Although there are a variety of amazing beef jerky recipes that you can make on your own, peppered beef jerky is a constant favorite among jerky enthusiasts and novices alike. Through the following instructions, you’ll have yourself such a delicious supply of jerky that you’ll reconsider ever buying from the store again.
Note that this recipe uses both your home oven and a food dehydrator.
You should set aside around 25 minutes for prep time as well as ten hours for cooking. You also need a full day for marinating and cooling the jerky. So, in total, this recipe requires a day, 10 hours, and 25 minutes.
Step 1: Ready the Ingredients
As usual, this recipe calls for lean beef that has been trimmed of fat and sliced into ¼ of an inch-thick slice. Four pounds of meat will give this recipe its full justice.
Step 2: Prepare the Marinade
Before you prepare your marinade, you should lay your pre-cut beef strips on a solid surface and pound them with the tenderizing side of a meat mallet. You want to break the meat’s fibers a little, whilst retaining the shape of your strips.
Then, you must prepare your marinade. In a large container, mix in:
- ¾ cup of soy and Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke
- 1 tablespoon of onion
powde r - 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon of black
pepper - 1,5 tablespoons of brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon of coriander seeds
- ¾ cup of water
You can adjust the levels of ground black pepper and coriander seeds to your liking and add more water if necessary.
Step 3: Mix the Meat and Marinade and Let Sit for a Day
Then, place your beef strips inside the bowl so that they are fully covered in the flavors. Stir it a few times to allow your meat to soak up the marinade. Then, cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for a full day.
Step 4: Warm the Meat Using an Oven
Once the beef has been marinated, remove the container from the fridge and preheat your oven to 300° F. Shake off the extra marinade from the strips and pat them dry with a paper towel.
After, you must lay the beef strips onto your oven’s racks, with a small separation between each piece.
You’ll bake the beef until its internal temperature reaches 150° F. For this, you should place a thermometer into the thickest piece and keep an eye on it. It should take around 30 minutes.
Step 5: Dry the Meat Using a Dehydrator
When the beef is ready, remove the strips from the oven and place them onto the dehydrator’s racks. At this point, you can add more black pepper and coriander seeds to the jerky strips. This is a peppered recipe, after all, so indulge!
Set the dehydrator to 150° F and place the racks inside. Dry the jerky for about nine hours until you notice a leather-like texture from the meat. In order to evenly dry the strips, rotate the racks every hour and a half.
Your jerky is ready when you see cracks after folding the strip. If the strip breaks, you’ve cooked it for too long.
Conclusion
Either consume it all now or store in the fridge for later.
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"You might be a redneck if you think that beef jerky and moon pies are two of the major food groups."
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