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Spiedies
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- Total Time
- 25 minutes, plus 24 hours’ marinating
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2 to 3pounds beef, pork, venison, lamb or chicken, cut into small cubes, at most 1-inch square
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup red wine vinegar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 4cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and roughly chopped
- 1bay leaf
- 1tablespoon thyme leaves
- 1tablespoon oregano leaves
- 1tablespoon basil leaves, rolled and chopped into chiffonade
- 1teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- 1teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
For the Spiedies
For the Marinade
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the marinade: Whisk together all the ingredients in a large bowl.
- Step 2
Add the meat to the marinade and cover tightly, or place into large, re-sealable plastic bags and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours (or 10 to 12 hours for chicken).
- Step 3
Build a fire in your grill, leaving about ⅓ of grill free of coals, or set a gas grill to high.
- Step 4
Remove the meat from its marinade and thread onto metal skewers, or wooden ones that you have soaked in water for 30 minutes or so. The chunks can be placed quite close together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Step 5
When coals are covered with gray ash and fire is still quite high (you can hold your hand 5 inches above coals for only a couple of seconds), place the skewers of meat directly over the flames. Allow the meat to cook, undisturbed, for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, then use kitchen tongs to turn them over and repeat on the other side. Continue turning the skewers every couple of minutes until the meat is deeply crisp at its edges, and cooked entirely through, approximately another 5 to 7 minutes. (Remove them to the cool side of the grill if they begin to burn, and cover the grill to allow them to smoke-roast until finished; this is much less likely to happen on a gas grill.)
- Step 6
Allow the spiedies to rest on a cutting board for a few minutes, then remove the meat from the skewers onto cut hero rolls or a plate. Serve with hot sauce on the side.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
As a native of Endicott, NY, where these actually originated, a couple of refinements. The original spiedies (from spiedini, or skewer, in Italian) were lamb, and the best still are. The marinade is garlicky, & lighter on the vinegar than this recipe. No one I know uses sugar in the marinade - completely unnecessary! Drop the basil - nice but unnecessary, but add Italian parsley!! Bread of choice is thin sliced "Italian style," preferably stuck onto the skewer. See Lupos of Endicott for more!
I'm from Binghamton, New York and grew up eating spiedies! So I was naturally interested to see if this recipe would take me back to the days of big family gatherings around the open barbecue. The only thing that threw me off was the addition of sugar to the marinade, which I couldn't imagine my Italian mother adding…but maybe she did! I used lamb, the traditional meat and they were delicious! We used to pull the meat off the skewers with sliced Italian bread from Roma's bakery. Thanks, Sam
We used to get these in Binghamton bars when Binghampton U. was Harpur College. By the way they cost 75 cents then.
Rather than hero rolls, they came with a piece of untoasted Vienna bread at the top of the skewer. You put the bread in the flat of your hand, wrapped your hand with the bread around the meat and pulled it off the skewer making an instant sandwich.
Oh the memories....oh the bars.
Spiedies, an Italian word is pronounced thus:
SPE-A-DEES - accent is on the 'A'
I learned to make it with lamb. I would eliminate the bay leaf and add rosemary and some Dijon mustard to the marinade.
Step 3 Turn your broiler on to heat. ... Step 5 Place skewers under heated broiler. Allow the meat to cook, undisturbed, for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, then use kitchen tongs to turn them over and repeat on the other side. Continue turning the skewers every couple of minutes until the meat is deeply crisp at its edges, and cooked entirely through, approximately another 5 to 7 minutes.
I'm from Binghamton...lamb is the best and please, these are served on a slice of Italian bread. period. (sweet French will do in a pinch, here in CA) oil and any vinegar work well, rosemary, garlic, oregano, garlic, thyme, garlic, oh, I did I mention garlic? Lupo's and Salamida's sell marinade online if you are a novice. Pork is ok too, but chicken and beef...that is another animal all together. No mustard, No ketchup, No melted cheese. Skewer + slice of bread, enjoy, with beer.
The Lupo family (from Endicott, NY) makes and sells their classic Spiedie Marinade. Friends from the area bring it to me when they visit. It is quite simple and omits fancy herbs etc. They recommend marinating for two days!
I used precut beef stew meat from the grocery and chicken thighs and varied the marinade a bit for my weekly dinner party. One marinade was as written, one subbed out rice vinegar for the red wine vinegar and the last one used rice wine vinegar and sweet red wine (1/4 cup) instead of sugar. The rice wine alone was tart but good, the rice vinegar and sweet red wine was rich, nuanced and popular. The original recipe was less complex and somewhat sweeter but all three were a hit with my crowd!
Lots of garlic and lots of rosemary are the keys for me, but no sugar. I use cider vinegar because that was in the recipe passed along by a neighbor in the 1960s. I like to marinate them in the fridge for at least a week (this is with pork), stirring every couple of days. After that they can be frozen in the marinade for future use. Our neighbor also used a "mint sauce" recipe, basically Italian dressing with a good deal of dried mint added, for topping off the sandwich. Delicious.
I grew up in Binghamton and ate Speidis all the time. They were originally lamb and served on soft Italian bread. There are a multitude of marinade recipes..one must experiment to get the taste you like, but Lupos and Sharkeys are Binghamton favorites since the closing of Panchos Pit.
Try turkey...delicious!
Made this with chicken, pork and beef and the beef seems to work best. Husband got to batch and cooked some of it before the 36 hour mark (~24 hours-he was happy). I use a skirt steak or thinly sliced fajita style meat (bought at Spanish market and not very expensive). Really delicious (did not even sit down to eat it) and I am not a habitual consumer of red meat. We sliced onions and red peppers into mix and grilled/broiled it all for about 5 minutes. Forgot a bout the bread...
As a teenager in Cazenovia New York we would go to the NY State Fair in the summer and the two highlights for me were the Spiedie sandwich man and the giant butter sculpture.
I skipped the skewers and used the bbq basket--much easier to manage. Great recipe.
I use fresh herbs. Many traditional recipes do not. If you go dried, adjust accordingly!
Cook less time Don’t marinate more than 36 hours Use leftover meat on a Greek Salad with Kalamata olives & Feta cheese Some folks mentioned eliminating sugar
Serve with coleslaw & potato salad
Extra firm tofu makes really good spiedies!
I made this tonight after reading the article about the Spiedies festival a few days ago. I rarely give bad recipe reviews, but this was decidedly "meh." Followed the recipe exactly, 36 hours of marinating time, decent cut of beef. Just not all that good.
I grew up just outside of Binghamton in the country. Venison speidies were the go to after lamb. No sugar in the marinade
I don’t cook much beef or lamb anymore so tried this with pork, specifically thick cut boneless pork chops. Three days in the marinade and they came off the grill tough and dry. If I try this again I will use chicken thighs. It’s been decades since I had a spiedie (native Ithacan transplanted to California) but I don’t remember the vinegar flavor being so pronounced. Kind of wishing I had used off-the shelf Italian dressing! Or maybe I’ll order one of the marinades others suggested.
If you can find them (check Amazon) flat skewers make turning anything easier since the meat or vegetables don't slip around and they hold the food better. I've never had much luck soaking the skewers and the skewer ends still char.
Former Ithacan. the college kids quick & cheap version was a bottle of Kraft zesty Italian. Grilled over charcoal.
The first part says put in a sub roll (nope) and later says to use a slice of soft Italian bread (yup). As the wife of a Binghamton expat, we’ve had success with chicken thigh (boneless skinless) and boneless pork “country ribs”. Lamb is more traditional. The seasoning leans more towards Greek than Italian.
uselamb try!!
We lived in Vestal (near Binghamton) for 30 years. The best way to eat a spiedie is to take a slice of Roma’s bread, butter it heavily, wrap it around an ear of hot, fresh sweet corn to melt the butter and butter the corn at the same time, and then use the warm, buttered bread to pull your spiedie meat off of the skewer. Serve with a side of salt potatoes.
We’ve been making these with chicken for years and they are so good! My husband also makes a garlicky yogurt sauce for the sandwiches, and/or eating the marinated grilled meat over a salad. Reading the comments, I understand this isn’t traditional, but it’s delicious!
Many comments mention rosemary. Is this in addition to the other spices or swapped for the thyme or basil?
Lamb, there’s nothing like lamb!!!
Born in Vestal… love my spiedies! Lamb of course is the classic. When Wegmans opened they sold them in chicken, lamb, turkey and beef varieties. McDonalds even sold them (the one on Vestal Parkway)! Agree- no sugar or basil! Might make them tomorrow, now that they are on my mind!
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