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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!
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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 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp seasoning salt
- 1 tsp horseradish
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp thyme
Optional
- ¼ tsp 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
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?’
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.
Well I have everything mixed up and marinating using venison but now no dehydrator what temperature and for how long to cook in oven
Check out my page on making jerky in an oven. It will give you step by step instructions!
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!
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!