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Hunting season is upon us and it's time to start making some great tasting venison jerky! Bring a little flavor of summer with the blueberries and the boldness of your favorite bourbon to this new jerky recipe.

Slicing The Meat

I have been defrosting the last of the venison in my freezer from last hunting season. Hopefully you have some fresh deer from this season. If not, venison can be bought at many local butcher shops.

I thawed my freezer packed venison roasts in a bowl of water in the refrigerator prior to slicing. Make sure to defrost any meat in the refrigerator and NOT on your kitchen counter. Submerging the meat in water will speed up the thawing process immensely.

After thawing and rinsing the deer roast, trim as much fat and silver skin as you can from the meat. Fat spoils faster than meat and will shorten the shelf life of the finished jerky.

I sliced the deer roast by hand with a very sharp knife. If you do not have a really sharp knife, wrap the roast in saran wrap and put the meat back in the freezer for 1-2 hours to partially freeze/harden the meat so slicing evenly sized strips is easier. Visit my how to slice jerky page for more information on slicing meat for the perfect jerky.

Using a jerky slicer is another great option. I like using my Weston Jerky Slicer to cut the beef and deer roasts into jerky strips.

This jerky slicer is not needed to slice the meat, but it makes it a lot easier!

RELATED PAGE: DOZENS OF JERKY RECIPES – CLICK HERE!!!

Making The Marinade

The fresh blueberries really give this jerky the flavor that it needs to be a great tasting jerky. Frozen can be used if you don't have any fresh blueberries.

Whenever using fresh ingredients such as blueberries, blending them in a blender with the rest of the ingredients is the best way to incorporate that flavor into the marinade. Simply cutting up small just doesn't give the recipe the same flavor.

Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend. I used my Vitamix when making this recipe. Any blender will work, this one is definitely bad ass though.

Pour the marinade into a ziplock bag and add the jerky strips to the marinade. Make sure that all the strips are covered fully with the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours mixing the strips in the bag every 4 hours or so to make sure the strips marinate evenly.

After the jerky has finished marinating, strain the strips in a colander. The jerky will not soak up all the marinade and the excess will need to be removed.

After patting the strips dry, place the jerky strips into a dehydrator, oven, or smoker. I used my Excalibur Dehydrator when making this recipe. You can also use an oven or smoker to make this recipe. For step by step instructions on how to use a dehydrator, oven, and smoker to make jerky; make sure to visit my How to Make Jerky page.

Testing For When The Jerky Is Finished

While drying the jerky, you want to start testing to see if it has finished at about the 3-4 hour mark. Take a piece of jerky out of the dehydrator, oven, or smoker and allow it to cool for 5 minutes to room temperature. Bend the jerky in half, it should bend and crack but not break in half. You will also see white fibers in the meat. The fibers are really visible when a piece is ripped in half.

If the jerky is not finished, continue drying for another hour and repeat the same process until the jerky is finished. 90% of the jerky i make is finished within 4-6 hours when using a dehydrator or oven and 6-9 hours when using a smoker. If pre-heating the meat in the oven, drying time can be as little as 2.5 hours.

It took about 4 ½ hours at 165°F to be done just right. The jerky turned out tasting pretty good. There is a mild blueberry and bourbon flavor. They don't over power the jerky which is nice, I'm not a fan of overly alcohol flavored jerky.

I happened to be driving through Kentucky a couple days ago when visiting my sisters and saw a sign for Buffalo Trace Distillery about 20 minutes down the road. I LOVE their bourbon and just happened to be putting out this jerky recipe where I used their bourbon, (talk about great timing) I just had to stop and take a tour of the place!

The buildings are original from the 1800's and the tour was a real blast to take. Especially the tasting at the end!

Had to grab a bottle for later....

Storing Jerky

To make the jerky last as long as possible, curing salt will really help along with keeping in air tight containers. I have put together a page on storing jerky and steps you can take to make your jerky have an extended shelf life. Check it out!

Old Pro Tips:

Trim all fat from the meat before marinating for longer lasting jerky once it’s finished drying
Use curing salt or celery juice powder to extend the life of the jerky
Pre-soak venison for a couple hours in 2 cups water and 1 cup vinegar to remove 'gamey' flavor
Frozen blueberries can also be used if no fresh are available