack’s pizza. It’s the second-cheapest pizza on this list, only a handful of change more than the cheapest. It certainly looked beautiful coming out of the oven, with brick red discs of pepperoni covering nearly the entire surface, and a thick blanket of melted mozzarella cheese reaching all the way to the crust’s edge. Even still, my expectations stayed low. It wasn’t until I ran my pizza slicer through the pie that I began to wonder if I was about to be surprised.
One look at a cross-section of the cracker-thin crust showed airy layers, almost like puff pastry or filo dough. Crispy on the bottom, soft and chewy through the middle, the crust is the star of the show here, punching well above its weight class. The pepperoni, cheese, and sauce are decent, definitely not the most flavorful, but good enough. This is a solid pizza for the price, and definitely a major upgrade from the one cheaper pizza that ranked last on this list. If you’re looking for a thin crust pizza at a bargain price, Jack’s is a good one to look out for.
5. Wild Mike’s Ultimate Uncured Pepperoni Pizza
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Wild Mike’s takes the prize for most pepperoni per square inch. It’s impressively loaded up with overlapping slices of meat which cook up beautifully, emitting a glossy sheen of flavorful fat inside subtly cupped edges. The crust is thick and pillowy with a moist and chewy interior, giving the generous toppings just the right amount of bready structure. The sauce on Wild Mike’s pizza has a unique flavor profile, deeply roasted with intriguing umami character that made me keep going back for more.
This sauce carries most of the weight when it comes to this pizza’s flavor. There’s plenty of cheese, but it’s rather neutral, and while there’s a bounty of pepperoni here, it doesn’t have any spice to speak of and possesses an extremely mellow flavor. The lack of heat, spice, and intensity is likely due to this pizza being marketed toward kids, with the neon-colored box and funky artwork. I can definitely see kids with more sensitive palates loving this pizza, and for those who like more of a kick, inside the box are two packets of flavor enhancements: one of Italian herbs, and one of red pepper flakes. Once I sprinkled these on top, this pizza really clicked into place. It is toward the top of the price range, though, and for less money there’s a pie similar in style that tops this one.
4. Rao’s Brick Oven Crust Uncured Pepperoni Pizza
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Legendary New York restaurant Rao’s certainly knows its way around Italian-American classic dishes. The elite eatery’s pasta sauces have been available in stores for a while now, and in 2022 the company branched out into selling frozen pizzas. While Rao’s restaurant itself isn’t known for pizza — pastas and classic meaty entrees are more in their wheelhouse — the company’s gourmet reputation meant that I had high hopes for this pizza, and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint.
Unsurprisingly given their other ventures, the sauce was the highlight of this pie, brimming with aromatic herbs and deep tomato flavor. The crust was also enjoyable, not too thick or thin with a light and chewy texture. I appreciated the cheese coverage, melted right up to the edge of the crust where it cooked to a caramelized golden brown. The only real issue that kept me from shooting this pizza higher in the ranking is that the sauce had so much more intensity than the other elements that it took over every bite. Comparatively, the cheese and pepperoni seemed nearly flavorless. Tomato sauce lovers will want to check Rao’s pizza out, but keeping in mind that this is at the top of the frozen pizza price range, I had hoped for better balance.
3. California Pizza Kitchen Signature Uncured Pepperoni
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
Of all the frozen pizzas I prepared for this ranking, California Pizza Kitchen’s pie was the only one that filled my kitchen with mouthwatering aromas. Garlic and basil and other Mediterranean herbs, along with meaty and smoky scents, took over every molecule of air to the point where everyone in the house, including my cat, wandered in to find out what was cooking. Thankfully, this pizza delighted more senses than just smell. Its appearance, texture, and taste were also top-tier.
For a frozen pizza, this offering from CPK exhibits refinement and balance that give it an upscale, gourmet character. It has one of the thinnest crusts, but unlike some of the others made in this style, there’s not a touch of brittleness — it remains soft and supple from center to edge. The sauce is applied with a delicate hand, just enough to hold the other elements together and enhance the flavors of everything else. It made me realize how much I prefer a pizza with less sauce because it keeps the toppings from sliding around. Speaking of toppings, the mix of cheese here is ultra-flavorful. It’s not just mozzarella, but a combination along with fontina and smoked gouda. The star of the show is the pepperoni, as it should be. Intensely peppery, garlicky, and packed with warm spice, the meat is also distributed perfectly evenly so that every slice maintains the ideal ratio of toppings. This pizza isn’t cheap, but it’s worth it.
2. Urban Pie Uncured Pepperoni with Creamy Rosa Sauce
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
I had never heard of Urban Pie Pizza Company until now, and I’m kicking myself for not discovering it sooner. This pricey pepperoni pizza is a little too expensive for everyday eating, but it’s so gourmet and delicious that I think it deserves special occasion status, anyway. One of the more unique pizzas included in this list, Urban Pie spreads the crust here with what they call creamy rosa sauce: a mix of your classic tomato-based marinara pizza sauce and creamy Alfredo. I wasn’t sure if it would work as well as just a classic tomato, but my doubts were quashed with the first bite.
Urban Pie dominated the other pizzas in the cheese department, with evenly thick, perfectly melted pools of creamy mozzarella covering the entire crust right up to the edge of the golden brown, flaky, and buttery thin crust. But they didn’t stop there. Scattered atop the pie were diced cubes of provolone which melted into extra little bubbles of cheese, and there’s a dusting of parmesan and Romano to boot. Not to be overshadowed by dairy, the pepperoni is nice and spicy and there’s a good amount of it. As for the rosa sauce, it won me over with its tomato tang ever-so-subtly tamed by the Alfredo sauce’s soft creaminess. Because the pepperoni used here is on the hotter end of the spectrum, having the cooling richness of cream sauce adds a pleasing contrast.
1. Trader Joe’s Uncured Pepperoni Pizza
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
I’ve long been a fan of Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas. They crush the crust game, which is tough to do with frozen pies — in fact, Trader Joe’s pizza crust is the standard to which I hold every other brand to, and most of the time the others come up lacking. In my ultimate ranking of Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas, the grocer’s uncured pepperoni pizza ranked third, but the top three spots were tightly contested, making it one of the best. Upon this revisit, I actually felt guilty for putting it that low. This is a spectacular pepperoni pizza in every way.
The crust is an excellent facsimile of Neopolitan style, with thick pillowy edges and a strong and pliable bottom. A layer of flavorful sauce melds with the dough, giving every bite a roasted yet still fresh and zesty tomato kick. Plenty of slices of meaty pepperoni, enough that they’re layered on top of each other in places, sit on pools of mozzarella so milky and creamy it reminds me of burrata. Every element of this pizza is flavorful and well-integrated, and because you’re paying Trader Joe’s prices, it’s a fantastic value. Taken all together, these elements put Trader Joe’s pepperoni pizza at the top of this list.
How I selected and ranked these pizzas
Wendy Hector / Daily Meal
To select the pizzas chosen for this taste test, I shopped at a variety of grocery stores, both local and national to get a good picture of the varieties available. I kept the selection narrowed down to classic and thin crust varieties of pizza in order to keep the comparisons as even as possible, leaving out styles like stuffed crust, deep dish, cauliflower crust, and anything with plant-based pepperoni. The price of each pizza ranged from $3.99 to $9.99 with fairly even distribution within that range.
A simple pepperoni-topped pizza is hands-down my favorite style of pie, and while I certainly have my biases of what makes the best kind, I tried not to allow my personal preferences affect how these pizzas ranked. I took into account several factors for each pizza. First and foremost was flavor: Quite simply, did the pizza taste good enough to make me reach for another slice? I assessed each ingredient individually — crust, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni — as well as together. After all, if a pizza has the tastiest crust that’s great, but it doesn’t matter if the sauce is bland and the meat is mediocre. Texture, taste, balance, and seasoning were all considered, as well as how the pizza cooked according to the recommended instructions — burnt edges and frozen middles are never good. Lastly, I took value into account. If a pizza was expensive, was it worth it? I then ranked the pies accordingly.
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