This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy policy.
A flavor and style of cooking that has won the hearts and stomachs of all Americans is the French inspired, Cajun food! With flavors that come straight from New Orleans, you can't go wrong with this tasty recipe!
Jump to:
Slicing the meat
I love using Beef Eye of Round when making beef jerky and that is what I used for this Cajun jerky. For more information, you can find a complete breakdown of the best meat for jerky here.
The strips were sliced with the grain giving this jerky some good chew. Slicing the meat against the grain will make the jerky a little more tender. Here I have put together a step by step guide on how to slice meat for jerky.
Making the marinade
The cayenne pepper, seasoning salt, and paprika just go so well with the vinegar based marinade. Mix all ingredients and marinate in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours.
After marinating, strain the jerky strips in a colander and place the strips on paper towels. Pat dry with paper towels to remove any excess marinade still on the meat.
Dehydrating
After patting the strips dry with a paper towel, place the strips on dehydrator trays leaving space between each piece so air can circulate and dry them evenly. These bad boys were dried using my Sahara Dehydrator.
The dehydrator was set at 160F and the jerky was dried for 5 hours. Don't have a dehydrator? No worries, you can also make this jerky in a smoker or oven.
When is the jerky 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 before testing.
The jerky will harden slightly once it has cooled down, so not allowing a piece to cool before testing can result in over drying the jerky.
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 or bent in half as shown above.
This jerky took 5 hours to finish to the perfect feel. 90% of the jerky I make is finished within 4-6 hours when using a dehydrator or oven and 6-9 hours when using an electric smoker. If pre-heating the meat in the oven, drying time can be as little as 2.5 hours.
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 beef jerky and steps you can take to make your jerky have an extended shelf life.
So if you are looking for a taste of New Orleans and ready for a little spice in your life, you NEED to make a batch of this Cajun Beef Jerky! It had a spicy kick with a great herb taste from all the thyme and oregano making it a really fresh tasting jerky.
Old Pro Tips
- Use a sharp knife or partially freeze the meat before slicing. Here is my Slicing Meat Page for more information.
- Using a ziplock bag allows you to use less ingredients, saving money on marinades. Put meat in the ziplock bag and roll it up expelling all of the air inside. This allows all the meat to be covered by a relatively small amount of marinade.
- The longer you marinate, the more flavor the jerky will have. If I have time, 18 hours in the minimum I marinate my meat.
- Take jerky strips out of dehydrator and allow to cool for 5 minutes before checking to see if it's finished. It should bend and crack but not break when finished. You should also see white fibers in the meat when bent.
Ingredients
Lean Meat
Marinade
- ½ cup cold water
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
- 1 teaspoon horseradish
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon thyme
Optional
- ¼ teaspoon Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Equipment
Instructions
- Trim all visible fat from the beef and place in freezer for an hour or two to partially freeze.
- While the meat is in the freezer, combine the white vinegar, cold water, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, black pepper, horseradish, and red pepper flakes in a bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew. Cut with the grain for more chew. Or skip the freezing phase and use a Jerky Slicer for even sliced strips.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture in a ziplock bag or bowl and marinate for 8-24 hours in the refrigerator.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and strain excess marinade and pat dry the beef strips with paper towels
- Dry with either a Dehydrator, Smoker, or Oven. A Dehydrator was used above and the jerky was dried for 5 hours at 160 degrees.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Pro Tips
- Use a sharp knife or partially freeze the meat before slicing. Here is my Slicing Meat Page for more information.
- Using a ziplock bag allows you to use less ingredients, saving money on marinades. Put meat in the ziplock bag and roll it up expelling all of the air inside. This allows all the meat to be covered by a relatively small amount of marinade.
- The longer you marinate, the more flavor the jerky will have. If I have time, 18 hours in the minimum I marinate my meat.
- Take jerky strips out of dehydrator and allow to cool for 5 minutes before checking to see if it's finished. It should bend and crack but not break when finished. You should also see white fibers in the meat when bent.
Nutrition
This recipe is updated with more photos and video of the jerky making process and finished jerky. Original Post: 6/27/2016
Dan says
I just tried this and it is amazing!!!!
Thank you
Dan
Will says
Great! Nothing better than making some great tasting jerky!
Thomas says
Hi,
I’m new at this and from Denmark, I’ve been googling the ingredients and I stumble across “Seasoning salt”. I can find different types of seasoned salts, so I guess my question is ‘what is seasoning salt?’
Will says
Hey Thomas! Seasoning salt is salt mixed with some other herbs and spices to give it some flavor, it is easily found in our grocery stores here in the States. I normally don't see too many recipes with seasoning salt, make sure you are not confusing seasoning salt with curing salt.
Sharon Sopczynski says
Well I have everything mixed up and marinating using venison but now no dehydrator what temperature and for how long to cook in oven
Will says
Check out my page on making jerky in an oven. It will give you step by step instructions!
Anee says
Quick question. Any experience using fresh garlic instead of garlic powder? Or for that matter, onion and ginger instead of the powders?
Thanks! Excited to start trying this jerky journey!
Will says
I use fresh ingredients instead of powders sometimes. When I do, I like to use a blender to cut the ingredients very small. I am not sure what the exact substitutes from clove to 1 tsp of powder would be, just do a lot of taste testing!
Erik says
So I prepped this and the jalapeño lime recipe, two batches about 30 hours ago and won’t be able to remove from marinade for another 8 hours. Should still be okay with a little longer marinade?
Will says
Yeah. Should still be good!
Denny says
We have 4 pounds of venison jerky marinating with this recipe right now. Cant wait to get in the dehydrator tomorrow!
Will says
Nice!
Tara Ambroz says
Hi i am trying to find a recipe for my dad he lost his recipe book he uses hamburger for the beef jerky and has a dehydrator machine can u please help
Keith Chisholm says
Alright, here is an update. I made this recipe today and it far surpassed what I had expected. I was worried about the horseradish overpowering the other flavors and surprisingly it did not. I am extremely happy with this recipe and I will now incorporate it into my jerky arsenal. Thanks for the great jerky recipes.
Will says
Awesome to hear Keith! Glad you liked it.
Seamus says
I am looking forward to trying this recipe this weekend with my daughter. It sounds fantastic. One of my favorite recipes that I have made so far is Bolgogi jerky. I dont know if you have tried doing it before but here is what I used (found the recipe in Bon Appetite) and would love to see what you think about it :
¼ pear, grated
1 garlic clove, grated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon gochugaru (coarse Korean hot pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon grated peeled ginger
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Will says
I have not tried that recipe, but will put it on my 'to try' list. Sounds pretty interesting.... Thanks!
Trish says
Can u use ground deer
Will says
Yep! Just omit the water and decrease the vinegar to only 2tbsp.
Butch Walzel says
Hi Will!
I'm brand new to jerky-making and have a few questions: 1.) How will the bottled marinade, or packaged marinade mixes, from the grocery store, work in marinating your meat? 2.) Can you put two, or more, different flavors of marinade in the dehydrator at the same time? 3.) How do you judge the cooking time? Per pound? 4.) I have a 6-tray dehydrator, should I insert all six trays if I'm only using 3 trays of meat?
Will says
The bottled marinades will work fine. I use a lot of bottled stuff all the time. Normally I make three different recipes at a time. I buy a 3lb chunk of meat and make three 1lb batches. I dry them on separate trays on my dehydrator and have never had a problem. You do not need to use all 6 trays, but I like putting 1 empty tray on top to give a little buffer between the dehydrator fan and the first tray of jerky. Cooking time is judged by how thick your jerky is and your drying method. Start checking the meat at about 3 hours. Take a piece out, let it cool 5 minutes, and bend it. If it bends and cracks but does not break in half, it's done!
Stacey says
I tried this recipe and must say it was awful! 6 in our house and no one liked it! Way to much thyme etc!!!!!
Will says
Hey Stacey! Thanks for trying this recipe, I'm sorry you guys didn't like it... I hope you give some other recipes a try. You just have to find the ones you guys really like!
Richard Baker says
Andy,
I want to make beef jerky which is spicy. Which kind of marinade would work well to accomplish this? I have just marinaded meat before, using Worcester, cayenne pepper, a little liquid smoke, and salt. Do you have a professional marinade which would work better? Thank you for all your advice.
Will says
I made a habanero jerky the other day that was spicy and I really liked. It's Dragon Fire Beef Jerky. Make sure to blend the habaneros in a blender to make sure the jerky turns out real spicy.
Beverley says
Hola will
I’m a newbie. I’m heading up to the states to California to get my dehydrator so I can start making jerky. I haven’t seen any here in Baja so I’m going to give it a shot
I have a question I see that you have the Prague Powder as optional can you explain why it’s option and what it does to enhance the flavors and when do you use it in the recipe. For example I was reading one of the recipes and you had it as optional but in the instructions you didn’t mention when you should add this I’m assuming(but you know what they say about assuming) that it’s added (if you wanted) to the marinade mix. Is this correct?
Thanks for all the great recipes I am excited about adding this to all my other cooking methods.... canning veggie/fruit growing baking and cooking.... I sell all my products here and I’ve had many that ask me if I make jerky. My answer not yet but soon. Plus I want to make dog jerky treats too
Do you think that I could marinate the beef in my homemade bourbon bacon bbq sauce then dehydrate it and is there one ingredient that you always need to use when making jerky or is anything you want to marinate your meat in and the hydrate. I warned you I’m a newbie. Lol
Thank you and hope you and your family are having an amazing day
Beverley
Will says
Hey Beverley! The curing salt is optional because as long as you heat the jerky to 160F it will be safe to eat. However, curing salt will make sure the jerky is safe as well as make it last longer. It adds that red color you see in most jerky and other cured meats and has a distinct flavor which is synonymous with beef jerky. When using cure, add it along with the other ingredients of the marinade. I think your bourbon bacon bbq sauce sounds like it will make an AMAZING beef jerky!!! You can use ANY ingredient when making jerky but one that is normally found in all jerky is salt, it helps preserve the meat. Let me know how your jerky turns out!
Andy says
Just checking what the degrees is set at are you using Fahrenheit or Celsius?
Will says
Fahrenheit
David says
I put a thin coat of BBQ sauce on the jerky and then sprinkled cajun seasoning on it before putting it in the dehydrator. Great flavor