Make Beef Jerky In The Oven
Jerky makes a delicious snack for the whole family and a great gift for friends. It’s always nice to have some great jerky recipes to prepare.
I’ve listed 4 jerky recipes you can try at home:
1. Venison Jerky
– Cut the venison in strips approximately 1/4 x 1 x 8-inches. – Mix all ingredients and marinate venison approximately 10 hours turning once every hour. – Smoke venison on grill until completely dry or you may use oven on low heat with venison spread out on broiler pan.
2. Deer Jerky
– 2 T crushed black peppercorns- 2 T graham marsala- 2 t Prague Powder #1
Directions:
– Combine in a blender, mix with sliced beef or venison in a white trash bag .
– Refrigerate 24-36 hours, mixing occasionally. Dry about 15 hours at 125’F.
3. Deer Jerky
– 1 1/2 To 2 lbs lean boneless deer meat, partially frozen- 1/4 c Soy sauce- 1/4 ts Hickory smoked salt- 1/4 c Firmly packed brown sugar- 1 sm Bottle liquid smoke
Directions:
– Trim all fat from the meat. Slice the meat as thinly as possible. – In a bowl combine the remaining ingredients. – Stir until dissolved. – Add the meat and mix well. – Cover and refrigerate overnight. – Shake the excess liquid from the meat and arrange in a shallow pan or cookie sheet. – Dry the meat in a 150F or 200 degree F oven until dry and brown, a minimum of 8 hours. – Cool, remove from the pan, and store in a glass jar.
4. Chinese Beef Jerky
Directions:
Can You Make Jerky At 200 Degrees
In a Convection Oven, You will need to Set the OVEN to 170º F Then, Bake for 2 to 3 hours. If Your Meat Was Cut Thicker Or Your OVEN isnt as Powerful, The Strips Could Take Longer Than 2 To 3 Hours. In Some Cases, It Will Take 5 Hours Or More, So Keep This in Mind When Youre Planning To Make Jerky. The oven temperature is important because it affects the cooking time. For example, if your roast takes less than an hour to cook, try lowering the temperature by 10 degrees. Likewise, there are many other factors that affect the length of time required for cooking. As a general rule, however, shorter cooking times mean better results. Also, remember that the hotter the pan, generally, means faster cooking speeds.
How To Determine When It’s Finished Drying
9 – It should take between 3-8 hours to dry in the oven depending on the thickness of the jerky. Check after 3 hours, and continue as needed. The jerky will be done when it bends and cracks but does not break in half. It took 4 hours to dry this jerky to my liking.
10. Allow the jerky to cool for an hour or so to room temperature and then store in air tight containers in the refrigerator or a dark cool place. Learn more about how long jerky stays good and how to store it on my storing beef jerky page.
That’s all there is to making great tasting beef jerky in an oven. It’s a great way to get started in making jerky without having to buy any fancy and expensive equipment.
Let me know if you have any questions or share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!
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Selecting Meat For Beef Jerky
There is no best meat for jerky. Any lean meat can be used to make it. I read somewhere that meat for jerky needs to be 93% lean or higher. This is because beef fat does not dry well and becomes rancid quickly. That said, nowadays we make beef jerky not for it’s long shelf life without refrigeration but for its taste. In my house, a batch of jerky doesn’t last long enough for fat to become rancid.
Fatty jerky, without a doubt, tastes awesome. It’s also easier to chew. I tried it once from Big John’s Beef Jerky – my favorite artisan beef jerky maker – and got hooked for good. However, making fatty jerky in the oven may be problematic as kitchen ovens’ lowest temperature settings aren’t low enough not to melt fat and make your jerky greasy.
Commonly used beef cuts for making jerky:
It makes financial sense to go with the cheapest cut you can find.
Best Homemade Oven Beef Jerky
Best Homemade Oven Beef Jerky Our homemade beef jerky recipe makes a savory snack thats Paleo, Keto, and Gluten-Free. Its packed with flavor and protein, and has the perfect chewable jerky texture!
Anytime I put the word best in a title, I feel like I need to explain myself
We have made many beef jerky recipes over the years. Some with brown sugar or honey, some with various cuts of beef, and different spices.
This particular Best Homemade Oven Beef Jerky recipe is a personal favorite, because:
- There is no added sugar.
- It offers a fabulous blend of spices.
- And it fits into Paleo, Keto, and Gluten-Free meal plans.
Its not the sweetest jerky or even the prettiest beef jerky Ive ever made. Yet it does take the cake in bold flavor, texture, and health!
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Choosing And Slicing The Meat
1 – Start by buying a lean piece of meat, I am using flank steak for this recipe. Flank steak is not my favorite cut of meat to use, mainly because it produces less tender jerky. The flank steak I have access to here in Austin has a little more marbling than I like and is also about twice as expensive as my favorite cut beef eye of round.
2 – Trim any visible fat from the meat. Fat will make your jerky spoil, so cut off as much as possible.
3 – Wrap the meat in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 1-2 hours to partially freeze. Freezing is not mandatory, but does make slicing the meat at a consistent width easier. Slice against the grain at around -¼ thick. When using flank steak, I have found that wider slices allow the jerky pieces to stay together better and produce better jerky.
You can also skip the freezing stage and slice your jerky using a jerky slicer. I use a Weston Jerky Slicer. It makes sure all your strips are the same width which allows them to dry evenly. Having a slicer is great when making a lot of jerky.
How To Make Beef Jerky In A Dehydrator Or Smoker
You can also use a commercial dehydrator or smoker instead of the oven to turn your beef into jerky. If you choose to go this route, follow the first six steps of this recipe, and then fire up your preferred appliance. Follow the manufacturers directions for temperature and time to dry out your beef.
For reference, the Taste of Home Test Kitchen smoked the jerky at 170° for 2 hours and dehydrated it at the same temperature in 1-1/2 hours. So, budget at least a few hours to finish your jerky no matter how you choose to dry it.
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Beef Jerky And Food Safety
There are several methods that are commonly used to ensure that beef jerky is safe to eat. USDA recommends to “steam or roast meat to 160 °F before dehydrating it“. The reason for doing that is to destroy any potential pathogenic bacteria present in the meat. One way to achieve that is to place meat in an oven at 275F for 10 minutes.
Stanley Marianski in his Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages book suggests, as an alternative, to boil the meat for 2 minutes in the marinade, if you have enough, or in a separately prepared brine.
Recipe: Homemade Jerky In The Oven
When my daughter started first grade, the talk coming from my little girl was more about lunches than what to wear on the first day. With my daughter, its never a sure thing if shell eat her whole lunch, but if theres a piece of sweet and salty jerky nearby, shes sure to mow it. So with school on the horizon and a London broil beckoning at the neighborhood butcher, all signs that week pointed to making a big batch of jerky.
The technique I use doesnt require a dehydrator, and is borrowed from the Lobels Meat Bible. The most difficult thing about making homemade jerky is slicing the meat evenly freezing it ahead of time helps tremendously . Also, using a very sharp, long knife is key.
Both turkey and beef work well with the sesame, soy, and ginger flavors I use in my marinade below , so this is a good place to start. Once you get the technique down, play around with the seasonings. I love a spicy jerky, so this time I made two batches: one with chili and lots of cracked black pepper, and one without. You know what flavors you like so dont be afraid to get bold here, and dont forget you can divide batches one flank steak makes a lot of jerky. More than enough for mother and child, and all of their friends.
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What Temperature Do You Cook Beef Jerky In A Dehydrator
Nowadays you dont need a fancy food processor or a high-tech dehydrating machine to make a jerked meat. You can just buy an oven with this feature, set it to low heat, turn on a fan, put the meat in there, close the door, wait a while, open the window, remove the lid, take out what you want, place it in something else, etc.
What Temperature Should Meat Be Dehydrated At
For the best results, the beef jerky should be cooked at a low temperature, like 175º F.
Cooking jerky low and slow is the best way to ensure that the moisture is all removed from the meat without it becoming too tough or chewy.
Regardless of the beef type and thickness, you should set the oven somewhere between 160°F and 200°F.
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What Temperature To Cook Beef Jerky In Oven
For traditional jerky, which is usually made from beef, pork, or lamb, this method requires a high temperature setting and a lengthy drying time before the meat is ready to be processed. This makes it hard to produce a quality product at a reasonable cost. However, there are many ways to make jerked meat without using such a complicated process. You can dry meat in your oven or on a grill, making it easier to control the temperature and speed of drying.
What Youll Need To Make Homemade Beef Jerky
When making beef jerky, its important to start with a well-trimmed, lean cut of meat, as fat does not dry out and accelerates spoilage. An eye of round roast is ideal its affordable, accessible, lean, and easy to trim. Before slicing, pop it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours it will be much easier to cut.
The marinade contains soy sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, seasoning, and unseasoned meat tenderizer. Meat tenderizer contains bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down meat tissue. You can find it in the spice section of your supermarket .
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The Best Homemade Oven Beef Jerky
When you are trying to stick to a particular diet, it can be really tricky to find healthy and tasty store-bought items that fit.
Therefore, you tend to have to make meals, and all your snacks, at home. Although this is a little inconvenient at first, it leads to a much healthier, much more delicious daily routine.
It also revs up the creative juices!
For instance: We were recently testing out a new food dehydrator. Even though I loved how it dried fresh fruit, I was very unhappy with the results of homemade beef jerky. Especially after waiting so many hours.
So, to the oven, we went to make the best beef jerky right at home!
Ive made this oven beef jerky recipe many times since, and have been thrilled with the results every time. I hope you give homemade jerky a try soon and love it as much as we do!
How Do You Know When Beef Jerky Is Done Dehydrating
The best way to know when beef jerky is done dehydrating is to take a piece of the jerky out of the oven, let it cool, and then taste it.
If you havent tried jerky before, it might be hard to recognize when it is done.
Regardless, the key is to look for a texture that you like eating you want to take the jerky out of the oven as soon as its a good texture so that it doesnt become overcooked.
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How To Make Beef Jerky In The Oven
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Drying out your meat to create jerky is an ancient cooking process that increases the shelf-life of the meat and adds a delicious and unique flavor and texture to your steak. While most people typically purchase their beef jerky at the store, you can also make it in your oven. To create beef jerky, you’ll have to marinate the meat first, then cook the beef for a long time at a low temperature. If you follow the correct steps and use the right ingredients, you can create your very own homemade beef jerky in no time!
The Basic Ingredients Of The Beef Jerky
There are many meat cuts and spices used to make beef Jerky. But I would recommend only a few that give out the best jerky.
One of the best meat cuts for Jerky is silverside. Its a lean cut with little fat and is less likely to spoil. Other good cuts I would recommend are Sirloin and the Beef eye of round.
Use gluten-free soy sauce. But if you are following a Paleo diet plan, use coconut aminos instead.
Worcestershire sauce enhances the flavor of the beef.
Liquid smoke will give a smoky flavor to your jerky just like the real wood smoke.
You can add spices according to your taste. But I would recommend salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, ancho chili powder, oregano, and smoked paprika to give a great flavor.
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Oven Baked Beef Jerky
If youre following some sort of diet plan, it can be quite challenging for you to find the recipes that fit best for your plan. Most of the healthy foods are quite boring and you have to compromise on taste. There are only a few recipes that are tasty and healthy at the same time. But beef Jerky is one of the recipes that promise a great flavor, texture and doesnt interrupt your fitness goals.
Beef Jerky In Convection Oven: A Guide For Beginners
While most people know beef jerky as the preserved meat substance that they can buy pre-packaged at the store, its totally possible to make your own beef jerky at home.
Making beef jerky in convection oven is actually very simple, and you can create lots of variations of this yummy snack with ease.
Not everyone is familiar with how a convection oven can be used to dehydrate meats and other foods, so well walk through a step-by-step process to make it easy.
With the help of this guide, youll be able to make your own beef jerky any time that you want.
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Cuts Of Meat That Work Well
The truth is that any cut will work. The key when it comes to buying the meat is to always go lean!
If there is fat on the meat it will not dehydrate well because the fat will constantly moisten the meat, fat does not dehydrate at the same rate as meat, and most importantly, when fat breaks down it will break the meat down with it causing the meat to rot very quickly.
I like to use lean, tenderized steak normally store bought with an eye on a full steak dinner but then usurped and reallocated as meat for making jerky.
The reason I go with tenderized is that it really allows the flavor of the marinade to get deep into the meat making it taste spectacular, and also the cure gets in deep making the meat last longer.
To tenderize the meat yourself you can either pound on it with a tenderizer or you can cut slices into the surface of the meat.
You can use flank steak, top- or bottom round, sirloin tip, or eye of round. You can tenderize any of these yourself too.
Thinly sliced meat, strips of meat, or sheets of meat work best in terms of time. The thicker the meat, the longer it will take to dehydrate.
Try to stick with cuts that are to ¼ inches thick.
If you are going to slice the meat thinly yourself, I recommend flash freezing it first until the outside is frozen, but the inside is still soft. This just makes it easier to slice thin, even slices.
What Temperature Do You Dehydrate Jerky In The Oven
The temperature that I use is 175 F. You can go up to 200 F if you want, but I have found that the lower temperature is best. You get a chewy texture but are able to avoid that desiccated feeling to the meat.
Remember that the meat is sliced quite thin. So, if you go too high, you could end up overcooking the meat too much. This can impact both the texture and the flavor.
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