Tender Beef Jerky-For Real!

Here's my beef with beef jerky. First of all, it's crazy expensive to buy in the store. Second, it's usually really tough on the teeth. I'd rather have a beef stick over jerky from the store. A few years ago, I discovered a really easy to way to make jerky at home that saves money and is super tender. Let me tell you all about it.

We started buying beef from a local farm and each year I got packages of cubed steak. I had no idea what to do with it. To my surprise, it wasn't even cubed. For some reason, I expected chunks for stew. Later, I learned that "cubed" just meant that the meat was run through a tenderizing machine. Now, I know you can fry it up into chicken fried steak and all sorts of other things, but I had an idea.

What if I used this already tenderized meat to make jerky? When I was a kid, making jerky was a process. We usually made jerky with venison and we had to marinate it and then smoke it. My thought was to buy an easy to use seasoning mix and use my food dehydrator. It was a huge success! The meat was tender, flavorful and perfectly done. Since then, I've made it several times and I am always happy with the results.

The purpose of my blog is to keep things easy. I know some people get crazy with their rubs, seasonings and smokers to make world class jerky. This is meant to be an easy, how-to blog to get you started on jerky making. You can do this! Here we go!

Step 1: Get your meat! This is about 4 pounds of cubed steak, defrosted from my freezer.

Step 2: Measure out seasonings. The seasoning I use comes with super easy to read directions using whole muscle meat or ground meat

(Get the seasoning via my Amazon Affiliate link at the bottom of this blog!)

Step 3: Thoroughly mix meat that has been cut into strips with the proper measurements of seasoning. I like to put mine into a zipper bag in a bowl in the fridge overnight (at least 12 hours, longer is ok too). The longer it sits, the more moisture the salt can pull out of the meat, which will also help preserve it!

Step 4: Get meat in the dehydrator! The meat will have visibly changed colors due to the action of the salt and seasonings. If there is excess liquid, try to drain it off or pat the meat dry before putting it in the dehydrator. 

Step 5: Set your dehydrator to the correct time and temp. This really is trial and error. You want to check your meat every 30 minutes or so. The last thing you want is for it to be overcooked. My dehydrator manual suggests setting the temp to 160 degrees and dehydrating anywhere from 4-8 hours. Everyone so often, will pull one out and tear it open to see the inside. You can also finish it off in the oven to kill any possible bacteria at 275 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

Side note: My kids always tell me how disgusting the jerky looks at this stage, but no one has ever turned down a warm piece once they're done cooking!

I hope you will give this easy jerky process and recipe a try. Really, it's not a specific recipe, just encouragement that you can make this at home. To be on the safe side, I always refrigerate or freeze my jerky in small, air tight containers or vacuum sealed bags. If you'd like to try my go-to seasoning, or get a dehydrator like mine (shown above), I am posting my Amazon Affiliate links below (Home Ericanomics may earn a small commission from purchases using this link!).

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! Feel free to comment below, or find the article on my Facebook page! I appreciate all the likes, comments, shares and follows on social media too! Have a great day!

-Erica