Spiedies
Updated Nov. 11, 2022
- Total Time
- 25 minutes, plus 24 hours’ marinating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
589 calories; 45 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 31 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 41 grams protein; 676 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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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
Comments
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.
This is an excellent representation of upstate NY spiedies, although if you can buy it where you are, feel free to use Lupo's as another reviewer mentioned. As it originates from Greek cuisine, I made tzatziki with it and served it on pitas. Everyone loved them.
Really great and easy. After 24 hours, I dumped all the speidie marinade plus its chicken into a 12” cast iron skillet on direct heat on a 450 degree grill (cooked until marinade disappeared), while Melissa Clark’s cauliflower sharma (sp?) cooked on sheet tray on indirect grill heat on the side. That left one corner to cook David Tanis’ flatbreads, sprinkled heavily with za’atar. Spread the flatbreads with NYT tzatziki recipe, plus lettuce, and tomato, added the chicken and cauliflower served as a side. Excellent meal. (Not a fan of the spicy tahini in the cauliflower recipe but the cauliflower / onions were excellent).
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