So I bet a lot of you get tired of eating nuts for a snack when on the go, I know I sure do! I have a freezer full of amazing grass fed beef and a lot of times I just don’t know what to do with some of the more economic cuts. So today I am going to share with you this amazing beef jerky recipe and also show you how easy it is to make your own beef jerky right out of your home. Jerky does not need to be refrigerated so this makes for a great protein packed snack that is great to take on the run. Add a piece of fruit and you have a wonderfully balanced snack.
So there are several things I want to mention first. Try to get your hands on some grass-fed meat, but if you can’t then organic is your next best option. For this recipe, you can use eye of round or round steak, and flank steak. If this is your first time making jerky then I would recommend using flank steak. It is a long cut of meat and it is easy to see the grain of the meat, which will make this process a lot easier for you as I will show you later in the recipe.
The other thing I want to mention is that you can use soy sauce (which is fermented soy), or you can use liquid aminos or coconut aminos. I will put a link below on where you can purchase some liquid aminos. It is great for stir fry recipes and other recipes that call for soy sauce. If you are looking for a soy free jerky then try Coconut Secret Raw Organic Vegan Coconut Aminos 8 Fl Oz. This recipe also has Worcestershire sauce. Be sure to buy the “all natural” Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce because it is the only one that I could find that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it. If you find another brand that has healthy ingredients then that is fine to use that as well.
Finally, I want to talk to you about a dehydrator. I will put a link at the end of this post showing you where you can purchase a dehydrator. Now there are all sorts of price points out there….but for me, the important factor was the price. I spent around $65 and I love it. I use it for my soaked nuts/crispy nuts, to make sweet potato chips (recipe to come), for this beef jerky recipe, and for many other recipes that I will share in the upcoming months. So in my opinion, you don’t have to spend a lot (some of these dehydrators are around $500) to get a quality product.
So let’s get to this recipe. It really is quite easy, it just takes some time to marinate and then to dehydrate it, but your efforts are well worth it when you taste the finished product!
The first thing you want to do is get a 1 1/2-2 pound flank steak. It is best to have the steak partially frozen, it will make it much easier to cut thin strips. If your meat is not frozen, place it into the freezer for about 45 minutes and then pull it out and cut your meat then. You want to cut the meat along the grain. Cut them into 1/8 inch thick strips. If using a flank steak your strips will be about 8-12 inches long, but very thin. If you are using a round steak (like I did for this recipe), you will have shorter strips of meat, but still 1/8 inch thick. Here is what your meat should look like once it is cut up.
Now put together your marinade by placing the following into a small bowl. 2/3 cup soy sauce or liquid aminos, 2/3 cup “all natural” Worcestershire sauce (make sure it is “all natural”, they do not use high fructose corn syrup in the “all natural” version, 1 tbsp raw honey (melted slightly), 2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp paprika, and 1 tbsp of liquid smoke. Mix together well. Place the meat into a gallon size plastic bag or a dish and pour the marinade on top of meat and seal up. Place in refrigerator for 3-6 hours. I marinated mine for 3 hours and it was just right and wasn’t too salty.
After you are done marinating your meat, take the meat out of the marinade and place on a paper towel. Blot the meat to dry it off a bit. Line the meat on your individual trays of your dehydrator or if you do not have a dehydrator then you can put them on a cookie sheet and place them in the oven. Dehydrate the beef pieces for 4-8 hours or until desired consistency. I dehydrated mine at 165 F for 4 hours and it was perfect.
If you are using the oven, turn the meat over every hour. Place the temperature as low as your oven will go. Ideally, it is best not to go above 185 F but if your oven doesn’t go any lower than 200 F, you will just have to start checking it after a few hours to see if it is done.
Once your beef is done dehydrating, you will have the best beef jerky! Store in an airtight container and grab a few when you are in need for a quick snack. If you should have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.
Homemade Organic Grass Fed Beef Jerky Recipe
Prep Time: 3 hours 20 mins
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 7 hours 20 minutes
Yield: 6 servings 1x
Category: snacks
Method: dehyrdrator
Cuisine: american
Description
This amazing beef jerky recipe shows you how easy it is to make your own beef jerky right out of your home.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 – 2 pound grass fed flank steak or round steak
- 2/3 cup soy sauce, liquid aminos or coconut aminos
- 2/3 cup “all natural” Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp raw honey, slightly melted
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp liquid smoke
Instructions
- See instructions above in the post.
You Can Purchase Products & Ingredients Here
I was wondering if you can use that recipe with ground beef… I make jerky on my Nesco dehydrator and have a jerky gun. Can I marinade ground beef in the sauce recipe and then load the beef into the gun and make the strips that way? Will that cure and flavor the beef the same? When I first started, I used the packets, but they had MSG and other ingredients I did not want, but I was just trying it out to see how it worked. Now I’d like to find a recipe that is more healthy, but still cures the beef and flavors it properly as well…
I am wondering the same thing. Just got my Nesco Jerky gun but won’t be using their cure and spice packets. Not healthy.
This looks amazing! How long do you think it will keep before spoiling? Also, does it need to be refrigerated?
★★★★★
This is the first time I ever tried a jerky recipe on my dehydrator and guess what guys I finally got a lot of compliments from kids already. What a relief..!
5 Stars for the recipe.
★★★★★
Could you please share the nutritional values. Such as cal, fat, protein, sugar, sodium serving size etc? Thank you in advance!!!
I am curious about the need for curing the meat. All of the healthy recipes that I’ve read online don’t talk about curing the meat first yet when I talk to people who make jerky in the not so healthy way, they always talk about the importance of curing the meat first. Anyone have any clarity on this? Also, does anyone know a sugar-free healthy way to cure meat?
I am a 46 years old man and when I was a kid (say between 5 and 15) I remember jerky that did not taste processed. Nowadays any jerky that I purchase and chew, breaks apart into pieces, because it’s been processed! It’s not juicy!
Back in the day, you could chew on the jerky and suck on it like it was leather AND it would not break apart. Back then you would get so much delicious juice in your mouth from sucking and chewing on it.
Any jerky I buy now breaks up into little pieces and you cannot just chew on it like it’s a piece of leather! Whenever you try to just chew & suck, it breaks apart into little pieces. I hate that! In breaks apart like it’s peanut brittle.
I love chewing on the same piece of jerky for an hour and having delicious juice continually come out of it into my mouth. In jerky today, there is no juice. I hate the fact that you chew on it and it breaks apart!
Where can I find this truly old fashioned (unprocessed) jerky today? I used to buy it at the Arizona State fair OR Cheyenne Frontier Days OR the minimart. Now they don’t sell that kind of jerky anywhere!
At 18 yrs old, I became wheelchair-bound and I’m not too good at preparing jerky or cooking anything!
So I’m trying to find somewhere that I can buy jerky that I can chew on for hours and have juice continually come out of it into my mouth and delight my taste buds! I want jerky that’s so tough that it won’t break into pieces easily when I chew on it.
I think you know the jerky I’m talking about. Where can I buy that online or near Mesa Arizona? Is there anywhere?
Is the jerky that you make like the old-fashioned jerky I described?
If it is— could I purchase it anywhere? From you?
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