Chicken Spiedies

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.

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.

How to make chicken spiedies

Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.

1. Cut the chicken into 1 – 1 1/2-inch cubes.
2. 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.

3. Remove the chicken from the fridge and thread onto soaked wooden skewers, or metal skewers, leaving a few inches on both ends.
4. 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.
5. Grill the chicken spiedies for 3-4 minutes per side.

6. 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!

More grilled chicken recipes

If you love chicken cooked over a grill, give these other recipes a try.

• Chicken souvlaki with tzatziki
• Grilled chicken thighs
• Marinated grilled chicken breasts