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Chili Lime has become a favorite flavor among all types of snacks in the last couple of years. Well if it works for potato chips, why not jerky? After trying several different recipes, this is the best one that I created. My Fiances' Wife's* favorite recipe so far, this is a must try.
Original Post Date: March 2nd, 2015 *Recipe updated with more pictures and step by step instructions*
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Slicing the meat
Start with a great cut of beef when making this jerky. I used Beef Eye of Round, but you can find a complete list of the best cuts of meat to dry beef jerky by clicking here.
The first step of slicing meat for jerky is to trim the cut of meat of all visible fat. You can see the white fat in the picture below, just trim that off BEFORE you start slicing the meat. Fat spoils faster than meat, so the more you get off now, the longer your jerky will be shelf stable.
Slice the meat with a very sharp knife either with the grain for a more chewy jerky or against the grain for a more tender jerky.
Slice even strips so they will dry evenly and be finished at the same time. You can wrap the roast in plastic wrap and partially freeze for 1-2 hours to make slicing easier.
I didn’t use it on this recipe, but a jerky slicer is a FANTASTIC piece of equipment to help get even strips when slicing jerky.
Making the marinade
I love chili garlic sauce and that is why I LOVE this recipe. I love chili garlic when I eat Pho as well as grilled pork and rice, so why not use it in jerky?! Well it turned out GREAT in jerky!
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or ziplock bag and mix well. Since this recipe does not have any whole peppers, blending in a blender is not needed. If you are not familiar with chili garlic sauce, it can be purchased at any major supermarket or a local Asian supermarket.
Related Page: Dozens of Great Tasting Jerky Recipes – Click Here
Add the earlier sliced meat strips to the marinade and mix around so all the strips are evenly covered. Allow the strips to marinate for 6-24 hours in the refrigerator. Do NOT marinate the meat at room temperature, always marinate in the fridge to prevent the meat from spoiling.
Dehydrating
Once the meat has finished marinating, strain any excess marinade in a colander. I marinated this beef for a total of 20 hours before straining. The longer the marinade process, the more intense flavor the jerky will have!
Before adding the meat to your dehydrator, oven, or smoker; lay out paper towels placing the meat strips on top. Pat dry the strips to remove even more of the excess marinade. This step will help speed up the drying process and prevent the meat from being ‘sticky’ after it has finished drying.
Place the strips on your dehydrator trays, oven trays, or smoker rack to dehydrate/dry the jerky.
I dried them in my Excalibur Dehydrator for a total of 3 hours at 165°F and 1 hour at 145°F. Make sure the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160°F to kill any potential bacteria. The 3 hours at 165°F in the dehydrator does the trick. You can also pre-heat the meat in an oven before drying if your dehydrator does not heat up to 160°F. Check out my page on jerky safety for more information on this process.
Related Page: Dehydrator Reviews - Click Here
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.
When I taste the lime in this jerky, I picture myself sitting on a beach in Mexico sipping on a Corona or a Dos Equis. Sand between my toes while slowly turning my beer upside down allowing the lime wedge to float throughout the beer giving it that little extra kick. In reality, I am normally in the middle of hot Texas without a beach in sight! It’s still nice to day dream…
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
- Marinate closer to 24 hours for the most intense flavor
- Use fresh Limes for most intense flavor
Ingredients
Lean Beef
- 1 lb eye of round
Marinade
- 1 teaspoon mesquite liquid smoke (Don't add if using a smoker)
- 2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon lime juice
- 1 zest of lime
Optional
- ¼ teaspoon Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Instructions
- Pick you favorite type of beef and trim all visible fat. Place the meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours to partially freeze. This allows for easier slicing and more consistent widths.
- Mix all above ingredients in a container with a tight fitting lid. Whisk marinade until all brown sugar is dissolved.
- Remove beef from the freezer and slice against the grain between ⅛"-¼" thick.
- Add sliced beef to the container of marinade and shake well to evenly coat the meat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours.
- After marinating, remove and dry the strips with paper towels. Dry your meat using your Oven, Dehydrator, or Smoker.
- Jerky will be finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half. Allow to cool for several hours before storing in an air tight container.
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
- Marinate closer to 24 hours for the most intense flavor
- Use fresh Limes for most intense flavor
Nutrition
You Might Also Like:
How to Make Beef Jerky with a Dehydrator
The Best Dehydrator for Making Beef Jerky
Marty says
Hi there , this jerky is amazing and has so much flavour I’ve made it a few times . Just a quick question tho , if I double the amount of meat do I double the ingredients too or would the ratio change ?
Thanks again
Will says
Simply double the recipe and you will get good!
Marty says
Sorry my bad I failed to see the x2 x3 part at the top , thank you again
Rebecca says
Hi, Will.
Thanks for all of the time and effort you put into this site and for sharing such a wealth of information. My husband and I love beef jerky, but good jerky is hard to find. I just made this Chili Lime Jerky, and it’s fabulous. We don’t have a dehydrator, but followed your guidelines for using an oven, and the old girl performed beautifully. I dried the beef on cooling racks, which were sitting inside of half-sheet baking pans, and the process was simple and easy. The combination of red peppers and citrus is excellent, and I love the hint of sweetness. I’ll definitely make this many times again and look forward to trying more of your recipes.
Will says
I'm happy it turned out great tasting for you guys! Definitely one of my wife's favorites. Thanks for leaving a comment letting me know how much you enjoyed it!
Bryce O'Neal says
Pual I ended grading my lime into marinate instead of testing it is that going to be a issue? I marinated jurkey for four days is it a wrong move to grade the lime vs zesting
Will says
That should be fine. Four days is a little long for a marinade that has citric juice, the meat might be somewhat cooked from the juice changing the finished texture. It should be fine though.
Hannah Chynoweth says
grating and zesting is just a size difference in the lime rine. How did this turn out?
PaulC says
Very very tasty
Yve says
Hi looking forward to trying this recipe and wondering do I have to change anything for ground meat? I have some nice moose that I want to try this on? Using a jerky gun and a dehydrator . Will the times in the dryer still be the same also? Thanks
Will says
This recipe does not have too much liquid ingredients and should turn out fine using the recipe as is. The drying time will always vary depending on how thick your strips are, the dehydrator you are using, where you live..... Start checking the jerky at 3 hours and keep drying as needed.
Chris says
Made this in dehydrator for the first time now onto the 2nd batch . Didn't last long. Added extra chlli flakes and tsp smoked paprika instead of liquid smoke. Thanks for recipes
Will says
No problem Chris, jerky rarely does last long.... Especially when there are friends and family close by...
Audra says
This is SO good. The first time I made this, I made it as-is and it was VERY good. Better than a few others I’ve made. I made it again today, and these are my tips/changes:
Flank steak (did 3.6 lbs) cut into 1/4 inch thick pieces
Trimmed as much fat as I could before marinating
Added: 1 jalapeño + 2 mangos to marinade (all ingredients blended in food processor)
Marinaded for about 20 hours
Dehydrated the meat using a dehydrator at 160 for 7-7 1/2 hours.
AMAZING results! 🙂 thanks for recipe
Paul S says
This is the best jerky that I have ever tasted! I used Costco USDA Prime Round Eye and sliced it up in a jerky slicer. I let it marinate for 24 hrs and just drained it in a colander before laying it on the racks to place it in my smoker, I did not remove the excess brine. I used the smoking procedure that Will outlined for his Tennessee jerky and a mixture of Apple and Hickory wood chips. Thank you Will for a fantastic recipe!
Will says
Glad it turned out so good Paul! Thanks for leaving a comment and letting me know.
Larry Reich says
Great recipe, but I really like lime so I went with a half cup of Realime concentrate my second batch. It really kicked up an already great recipe. Great site Thanks for all your work !!
Will says
Nice! I'll have to try the concentrate next time making this to see how it comes out. Glad you enjoyed the recipe Larry!
Jeff Remlinger says
Do you use the curing salt in place of the table salt ?
Will says
If you decide to use the curing salt, just add it to the marinade along with the other salt that the recipe calls for.
Leo Dannenberger says
just a question about the ingredients, if I'm using 5 lbs. of meat do I 5 x the ingredients for the marinate ?
Will says
Yep! If you come across a recipe that has whole peppers however, don't just multiply the peppers. For example, if a recipe called for 1 habanero and you were making 5lbs, Instead of adding 5 habaneros, start with 3 and taste test the marinade. But for this recipe, just multiply by 5.
Jeffrey says
This is for Tina. Tina I tried using the chili lime recipe for ground beef jerky and it did not translate well to ground beef. Too much liquid and the finished product had an odd texture. VERY tasty though. The Wicked Fiery Ground Beef Jerky recipe is excellent and can be easily toned down by reducing the amount of spicy pepper used. I use dried habaneros my wife grew in the garden (which I dried in the dehydrator).
Tina says
Thank you for the tip!
Tina Robinson says
Thank you!
Tina Robinson says
I have a question about converting this recipe (or any others you have) into ground beef jerky...
so, instead of marinating it, just add the ingredients and mix with ground beef and then put it in the dehydrator? Can it be made immediately after mixing, or does it need to "marinate" in the fridge first? Does that make the taste stronger than marinating the meat (not using ground beef)?
My dehydrator isn't very large and the instructions included with it say I should finish the jerky making process in my oven if using sliced meat. But I can use ground beef and do the whole process in my dehydrator.
I'm looking forward to making some of these recipes.
Thanks!
Will says
Ground jerky heats up to an internal temperature faster than whole muscle jerky, that is probably why they say you can do it all in the dehydrator. I would recommend using curing salt when making ground jerky because it helps kill any bacteria. I normally mix the marinade into the ground meat and then put in the fridge for an hour or so, not to intensify the flavor, but because it binds the meat together allowing it to make better strips that don't fall apart. Hope that helps Tina!
Tina Robinson says
Thank you for the tip!
Jeffrey Smoker says
Hey thanks Will. I learned the lesson of too much liquid trying to convert the Chili Lime
recipe for ground beef. Just made a mess though the end product is well liked by the family.
Learning experience!
Jeffrey Smoker says
Hey Will,
Just made up a batch of ground beef jerky with your Chili Lime recipe. This is probably my 6th or 7th batch of jerky, mostly with 93% ground beef. I altered your recipe to reduce the amount of liquid, and wound up with 10-11 tablespoons of liquid for 4lbs of product. BTW I use Prague powder #1. My question is, it seems that the fat somewhat separated during mixing. Ever had this happen to you? Can't be a bad thing, right?
Will says
I have not really had that happen. If it separated out though, that's not bad. A little fat is good to bind the meat together, but without the fat it will last longer when storing .
Peg says
Have you ever made this with, or do you think it would work, using ground turkey?
Will says
I have not made this one with turkey, but I bet it would turn out pretty good! Let me know how it tastes Peg!
Fabian says
Thanks a lot for this awesome recipe!
I'm relatively new to making jerky, having started only this summer, and this is definitely the best batch I've made so far.
And since I (accidentally) bought a triple pack of the chili garlic sauce, I'll be able to do it again and again 😀
Will says
You can never have to much chili garlic sauce! Haha. I'm sure your friends and family will be happy that you accidentally bought a triple pack, more jerky for them!
Nathan says
Hi. I was thinking about making this and modifying it for ground beef jerky/beef sticks. How would you advise to do this? Seems like it is too much liquid for ground beef recipe.
Thanks!
Will says
This should be a good amount of liquid for making ground jerky. Maybe go with 1.5 tbsp on the soy sauce and worcestershire sauce and 1 tbsp of lime juice. If it seems like you can add the full amount, adjust at that time.
Ralph Carlone says
Thank you for re-publishing this and bringing it to our attention again! I made this for a hiking/log cabin type of trip and the lime flavor married perfectly with the chili garlic sauce. I didn't completely pat this one dry because I wanted to keep some of the zest and chili flakes around and this left with a great refreshing flavor punch to the mouth during a particularly strenuous section of the trail. I'll absolutely be making this one again and again.
Will says
Glad to hear you like it! This is such a good recipe and would be great on the trail. Thanks for the comment Ralph!