Beef Jerky Recipe: The Spicy Favorite

Ingredients 

This recipe is for about 2 pounds of meat.  To your uniformly and thinly sliced low-fat meat add:

• 1/2C soy sauce, low sodium*
• 1/2C worcestershire sauce*
• 2.5tsp honey
• 2.5tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2.5tsp onion granules
• 1tsp red pepper flakes (or 2.5 for extra spicy)
• 1tsp liquid smoke, hickory
• 1tsp garlic, minced

*If you're just a little short of marinade, add 50% soy sauce and 50% worcestershire sauce as needed.

Directions 

Let it all soak in for about 12 hours.  I like to use two 4-cup square plastic containers and split the recipe, doing half spicy and half extra spicy... but a sturdy ziplock bag would do the trick.   If possible, squish the meat and mix it up in the marinade every few hours.

Stretch out meat in the dehydrator without letting pieces touch each other, and set to 160 degrees.

I've had this same recipe take 7 hours, 5 hours or 3 hours!  It depends on the thickness of your strips and ambient temperature and something else magical.  Stop the machine and let the meat cool for at least 15 minutes to see what it looks like BEFORE you think the meat is done, since cool jerky is more stiff and dry than hot jerky.  You do not want to overcook this!

When the jerky's done, it should still be pliable, but when you bend it the meat fibers stretch apart and turn white as the larger clumps of fibers begin to separate.  If you rip a piece in half, the meat will have these white fibers throughout its thickness... if the meat snaps in half, it is overcooked.  If the room temperature jerky does this, try a bite and see if it's to your liking.  If the meat was too fatty, you can use paper towels to dab off the extra fat while it's still hot.

Storage

Once it's ready, let the jerky sit for another half hour to finish releasing moisture and store in an airtight container after squeezing as much air out as possible.  Plan to eat it within a month.  Either keep this at room temperature OR in the fridge... once it's been in the fridge/freezer and then warms up, you'll find that you have a moisture problem that turns quickly into a mold problem.

Things that will shorten the lifespan of your jerky:  too much fat in the meat (turns rancid), exposure to air, exposure to moisture, and sharing. 

Seriously, be wary of sharing unless you like making jerky.  I share, 'cause I like making meat-loving people happy, but even 6 pounds of meat with this recipe will never last longer than 2 weeks.  I have been told by 4 people that this jerky is better than anything store-bought or homemade that they've ever tried.