Easy Jerky Recipe

We don't eat much meat, maybe once or twice a month.  So, for Father's Day I wanted to surprise Cory with something really yummy and special.  He loves jerky and I have always wanted to try to make this.  It is so expensive to buy, I was hoping I could make it cheaper, and I did.  The recipe has a lot of different ingredients, but you can really put anything you want into the base recipe to create the flavor you want.

Basic Recipe:

I used a 2lb piece of London Broil with this recipe.

1 cup of soy sauce..I used GF Tamari and it works great

1/2 can of coke or beer...I used a Heineken Beer

1/4 cup of brown sugar...any sugar will do

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 cup of water or beef broth...I used water because that is what I had

Addt'l ingredients to tailor our taste buds: (You can add anything you want)

2 tsp.  Sriracha Chili Sauce...we like a little bit of spice, you could also use hot pepper sauce

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. pepper...we like a lot of pepper 

1 tsp. of ginger...I used the ginger in a tube...we like the flavor of ginger

The key to your meat "tasting" like anything will be based on how long you let it marinate and how you cut your meat.  I let this marinate for 24 hours, all of the meat was fully submerged in the sauce.  You want to cut across the grain.  If you have a strip and it doubles in size when you stretch it, then you have cut correctly.  This is what makes the jerky easier to chew, bite and marinate.

I bought a London Broil that was about 1 inch thick.  I tried to cut all of my strips into 1/4 by 1/4 squares.  I first cut a strip off of the steak, then cut this strip into three rows.  The London Broil cost me $7.00.  It worked out great.  I would suggest trying to buy the best meat that you can afford.  

The final step, after marinating, is to dehydrate your jerky.  I put a toothpick on the end of each strip and hung it in my oven.  The temperature was 200 degrees.  I tested the meat after 2 hours, and it was so good but not has dry as we wanted it, so I cooked it for another hour and it was perfect.  It will continue to dry a bit when it is removed from the oven as it cools.  

Seriously, this was so good.  Cory loved it and so did the rest of the family.  I will make this again because it was so much cheaper than buying it in a store, it tasted better and I knew exactly what I put into the marinade.

ENJOY!