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Don't let the pretty mug fool you; this peppered beef jerky has a spicy kick to it!
I was SO HAPPY with how this jerky turned out. It had a fantastic peppery flavor that wasn't too spicy, but...just...perfect.
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Slicing the Meat
Trim all exterior fat from the roast. Fat spoils faster than meat, so removing as much as you can now will ensure a longer shelf life for the finished peppered beef jerky.
Slice the meat against the grain of the meat to ensure a more tender jerky. The image above shows you how to determine which way the grains in the meat run.
Hint: The lines you see running throughout the meat is the direction of the grain. Cut perpendicular to those lines for a tender jerky.
The thickness of your peppered beef jerky strips should be ⅛"-¼" thick. You can decide whether you want thin strips or "elephant ear" jerky, really wide but thin sliced jerky.
The Peppered Jerky Seasoning
Lemon pepper is one of my favorite spices to use when cooking. It goes good on chicken & fish; but goes GREAT on jerky! That little lemony flavor with the spice from the pepper is to a great pairing.
Also using more black pepper for that real peppery flavor. Add some other basic jerky seasonings into the mix and this is one REALLY good jerky recipe!
Ingredients
- Black Pepper
- Lemon Pepper
- Sea Salt
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Coriander
- Curing Salt
- Beef Broth
Marinating The Jerky
Marinating this peppered beef jerky is where it gets the deep intense flavor we are so much after. Mix all the ingredients into a bowl or ziplock bag.
Hint: The Curing Salt is added along with the rest of the ingredients.
Add the sliced beef strips to the marinade and mix around making sure they are all covered in marinade. The beef tends to stick together, so mixing it around is crucial!
I prefer using a ziplock bag over a bowl. You need less marinade and the seasonings cover the meat better.
Marinate for 8-24 hours in the refrigerator. The longer you marinade this peppered beef jerky, the better it is going to taste!
Drying The Jerky
After marinating, strain the jerky in a colander. Lay out paper towels and place the jerky strips on the paper towels.
The goal is to pat dry the jerky strips to remove any excess marinade that is on the surface of the meat. Do NOT wipe it off, just lightly pat it dry.
Place the jerky strips on your dehydrator trays leaving some space between the meat so air can circulate.
Dry on the highest temperature setting, normally 165-175°F, for 4-6 hours until the jerky is finished.
How to Test When Jerky is Finished Drying
The secret to getting the perfect jerky is knowing HOW to tell when it's finished drying. The most common mistake is over drying. I'll show you how to avoid this.
After the 4 hour mark in the dehydrator is when you want to start testing the jerky.
REMOVE a piece from the dehydrator and allow to rest at room temperature for 2-3 minutes to cool off. Once cooled, bend or rip the end of the jerky to see if it cracks. It should crack, but NOT break in half.
Look for white fibers within the meat like seen in the picture above. This peppered beef jerky ripped in half showing the classic white fibers seen in finished jerky.
This jerky is finished. If it doesn't do this, continue drying for another hour and re-test.
Top Tip: Make sure to allow the jerky piece to cool for 2-3 minutes before testing. If you test when it's still hot, it will be more pliable making you think it is underdone. Testing hot jerky is the BIGGEST reason people overdry their jerky!
Storage
When finished drying, remove the jerky from the dehydrator and allow to cool to room temperature, about an hour.
Store in airtight containers such as ziplock bags. Jerky will be good for 2-3 weeks if kept in a dark cool area of your house OUT of the sun. Check out my page on Jerky Storage for more information.
Ingredients
Lean Meat
- 1 lb Beef Top Round or Venison
Marinade
- ½ cup cold water or beef broth
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
- ½ teaspoon coriander
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon Prague Powder #1 (curing salt)
- ¼ teaspoon corn syrup solids (optional)
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 Prague Powder #1, corn syrup solids, coriander, garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, black pepper, lemon pepper and cold water in a medium size bowl or ziplock bag. Mix well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain. Cut with the grain for a chewier jerky. Or skip the freezing phase and use a Jerky Slicer for evenly sliced strips.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture and marinate for 6-24 hours in the refrigerator.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and pat dry with paper towels.
- Dry in either a Dehydrator, Smoker, or Oven. A Dehydrator was used with this recipe and dried for 5 hours at 145 degrees.
Pro Tips
- Slicing with the grain of the meat will give the jerky more of a chew
- Curing salt will help extend the shelf life of the finished jerky
- Use liquid smoke if drying in a dehydrator or oven for a great smoky flavor
Nutrition
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods.
Lana
I found this recipe in your cookbook and decided to use it as my first go at jerky. I used shaved beef and dehydrated for 4 hours. It came out perfect. The flavor is out of this world. Using the super thin beef created a perfect balance of texture between crispy and chewy texture. I can’t wait to try your other recipes and thicker cuts of meat. This is going to become an addiction. Thanks so much!
Piotr
Abosolutely stunning
Mitko
Hey there!
Just finished this recipe and it's awesome! I was pretty brave with the peppers so it's really hot :D, but it's a good reason to take some extra beers!
Thank you Will!
Cheers from Bulgaria!
Ron Mole
Hi Will,
I usually use a rub that is sold in outdoor stores. I made some with the rub and also some with this recipe along with your wife's Chilli Lime yesterday. I used a smoker with very light smoke. Your recipes turned out great. Won't be buying the rub anymore. Thank you.
Will
That's what happens Ron, better to make it yourself!
Firrmi
This site is wonderful. I am here for more than a year and I’ve already tried many of your recipes, but this one is my favourite. Thanks man for sharing all your knowledge, you’re my jerky-guru 😉 Greetings from Poland!
Will
Thanks Firrmi! This recipe definitely makes a really tasty jerky. I have a buddy here in Colorado that is from Poland, I've only heard great things about the place. Weird question, do you mushroom hunt? I have noticed that Polish people like to search for wild mushrooms. Thanks again Firrmi for checking out the site from the other side of the world!
kt
Is curing salt necessary in this recipe? I have seen it as optional in other recipes. If it is necessary, what other kinds of salt can I substitute (i.e. pickling, sea, kosher, etc)?
Thanks so much we have loved this site!!
Will
Curing salt it always optional. If you don't use it, you can substitute with any of the salts you mentioned. Thanks for checking out the site!
Nathan
I made this and one other recipe (doc's best beef jerky from somewhere else on the internet) as my first batch ever with my new dehydrator. After making the marinade I thought I'd like doc's better, but after they were finished, this one ended up being my favorite of the two. Doc's was still really good though! One note, I left out the coriander in this recipe.
This recipe called for the dehydrator to be set at 145° for 5 hours but I read elsewhere that any bacteria present in the meat is only killed once it hits a temperature of 160°-165°. What I ended up doing was drying it at 160° for 4 hours, but it came out a little too dry. Is it safe to dry it at only 145°?
Any tips for next time? I think I'll experiment with drying at 160° until the meat reaches that temperature (how long that will be, I don't know) and after that lower the temperature to 145° until the total drying time is 4 hours. Hopefully the lower temperature will prevent it from drying out too much. Again, any tips would be very much appreciated!
Thanks for this recipe and this website in general. It's a great help as I'm starting out with the hobby!
Will
It should be 160F on the recipe card, not 145F (I fixed it, thanks!) I have tested my dehydrators and it seems to take about 3 hours for the jerky to reach an internal temperature of 160F. Once that internal temperature is met, then the dehydrator can be lowered to 145F. Depending on the thickness of the jerky, it might take longer than 4 hours to dry. Hope that helps Nathan!
Wayne
Hey! Thanks for this site! I just made up some ground turkeyDos Pepper jerky yesterday and it was quite awesome. Delicious! Gonna make some with ground beef today. Question for you: when you sat preheat to 160 IT how are you getting that done? I’m using a pellet grill, set to 180. I have a Thermapen.
Will
Great! The way I do it is use a thermometer with a probe on a cable that is safe to be in an oven or grill. I wrap a thin piece of meat around the probe or a little bit of ground meat. That way I can monitor the temperature while it's in the grill.
Steve
Will...what a great site. Thank you!
Will
Thanks Steve!
Jere
Hello Will, recently found your site after my nephew lent me his dehydrator and I'm having a lot of fun trying your different recipes. Made a batch of this, Dos Pepper, and it was a huge hit at a family gathering last weekend.
I'm marinading a batch of your Jalapeno Lime tonight! Just wanted to say thanks for all your great tips and instructions. Cheers.
Will
This jerky is definitely a good one! Glad to hear you are enjoying the site..
Joe
Thanks for putting this site up.. Over the past five days I have made four of your recipes. My wife's favorite was the Montana Jerky. So far the neighbors that have tried them like the Dos Pepper recipe including me. Today I tried the Pure Maple one and the maple did not come through, and I quadrupled the maple syrup. Next favorite was the one with the soy sauce in it. All the recipes I tried had Prague powder #1 in them. All of them were cold smoked with alder chips and dried in the oven with the door cracked. One hour at 170 then the door cracked until the jerky was done.
The four that I tried were all good, some were better than others. We are having a neighborhood party soon and will post after the party on the crowd favorite.
Thanks again Joe
Will
I am glad you guys found a couple that you like. The Dos Pepper is one of my favorites as well. Looking forward to hearing the neighborhood's favorite!
Joe
Had our annual Christmas party with about 20 neighbor's attending. I put a good amount of each recipe in coffee mugs with a ramekin with smaller pieces in front of each mug . They were labeled Montana, Soy Pepper, Dos Pepper and Failed Maple. The reason for Failed Maple was the maple flavor did not come through. Everybody liked all of them including the Failed Maple. The recipe that won the night was Dos Pepper,, it was all gone including the small pieces for samples.
Thanks again for the site and the recipes. Joe
Will
Thanks for the test results. Ha. I'm not surprised that Dos Pepper came out on top!
Joe
I forgot to mention that on all of the recipes after they came out of the marinade/brine and patted dry I reapplied pepper to the recipes that called for pepper and lemon pepper and cracked pepper to the Dos Pepper recipe and then smoked and dried them.
Joe
Sheila
I'm from Oklahoma and enjoy using your site. I have ground Bison which is 90% lean 10% fat. I'm going to try the dos pepper recipe. I omit the water but should I use the syrup solids, which helps hold it together. I have a lot of ground bison so I'm hoping this recipe works out.
Will
Hey Sheila. I have found that the Corn Syrup Solids really helps bind the ground jerky together and would recommend using it if you have it. Make sure that you do a small batch first to make sure you like the recipe before making a TON of jerky. I really like this jerky and hopefully you will too, it's one of my favorites!
Mac McAtee
Will, I have a batch of this drying right now. Looking forward to tasting.
In the printable recipe there is 1/4 tsp of corn syrup solids, in the one shown in the video that isn't mentioned. I do see "optional".
Please explain what this ingredient does to a jerky recipe. I see on Amazon that I can get 1 1/2lbs for something around $11. I hate to spend the money to get a 1/4 tsp to find out what difference it makes. Is it a noticeable difference or not so much?
I did add a tablespoon of maple syrup to the marinade, just because.
Will
I have corn syrup solids for making snack sticks as well as ground jerky recipes. It is sweet like sugar, prevent stickiness, and also has a binding agent which works great when making ground jerky. It helps ground jerky from falling apart and being brittle. I have tried it in some of my whole muscle jerky recipes, like this one, to see if it changes the jerky. It didn't make much difference, that's why I omitted it from the video. Unless you are going to start making a lot of ground jerky, I would worry about buying it.
MJB
Hey, Will, I love your site and your recipes! You're also an excellent writer. Keep up the good work and keep posting more recipes. Maybe something with a lot of lemon juice and chili powder. . .:)
Will
Thanks MJB. I will have to put together a lemon and chili powder recipe soon!