Next up on sandwich week was spiedies. Spiedies are one of the few things that Binghamton, NY, may be known for (the only other is probably carousels). Sad to say, I lived in Binghamton for four years and probably only ate spiedies three or four times. Now that it looks like we might be moving away from upstate New York, I decided it was a good time to make spiedies at home.
Spiedies are ridiculously simple. They’re really just marinated and grilled meat on a roll. I could have made the marinade from scratch, for it oddly felt more authentic to just buy Salamida’s State Fair Spiedie marinade. I cut up 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts into chunks, tossed them in the marinade, and left them alone until the next day. Then I skewered the meat and broiled it. Grilling wasn’t an option because I don’t have a grill. Unfortunately, I sort of suck at broiling, and I ended up way overcooking the chicken. The flavor was there, and it was good, but any sort of juiciness was sadly missing. It took me about 20 minutes to make it through one sandwich.
On the plus side, I’ve got half a bottle of marinade left and two more chicken breasts in the freezer. Looks like I’ll be doing a do-over soon.
I’ve never heard of “spiedies” before – is there a specific flavor in the marinade that makes the dish?
I don’t think spiedies are well known outside of upstate NY. I’d certainly never heard of them before I moved here. I’m not sure what’s unique about the marinade. The bottle I used just says “spices.” Here’s the marinade recipe that won the SpiedieFest a few years ago. (Obviously would need to be scaled down for the home cook.)
Menichini’s Spiedie Recipe
2 qts extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch sweet basil, chopped
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
1 bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 frsh bulb garlic, med., minced
1 fresh small onion, minced
2 c. balsamic vinegar
2 c. red wine vinegar
juice from 10 lemons
2 T. black pepper
1 T. salt
1 1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. dehydrated onion
Mix all ingredients together in blender. Marinate 10 pounds of beef, chicken, pork, or lamb tips in 16 oz. of marinade for 24 hours. Be sure to keep the meat close together on the skewer. For best results, use wooden skewers that have been soaked in water for a couple of hours. Sprinkle the marinade over spiedies as it is cooking and just before removing from the fire.
Try brining the chicken prior to cutting and broiling/grilling. I found that preserve moisture very nicely. It gives the chicken a bit of a salty flavor, of course, but I like that. You can adjust your marinade to compensate by leaving out salt and/or salty components.
Brining can certainly solve many the dry poultry (and pork–but I guess you wouldn’t care about that!) problem. In this case, I think that the marinade is probably acting as a brine.
I’m pretty sure it would have been much juicier if I hadn’t cooked it for twice as long as I should have! 🙂