Homemade beef jerky
Try making a smoked beef jerky in the best electric smoker
Yes, you can, and the best beef jerky recipe is just a few steps and a couple of hours or so away from you. Here we will focus not only on the quest of how to make jerky, but we will have the smoked beef done through the best electric smoker for beef jerky. No matter, if you are trying a beef or a deer jerky, some useful tips shared here about making jerky in a smoker would equally benefit for any such recipes that you will try.
What is a Jerky?
Jerky provides the best beef protein in your diet, which could be good to take in between meals and also as a full meal option. It is actually a fatless lean meat, which comes in strips and that is dried for preventing any meat decay. People prefer adding salt for the drying of jerky. But, however, the low sodium beef jerky is highly desirable, while the beef stick type recipe makes one of the most delicious options.
Why people love it?
Apart from excellent tastes, the top reasons for having homemade beef jerky are all related to health. The dry beef jerky is full of energy. Make sure, that bulk beef jerky consumption is not ideal in terms of health. You need to balance it out. The buffalo jerky especially provides a good supply of iron and zinc to your body and that makes it a very healthy snack. The meat is also good as it does not raise the insulin levels of your body. On top of that, you will have the cheap beef jerky prepared in a very convenient manner and gives taste which is second to none.
Precautions in making a Jerky:
Most of the jerky lovers are very considerate about the beef jerky cure and to ensure the strict food safety requirements and precautions. It is mainly because of the probable presence of bacteria where the following precautionary steps would be highly helpful:
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- All your utensils, bowls and any other kitchen equipment should be hygienically safe. For this purpose, you need to clean the stuff with water and bleach. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, before the handling of any raw meat.
- If you want to thaw any frozen meat, then do so in a refrigerator, rather than at room temperature. This would restrict any bacteria growth.
- The marinade of the meat is an important process and you should marinate jerky at room temperature between the range of 36 to 40 degrees F.
- Curing salt is the best option for killing the bacteria growth in jerky and should ideally be applied.
- At the initial steps of dehydrating the meat, you should look to heat the meat at a temperature of 16 degrees F. This would help in killing the deadly bacteria.
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Best electric smokers for making a Jerky:
Selecting the best electric smoker recipe is pivotal to cooking the best electric smoker jerky. The following are the best options that you can avail for best jerky meat:
- Masterbuilt Controller Electric Smoker – you can trust this electric smoker to give you the richest and full flavor out of the tried smoked beef jerky It has an ample cooking space over the masterbuilt smoker jerky racks occupying a total of 700 square inches. You can utilize the space for placing your beef jerky sticks in a very organized manner. There is a meat probe as well that comes built into the system in order to check the temperature of the meat, while it cooks. It comes with a locking door mechanism which helps in retaining the smoked taste and flavor well inside the equipment.
- Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker – This by far is one of the best smokers for beef jerky. It is stuffed with the best jerky rack for smokers so that you could ideally space your meat inside to cook. There is a capacity of 725 s. inches inside with 4 flexible racks. The removable thermometer lets you relax with no worry of worrying about under-cook or over-cook issues. The integrated handle and wheels allow you to move the equipment easily outside the house if required. The construction consists of the insulated double wall for retaining the maximum flavor inside. Trust this to find out that this really is the best smoker for jerky.
Smoking Jerky Recipes
Swen’s Smokehouse Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
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- Soy sauce – 2 cups
- Steak sauce – 2 Tbsp.
- Worcestershire sauce – 1 cup
- Cranberry-grape juice – 1 cup
- Teriyaki sauce – 1 cup
- Light brown sugar – 1 cup
- Ground black pepper – To taste
- Hot pepper sauce – 1 Tbsp.
- Wood chips – 4 cups
- Flank steak – 2 pounds, cut in slices of ¼ inches thickness against the grain
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Steps to prepare:
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- Add and mix Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, cranberry grape juice, steak sauce, hot sauce black pepper, brown sugar and teriyaki sauce to get through the first step of your teriyaki beef jerky type recipe.
- Pour the mixture into a sealable plastic bag.
- Add the marinated coated flank steal into the bag and seal it, after squeezing out the air inside the bag.
- Keep it refrigerated for 10 hours.
- Take flank steak out of the refrigerator, remove the meat from the marinade and drain the excess.
- Place the meat over the racks of your preferred best smoker for jerky.
- Add 1 cup of wood chips after every 1 hour of cooking.
- Smoke the beef for 6 to 8 hours until you find the meat getting dried and would break if you bent.
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- Initial preparation time – 30 mins
- Smoking time: 6 hours
- Total recipe time: 16 hours, 30 minutes
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Peppered Smoked Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
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- Bottle dark beer – 1 can
- Brown sugar – 3 Tbsp.
- Soy sauce – 1 cup
- Worcestershire sauce – ¼ cup
- Curing salt – 1 Tbsp.
- Garlic salt – ½ tsp.
- Ground black pepper – 3 Tbsp.
- Bottom round beef – 2 pounds
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Steps to prepare:
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- Whisk soy sauce, beer, Worcestershire sauce, curing salt, brown sugar, garlic salt and 2 Tbsp. of black pepper in a bowl.
- This smoked jerky recipe demands you to trim any excessive fats from meat.
- Slice the beef into ¼ inches thickness and against the grain.
- Add beef slices inside the sealable bag and pour marinade into it.
- Massage the bag to make the marinade spread all over the meat.
- Refrigerate it overnight.
- Preheat the smoker for 5 minutes.
- Remove the meat from resealable bag and drain the excess
- Using a paper towel, pat dries the beef slice and sprinkle black pepper over it.
- Place the meat over the rack.
- Smoke the meat for 5 hours until you find it to be dry and chewy.
- Put meat in the resealable bag and let it stay as it is for an hour at room temperature.
- You may serve the jerky now as per your preferences.
- You may also store it in the refrigerator by squeezing out the air from the bag. This will keep fresh for several weeks.
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- Initial preparation time – 10 mins
- Smoking time: 4 hours
- Total recipe time: 14 hours, 10 minutes
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Smoked Teriyaki Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
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- Round beef – 2 pounds
- Garlic – 1 clove, grated
- Fresh ginger – 1-inch knob, grated
- Oil – 1 Tbsp.
- Sesame oil – 1 tsp.
- Soy sauce – ¾ cup
- Japanese rice wine – 1 cup
- Brown sugar – ½ cup
- Honey – ½ cup
- Rice vinegar – 2 Tbsp.
- Red chili flakes – 1 Tbsp.
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Steps to prepare:
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- This beef jerky recipe smoker amazement demands you to start by first combining all the marinade items into a non-reactive container.
- Trim off all the excess fat from the beef and make slices of ¼ inches thick and an inch wide.
- Put the strips into the marinade.
- Refrigerate this raw smoker beef jerky for 10 hours while having it covered.
- Preheat your electric smoker at 250 degrees
- Get the meat out of the marinade and drain out the remaining marinade.
- Lay the meat over the racks.
- Smoke the meat for 4 to 5 hours and make sure to flip them after every 1 hour.
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Your beef jerky electric smoker recipe is ready, once you see the meat fully dehydrated.
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- Initial preparation time – 10 mins
- Smoking time: 5 hours
- Total recipe time: 15 hours, 10 minutes
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T-Bird’s Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
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- Round steak – 4 pounds
- Onion powder – 4 Tbsp.
- Salad dressing mix – 1 tsp. Italian style, dry
- Worcestershire sauce – 1 cup
- Black pepper – 1 1/3 tsp.
- Soy sauce – 1 cup
- Garlic powder – 1 1/3 tsp.
- Hot pepper sauce – 1 tsp.
- Salt – 2 pinches
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Steps to prepare:
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- Chop beef meat cut into strips which should be no thicker than ¼ inches.
- Add and mix pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and salt in a bowl.
- Stir in the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and pepper sauce.
- Put the meat in a right-sized container and add marinade into it.
- Refrigerate meat for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees F.
- Round toothpicks should be added through to the top side of the strips.
- Smoke in the electric smoker for 4 hours.
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- Initial preparation time – 30 mins
- Smoking time: 4 hours
- Total recipe time: 28 hours, 30 minutes
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Beef Jerky Rub and Brine:
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- This is the best jerky brine recipe smoker delight to try and it comes with most standard ingredients that you can easily find in your kitchen. As per the quantity of the meat, you need to add Worcestershire sauce, soy, chili, pepper, brown sugar and maple syrup.
- In case of a dry rub, the Dalmatian rub is the best. It includes salt and pepper, which are good for tenderizing the meat and getting the best taste out of it. Ideally, you could use sea salt and ground black pepper.
- The cocoa rub is another classic. For this rub, you need to add and mix 2 x tsp. cocoa, 1 x tsp. salt,1 x Tbsp. ground cumin, 2 x Tbsp. brown sugar, 1 x Tbsp. onion powder, 1 x Tbsp. garlic powder, 1 x Tbsp. ground black pepper and 1 x Tbsp. chili powder.
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Best beef meat cuts for making a jerky
You may try the following beef cuts as per your liking and preferences:
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- Eye of Round – This by far is the most common and loved cut that makes one of the best meats to smoke. Tenderness is the best for this cut which actually comes out from the oval muscle in the back leg. Marbling for this homemade smoked beef jerky may be in excess, but for the most jerky lovers, it is their go-to option.
- Ground Meat – If you are making beef jerky in a smoker with ground meat, then always go for the lean option. This is preferred for its ease in chewing and turn out to be far less harsh on your teeth as compared to other cuts.
- Bottom Round – The jerky racks for smokers would never look much elegant as having them stuffed with the bottom round cut. This is the least tender cut to have for a jerky. The cut consists of the outer muscle that comes from the upper portion of the back leg.
- Top Round – This is the cut that comes from the inner leg muscle, which is opposite to that of the bottom round. This cut is found to be far tender than the bottom round cut mentioned above.
- Flank Steak – This is the premium cut which comes at a hefty price but an excellent taste of jerky. You can make your recipe extremely chewy if it is sliced well with the grain. Skirt Steak is another similar cut especially in terms of the fats and the tenderness of the meat.
- Sirloin Tip – This is the tenderest of all the possible rounds of beef. Might not be the most popular but for jerky, it could be tried at last once to know the difference as compared to other cuts.
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You are never short of options when the matter is to cook the most delicious beef jerky recipes in an electric smoker. All you need to do is to have the best beef cut, prepare the best brine/ rub and finally an excellent electric smoker to get the best jerky recipe ready.
