Sweet And Spicy Homemade Beef Jerky Recipe

Intensely savory and packed full of protein, beef jerky is the snack made for serious snackers. For some of us, the round, cylindrical sticks of beef are a reminder of childhood hikes, picnics, and road trips that required quick eats on the go. Beef jerky today goes far beyond the classic Slim Jim, though — it now comes in long, thin, wide pieces and can be found in a variety of sweet and spicy flavors. Deliciously chewy and bursting with beefy flavor, the dehydrated slices of thinly cut steak come at a cost, though, one that can make an otherwise easy snack feel like a luxury.

Making your own beef jerky not only saves money but also allows you to fully customize the flavor of your snack. In this recipe, written with developer Michelle McGlinn, the beef is marinated in a sweet and spicy hot honey and ancho chile sauce, then dehydrated in the oven until chewy and pliable. The best part? Though a dehydrator is useful for many foods, you don't need it to make jerky. With only a few minutes of hands-on work, beef jerky is an easy snack to make at home, even without a dehydrator — you just need an oven, a wooden spoon, and a little patience.

The first and most important step in making jerky is selecting the right type of beef. Because fat doesn't dehydrate like lean meat, it is important to select as lean a cut of beef as possible in order to avoid spoiling. Economical cuts include eye of round, London broil, and bottom round — think of the meat you would use to make a stew. Flavorful cuts like flank steak and sirloin are also great options, though they will cost you a little more.

With the meat picked out, you just need soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, about one small orange, hot honey, ancho chile powder, garlic powder, and curing salt, also referred to as cure #1. This is a pink salt that differs from Himalayan salt and is used for preventing bacterial growth.

Freeze the beef for 1 hour, until chilled, then slice it into long strips no thicker than ¼-inch thick.

Add the soy sauce, Worcestershire, orange juice, honey, ancho chile powder, garlic powder, and curing salt to a bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the beef and cover it completely.

Transfer it to a sealable bag and marinate it for 24-48 hours.

Once marinated, preheat the oven to 300 F.

Gather metal skewers and poke the skewers through the meat so that the strips hang from the skewers firmly. Space them about 1 inch apart, or about 5 strips per skewer.

Balance the skewers on the rack in the oven, letting the strips hang down. Place a foil-lined sheet tray under the jerky slices. Bake for 10 minutes.

Drop the oven's temperature to the lowest setting, 170 F.

Place a wooden spoon in the oven's door to keep it cracked open, then bake for 4 hours, or until the jerky is completely dried out.

Carefully remove the spoon and jerky from the oven and let it cool to serve.

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A dehydrator is a specific appliance that, like an oven or air fryer, circulates warm air in a confined space in order to remove moisture from food. Unlike an oven, though, the dehydrator can work at temperatures under 170 F, and has ventilation that removes moisture while it heats. The air fryer also uses ventilation, which means that you can use your air fryer instead to dehydrate foods. If you already own an air fryer, you might not need to invest in a dehydrator – and with a few tricks, you really don't even need an air fryer, either.

The oven can be used to dehydrate foods even at its lowest setting of 170 F, but requires some creativity to get the proper ventilation. Stick a wooden spoon (or otherwise heat-proof object) in the oven's door to prop it open. This lets moisture and some heat escape, effectively acting as a dehydrator. This method requires a little more chaperoning and a little more patience than a dehydrator, but the resulting jerky is just about the same pliable texture it would be if you'd made it in a dehydrator.

Jerky doesn't technically require curing salt, especially if you are blasting the pieces with heat before dehydrating, as we do in our recipe. Curing salt is a handy nitrate that preserves food by helping to remove the moisture that causes bacterial growth. This means that before the jerky is even in the oven, it has been partially cured to remove bacteria. Since the marinated jerky is still raw, it still requires dehydration in order to be edible.

Because the curing salt prevents bacterial growth, jerky that has been cured with cure #1 before being dehydrated lasts longer than jerky that has not. It can also be stored in a cool, dark location (like your pantry or basement) without the need for refrigeration. So while curing salt isn't completely necessary, especially for small batches of jerky, it is helpful to use both for your peace of mind and for longer storage.

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