Chicken Spiedies hail from Binghamton, New York, and consist of tender marinated chicken that’s skewered, grilled, and typically served on a hero or hoagie roll. This delicious dish is excellent served with your favorite summer sides.
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A Binghamton Classic
One of the things I find most intriguing about Italian-American food is that, depending on where you find yourself in the US, you’ll discover dishes that are entirely influenced by the Italians who immigrated here. In Utica, you’ll find chicken riggies. In Chicago, you’ll find chicken Vesuvio. And Chicken Spiedies, while derived from the more widely known chicken spiedini, hail from the village of Endicott, New York, near Binghamton, where a number of immigrants from Castellamare, Sicily, settled in the early 1900s.
Spiedies consist of chunks of meat, typically chicken, marinated in lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil, then skewered and grilled. The chicken is delicious on its own, but if you want a spiedi the way they do it in the central southern tier of New York, you’ll pile it on a hero.
Fun fact: The high-performance computing cluster at Binghamton University’s engineering center is aptly named “Spiedie Computing”.
Recipe Ingredients
All ingredients for this recipe are shown in the pic below and special notes are made in this bulleted list to assist you.
- Chicken. I’m using chicken breasts, though you could certainly use boneless skinless thighs. If using thighs cook until the internal temp reaches at least 180°F.
- Marinade. I’m using a combo of olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, sugar, black pepper, kosher salt, dried oregano, fresh basil, and fresh parsley. You could also use fresh mint, as that was included in the early recipes for chicken spiedies.
- Hero rolls (not pictured). As mentioned above, the traditional way to eat chicken spiedies is on a hoagie or hero roll, but the skewered grilled chicken is also delicious on its own!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
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How to make chicken spiedies
Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.
- Cut the chicken into 1 – 1 1/2-inch cubes.
- Blend or whisk together the marinade ingredients. Reserve 1/3 for use later on and pour the remaining into a sealable plastic pag with the chicken, using your hands to distribute the marinade evenly. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight, flipping the chicken at the halfway point to ensure even marination.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge and thread onto soaked wooden skewers, or metal skewers, leaving a few inches on both ends.
- Pour the reserved marinade into a saucepot along with 1/3 cup of water and bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and keep warm. Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high heat (400-450°F). Wipe the grates with oil or cooking spray.
- Grill the chicken spiedies for 3-4 minutes per side.
- Rotate so that each side is grilled until the internal temp of the chicken is 160°F. Remove the skewers and cover with tented foil to keep warm. Serve 2-3 spiedies (skewers) per hero roll and drizzle some of the boiled marinade on top. Enjoy!
Top tips
- Marinating the chicken. As suggested with my lemon yogurt chicken kebabs, I recommend a minimum of 6 hours, but the chicken spiedies will be even better when marinated overnight.
- Skewers. If you use wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for at least 1 hour to prevent them from burning during the grilling process.
- Serving. The traditional way to enjoy a spiedie is on a hoagie roll. You can toast the rolls on the grill or leave them as they are. Definitely drizzle some of the warm marinade on top for the full spiedie experience.
More grilled chicken recipes
If you love chicken cooked over a grill, give these other recipes a try.
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Binghamton Chicken Spiedies
Equipment
- 16 wooden skewers soaked in water for at least 1 hour
Ingredients
Base ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds chicken breasts cut into 1- 1.5" cubes
- 6 hero rolls
For the marinade
- 1 1/4 cups olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 6 cloves garlic grated
- 1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1/4 cup minced basil
- 1/4 cup minced flat-leaf Italian parsley
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Instructions
Marinate the chicken
- Cut the chicken breasts into 1 to 1 1/2" cubes.
- Blend or whisk the marinade ingredients and reserve 1/3 and set aside. Pour the remaining marinade into a sealable plastic bag with the chicken. Use your hands to spread the marinade all over the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight, flipping the chicken at the halfway point to ensure even marination.
Skewer and grill the chicken spiedies
- Remove the chicken from the fridge and thread the chicken onto the soaked wooden skewers or use metal skewers. Leave a few inches on both sides of the skewers.
- Pour the reserved marinade into a saucepot along with a 1/3 of a cup of water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.
- Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high heat (400°F-450°F). Wipe the grates with oil or cooking spray. Grill the spiedies for 3-4 minutes per side, rotating so that each side is grilled, until the internal temperature of the chicken is 160°F. Remove the skewers to a platter and tent with foil.
- Serve 2-3 chicken spiedies per roll and drizzle some of the boiled marinade on top. Enjoy!
Notes
- Skewers. Make sure to soak wood skewers for at least 1 hour before cooking so that they don’t burn off during cooking, or use metal skewers.
- Olive oil. Half neutral oil can be subbed for olive oil, for a more economical version.
- Oven method. Broil (use metal skewers) for 5-6 minutes per side on the second highest level or bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes or until the center of chicken reaches 160°F internal temperature.
- Rolls. Chicken spiedies is typically served on a hoagie/hero roll but the chicken can be eaten by itself with a squeeze of lemon juice or some of the reserved marinade.
- Storing and Leftovers. Chicken spiedies can be stored for up to 3 days in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven until warm.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made these last night. Have made other recipes for these but this is, by far, the best!
So glad you enjoyed!
I’m so excited to try this. Can I bake this instead of broil? If so, at what temperature and for how li g?
Hi Ali, yes, you can though they’re not going to get the color you would if you used a broiler. You can bake at 450°F until the chicken is cooked through.
Never heard of these before my daughter met her husband. They have a pizzeria/restaurant in Owego. They make all the time. Im surprised its not a thing here in NJ. Love them. Tell her to try Mario’s its not far from Binghamton college.
Thanks for the comment, Judy!
Chicken Spiedies are a staple at our weekend family get-togethers, though I’m not the one putting them together. Through the years it’s become obvious who should be making the spiedies and, thankfully, he’s happy to always do it.
Also, I used to work at BU and can tell you that your daughter will be very happy there.
Thanks for the comment, Michael!
The stores in my area do not sell Diamond Crystal kosher salt. We have Morton’s kosher salt. Is the amount in recipes different?
Morton’s kosher salt has a different density. 1 tablespoon of Mortons is 15g whereas and 1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal is 10g.
I was born in Endicott, New York and happily grew up with chicken or original Lamb Spiedies in my blood. The secret is to do the long marinade period.
Is there a video for your Chicken Spiedies recipe, as there should be for sure? Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe, Walt! Yes, at some point we will do a video for this but we haven’t filmed one yet.
Hi Jim, your recipe looks really good, I’ll give it a try. Being from the Binghamton area, there are many variations. We have a spiedie-fest each year where the competition is fierce for the best tasting spiedies. The hoagie rolls is called subs up here. Using fresh Italian bread is traditional. Spiedies are also great on a grandma pizza. Binghamton U. is a great school. My wife & son went there. Take care.
Appreciate the comment, Jim! Let us know how it turns out if you make it!
This is a pretty inaccurate description of the origins of spedies. Sharkey’s bar and grill, (opened in 1947 and closed in 2000 during the pandemic), in Johnson City noy Endicott was the origin point and I believe they were of Greek not Italian heritage. I grew up there in the 50’s and 60’s and the originally the speidies were cubed lamb (approximately 1.5″ x1.5″). later in the early 60’s I think beef and pork were added to cut costs. Chicken is a much more recent addition. A typical meal at Sharkey’s included Spedies, Steamed Littleneck Clams or Cherrystone Clams, and local Corn on the Cob. Pizza was on the menu in the 60’s but I don’t think I ever ordered it there. 2nd Spedies were NEVER served on a hero roll. It was always a thick slice of Roma bakeries Italian Bread which you wrapped around the skewer to pull the meat off the skewer. Check with Lupo’s Char Pit in Endicott who accurately carry on the Spedie tradition, (although I don’t think they offer lamb). I also think you can buy their marinade on the Internet. I still use lamb and make my own marinade a compilation of many recipes. Please correct this. This absolutely NOT what someone growing up in the Triple Cites, (Endicott, Johson City, Binghamton) would expect from a Speidie. Russ Jordan
Hi Russ, we researched this prior to publishing the restaurant. Between receiving requests from readers to everything we found on our own, the origin of spiedies is from Italian heritage. The Italian word spiedo means “spit” for roasting, or “skewer”. From what we found in our research, the Iacovelli family were one of the originals to make these and servev at their restaurant. While these are similar to souvlaki, we found nothing to substantiate that spiedies are of Greek origin.
My hometown and my alma mater (of course when I went 100 years ago it was SUNY Binghamton). Best of luck to your daughter. Spiedies are great to make because you can do chicken, pork, beef or the original-lamb. They are typically served on Italian bread (preferable Roma’s) unless you are getting a spiedie sub from Lupos! Every year Binghamton hosts Spiediefest where thousands of people attend and dozens get into the spiedie cookoff competition. You need to do an online search in the Binghamton Press archives for some of the best recipes from the winners over the years. Back in our college days most of the bars sold spiedies for $.50! That and a cold pitcher of beer for 2 bucks!
Thanks for the comment, Arlene!
Hello! Just got your cookbook yesterday, and am looking forward to reading it. Made your sloppy Joe recipe yesterday, OMG!! Was it EVER great! No more searching for a recipe, and no more from a can sloppy Joe’s. Only thing I changed was using meatball mix rather than plain beef. Thank you for your recipes!!
So glad you enjoyed!
As a Binghamton graduate, I’m very excited you made this recipe! And best of luck to your daughter; it was an absolutely wonderful school to attend! (I’ll update with a star rating as soon as I cook it, but I definitely recommend the dish itself!)
Thanks for the comment, Darren! We hope you enjoy the recipe when you make it!
Couldn’t believe it when I saw this come up on my email. I’m born and raised nd Binghamton and also went to Binghamton University. Living in Florida now and I was just thinking of looking for a Speidi recipe. Thanks will give this a try
Please let us know how you like it after you make the recipe, Angela, and thanks for the comment!
Is the nutritional information for the recipe, or each skewer?
It’s per serving which includes the hero roll and the chicken. This recipe makes 6 servings total.