The Best Homemade Jerky Recipe, Ever
The Best Homemade Jerky Recipe, Ever
Beef jerky is one of my all-time favourite snacks. It's hard to believe that I used to actually be vegan (been there and back a few times) and one of my all-time favourite recipes has been this jerky recipe I have perfected over the years.
It isn't entirely original, it has been adapted from other recipes as well as trial and error. I bothered my local amazing jerky producer for some tips and they've been incorporated into the recipe as well (notably reduced marination time).
Recipe Info
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 4-6 hours
Serves: 20+ servings
Ingredients
- 1kg Beef, sliced into 1/4" thick strips (topside or flank works best)
- 2 tsp Cracked peppercorns
- 1 clove Crushed garlic
- 1/2 tsp Onion powder
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp Brown sugar
Steps
- Combine all of the jerky marinade ingredients in a large bowl
- Place all of the beef strips into the bowl of marinade
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 3 hours (do not over marinate or it will end up salty)
- Place the meat strips onto a cutting board and place a piece of cling wrap film over the top
- Use a meat mallet or something heavy to flatten the meat into 1/8" thick pieces
- Place meat into a high quality food dehydrator and cook for 6 or so hours (keep an eye on it). The jerky is ready when it snaps but does not break.
- Do not own a dehydrator? Turn your own down to its lowest setting and line the bottom of your oven with aluminium foil to prevent a mess. Lay the strips on wire racks and cook for about 4 hours with the oven door slightly ajar to let the heat escape
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I love buying beef jerky from the shop, but they never put much in the packs and it's expensive.
I used to wonder why it was so expensive as well until I did my first batch and realise you get approximately 1kg of jerky from 2kg of meat once you trim away the fat and the water content in it is removed. If you use an expensive cut of meat, 2kg of beef here in Australia especially can be a little pricey. And the preservative free options are even more expensive because of the low shelf-life they have. Still, it ends up being way cheaper than store-bought because there is no packaging, production or transport involved and it tastes way better as well.
I recently bought some Wagyu jerky from Aldi, it's amazing!