Love in the Kitchen - making fast, healthy, homegrown meals you'll enjoy

Monday, September 09, 2013

Chicken Spiedies


Spiedies are kind of Italian shish-kabob sandwiches.  Though they came from Italy, you are most likely to find them in the Northeast US.  The term "spiedie" comes from the Italian spiedo meaning spit or spiedini referring to cubes or balls of meat cooked on a skewer. The regional dish in Abruzzo, Italy most closely resembling spiedie uses goat meat, lamb, chicken or beef on a skewer.

My mom made a marinade similar to this to use with London Broil when we went to the lake.  I've adapted it for chicken and to bring some of those traditional Italian flavors to the forefront.

Chicken Spiedies

Ingredients:

For the sandwiches:

  • 2 -3 chicken breasts
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 2 garlic cloves ( finely chopped or pressed)
  • 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons fresh-ground black pepper
  • 4 Italian sandwich rolls

For the spread:

  • 1/2 cup light sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
  • 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped hot peppers of your choice {I like Scotch Bonnets, but anything from bell peppers (not hot at all) to ghost peppers (extremely hot!) will work for this spread}




Directions:

Dice chicken breasts into 1" cubes.

Whisk all other ingredients together to form marinade.



Thread 4 or 5 cubes onto soaked bamboo skewers.

Add marinade to chicken and refrigerate two hours to overnight, stirring occasionally (the acidic nature of the marinade will 'chemically' cook the meat partially).





Grill for a few minutes either side, just until meat is firm (remember, they're already partially cooked by the marinade).



Beautiful, right?



Meanwhile, stir together the spread ingredients.

Spread two tablespoons of the spicy pepper spread onto each fresh Italian roll.




See all that spicy goodness?  Yum!




Place a skewer on the roll, grip the meat firmly with the bread and pull out skewer.





These are seriously fantastic sandwiches.  The lemony marinade is a perfect companion to the fresh basil, and the spicy, tangy pepper spread adds the zing that makes this dish complete.

This is a great recipe for tailgating or camping as you can prepare almost everything ahead of time - a few minutes on the grill is all you need to have dinner on the table!


zentMRS - Love in the Kitchen
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