You’ve heard me say on many occasions to be careful when
soaking chicken in an acid marinade.
Usually an hour or two is the maximum I recommend, otherwise the meat
will actually “cook” in the liquid, much like fish in a ceviche. Here, that’s
exactly the idea.
You could almost call this twiced-cooked chicken, except
that the food nerds would come out of the woodwork to remind us the meat
doesn’t “cook” in the marinade, it becomes “denatured.” Whatever, nerds. All I know is when you grill that "over-marinaded" chicken over a hot, charcoal fire, some serious magic happens.
As I hope you find out, “zuzu” is also wonderful with
chicken, and there are hundreds of credible reports of it being fantastic on pork,
beef, and venison also. Yes, one taste and I think you’ll understand why this is so
incredibly popular in and around Binghamton, NY.
The only mystery is why hasn’t this spread across the
country? Seems like a natural. It’s got a great back story, catchy name, lots of
room for local adaptations, and a marinade called “zuzu.” Come on, what more do
you need? Anyway, every new sandwich trend begins with a single bun, or
something like that, so I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for about 6 skewers:
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (or any boneless meat!)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup wine wine vinegar
1 rounded tablespoon sugar
6-8 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
46 comments:
We stopped to get something to eat in Binghamton while we were traveling and got spiedies. Delicious! I look forward to trying your recipe soon. It has all ingredients that I usually have on hand.
Oh man! These sound fabulous! Thanks for such an interesting sounding way to prepare chicken. :-)
Chef:
If one wanted to go with the original lamb concoction, would the marination time be the same: 24 hours?
Any suggestions on the cut of lamb to use?
I thought you would use Italian Bread and not a Hot Dog Bun... just not happening for me!
Did you simmer the excess marinade enough to change its flavor, or just to cook the raw chicken juices?
Maybe you could set some marinade aside for dressing before adding the chicken to it.
you oould take out before, but cooking mellows the flavor a bit. No wrong way!
Can I bake them in the oven?
It is interesting that New York's other noteworthy grilled chicken recipe, Cornell chicken, also uses a long vinegar marinade. While the Cornell sauce originally started just as a basting sauce it evolved into a marinade with yummier results.
Now all we need is a recipe for City Chicken....which is served on the same type of bread as speidies...miss Roma bread so much.
Wine vinegars aren't available where I reside. If I use regular distilled vinegar, how much would I use?
any vinegar works! use same
One widely popular Spiedie store in bing uses apple cider vinegar....and corn oil.
I happened to have almost every ingredient lying around, so I started marinating this last night and I just finished eating it. It totally rocked my world. I made shish kebabs instead to use up some pepper, but it was still delicious. Thanks!
You can find Spiedie marinade in some supermarkets, although the distribution is pretty random. We had it in central-state New York (obviously), but not in Boston. Recently relocated to Charleston, SC and we have it here too.
This stuff is delicious. Especially paired with salt potatoes
I just whipped up this marinade and used it on some cubed London Broil. Going on the bbq tomorrow. The marinade really is zesty/garlicky/minty. I've never had mint in my food before. It's nice.
Chef John,
Is this quite close to chicken shawarma?
That's a dish I really enjoy.
Spiedies! Yeah! I was introduced to these by my Binghamton cousins when I was a kid, and I've been trying to convert the world to spiedies ever since. Our family used the spiedie sauce on just about any kind of meat: chicken, beef, pork, lamb -- even venison. It's all good!
The weather in Germany is finally nice enough to grill outside, so I decided to make this as soon as you posted the video. Turned out really delicious and my family loved it. Thanks for all your great recipes.
I have a friend that worked there as a teenager. He buys the marinade from them online. It's a little pricey once shipped, but if you are using alot it's not that bad as it's sold by the gallon. That said, I make my own from an old recipe I found. It tastes better and doesn't have HFCS in it.
He introduced a large group of us to Speidies several years ago, and has been cooking them for us at festivals every since. We've had chicken of course, pork loin, pork tender loin, beef sirloin, beef tender loin (that was a crazy night...) and venison. Always a huge hit and a great way to cook for lots of people. I think my recipe from an old regional cookbook is different than yours though, not much, but a little.
Glad to see this recipe getting some love, it deserves it!
-Pyrofish
I found my old (1994, not that old)cookbook with the recipe and wanted to share it here. It's in a local rural cook book from Mannington NJ. Lots of Farms there, and lots of hunting. Once I was introduced to speidi's, I realized there was a recipe for the venison version in this book. It follow:
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2.5 lbs of meat
Marinate for 24 hours
I have seen many versions of the marinade for different meats. I have used this on sirloin and chicken and it was a huge hit. I had 5 separate requests days after the party... they were still thinking about how good it was.
I hope you all give it a try. It's my go-to Speidi marinade!
-Pyrofish
Hi Chef John,
Whats would be an alternative to the wine vinegar?
I used chicken breast and marinated overnight and all I could taste was vinegar. Just vinegar and nothing else. Did I do something wrong? Pretty sure I measured everything correctly.
if you measured right then maybe you just don't like this recipe. that happens.
chef john,
you write that the recipe contains 1/2 cup picked mint leaves. however, as i never know how much or little to pack the cup, can you supply me with a weight to use?
thank you
I can't! No idea. Don't worry about it. It's not an exact science. Just throw in a handful. It will be great.
I don't like mint at all. Could I substitute cilantro or other aromatic in this?
Other than the mint it sounds great.
What if I said no? ;) Of course!!! It's your food, use what you like!
I don't own a grill - could you recommend how to do an oven preparation?
what do you do if u dont have an outdoor grill? WHAT SHOULD U DO?
I had everything but the mit but made it anyway. It is marinating now. I hope it turns out good!!!
Hey Chef,
Would it be a bad idea to use balsamic for this?
I was born in Binghamton and my Mom use to fix these every Easter. We always had lamb. It was so great. Now I am going to try on chicken. We always used hot dog buns. I might even go to the spiedie feat in August .
Chef J,
You gotta tell me, can I pan sear those? If so, is there a rough cooking time I'm looking at per side?
Oh, spiedie, where have you been all my life? I was thinking what to do woth the leftovers while I was grilling; there were no leftovers! Can't wait to try with beef.
Hey Chef John, can you make this marinade in advance and add the chicken later like the next day?
We are doing a family vacation in a cottage, and I do t think there is a blender, but wanted to not have marinating chicken on the road.
Yes,make ahead!
I had been meaning to try this marinade for some time, but have been enjoying your "rusty chicken" too much to do so. I was ready for a change of pace and decided to whip this one up.
Wow!
This might be my new favorite! I'm only sorry I didn't try it sooner, but at least I should have enough mint growing in the back yard to last me a few more batches.
Thanks for introducing us to spiedie chicken and for yet another great recipe, Chef John!
When my brother was in town visiting he made us this recipe... he hesitated to make it because we professed to only liking pork, because chicken is so often prepared and very dry and boring tasting in our opinion, but he made it anyway, and we really enjoyed... so now I am buying chicken again to enjoy this recipe during the bbq summer months ahead :) we used red wine vinegar!
I just loved it chef John! I love your site. Thanks for teaching us these wonderful dishes.
I'm just wondering if there is a way to download these videos.
Thanks again.....
Just got back from a trip across NY for work...had this in Syracuse. Funny thing, I asked a few people in Buffalo if the ever heard of the chicken Spiedie...no one knows! I thought that was curiously interesting, thought I'd share. The don't know what they're missing. Thanks Chef.
Tried these last night after marinating for over 24 hours. Put them on the gas grill (which took longer than a charcoal grill-go figure...maybe the 30 degree weather outside??) They were great the first night but even better tonight when we ate the leftovers? I think it's true what they say...anything grilled is better the 2nd day...still moist and delicious! Even my 10 year old asked for 2nds both days...
Being from Binghamton I grew up thinking that you needed to marinate meat for a long time (at least over night)... I was never sure why recopies called for a 30 minute marinade... what good would that do??? Anyway, glad to see some love for the Spiedie.
A few notes: 1)They are best served with a plain piece of white italian sandwich bread. 2) My mom always was looking for ways to get us to eat more veggies, so she'd also grill up some onions and peppers with them that had been at least brushed with the marinade... so good
Great to see Binghamton getting some love.
Should be noted that, traditional speedies are served on white italian sandwhich bread and butter, and not hot dog buns. In fact, as a 30+ year Lupo faithful, I've never had it with a hot dog bun.
Oh, and the melted butter and juice from the chicken is where the magic happens.
Why dried oregano and basil? Any specific reason?
For many years my family passed down Spiedie stories. We knew ZU ZU as the after sauce treatment, brushing marinated meat with mint. Rob Salamida was the first to put the sandwich in a bottle with his Salamida State Fair Spiedie Marinade. State Fair is our "go to" recipe when having friends and family over. Nothing but the best for our crew = www.spiedie.com
No recipe has ever made me cry. This one did. My husband said to me, that night over dinner, after making this for me, that some of the best memories are made over food. He couldn't have been more right. As a child and well into my adult years, my grandparents had a cabin at Lake Foxton in Susquehanna County, PA. We would stop at a market there and buy spiedies to take to the lake, as well as an assortment of other foods for our weeks long stay. Of course the cousins would not arrive until a day or two later and gram would ask what I wanted for dinner, always spiedies first, so I didn't have to share. My grandmother and I would cut the larger and she'd let me skewer them, mind you a child of 9-10 with a sharp object punching holes in chicken, it was fun. Pap would grill and it was awesome. I mention now, a great deal of my family lives in MY, some in Binghampton, Vestal, Conklin, Johnson City, my fave of course the foremost. But anyway, your recipe flooded me with so many childhood memories of being with the grandparents, in my favorite place, with my favorite Lake food, now made at home. And for that, I am truly grateful. Thank-you Chef John <3
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