The great taste of Dr. Pepper mixed with Beef? What’s not to love?!
My best friend Kyle and I drank Dr. Pepper like it was water when we were growing up. That was of course before we realized how bad a six pack of Dr. Pepper a day was for our health. I only on a rare occasion drink soft drinks anymore, but this seemed like a great time to pop a top and incorporate this sugary deliciousness into some beef jerky.
Ingredients were kept to a minimum for this recipe. It only has curing salt, sea salt, pepper, & of course Dr. Pepper. That’s it!
I dried this jerky with my Excalibur dehydrator for a total of 5 hours at 160° F. Sliced with the grain, a little tenderizing with a meat mallet helped take some of the chew out of it. If my beef jerky is too chewy, my teeth feel like they are going to fall out. Can’t have that…
I was surprised that this jerky did not have as much of a Dr. Pepper taste that I would have liked. Don’t get me wrong, it was good and I really enjoyed it! I guess I was expecting more of a Dr. Pepper flavor to shine through. Will I make this jerky again? Hell yeah, it’s Dr. Pepper Beef Jerky!
Not a big fan of Dr. Pepper? Just switch this out with your cola of choice… Try making a batch and let me know how you guys like it.
You better believe I drank that glass as soon as I was done taking this picture. Haha.
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods
- 1lb beef eye of round
- 1 can of Dr. Pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ tsp Prague Powder #1 (curing salt)
- 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 Dr. Pepper, sea salt, pepper, and prague powder #1 in a medium bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips with the grain. Cut against the grain for an easier chew.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture and marinate for 8-24 hours in the refrigerator.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and strain excess marinade.
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. I used my dehydrator and dried for 5 hours at 160 degrees.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods
Used this recipe but instead of Dr.pepper I used Vanilla Coke. And it was unreal. Can smell and taste the vanilla.
Nice! I’ll have to try it with Vanilla Coke, sounds like it would turn out really good!
I tried this with eye of round in my nesco but with a can of Mug root beer. It has no flavor at all. Some of the outside has a root beer flavor but none of it penetrated the meat. I’ll have to try a different soda but wanted to note that root beer doesn’t work
Thanks for the comment Marc. I will remember NOT to make this with root beer!
Your tongue usually only tastes what is on the surface of the food. Try more root beer and reduce it more on cooking. It should work great.
Thanks for the advice!
I use an old Brine/Marinade recipe, of water, salt pepper, dark brown sugar, garlic salt or powder, onion powder Liquid Smoke. I use my oven & hang the jerky on an oven rack with toothpicks from top of oven. On low 150° to 170°… I use London Broil. Brine 12 hrs hang in oven 12 hrs.
Marinating meat right now, gonna make one mild but another with Chile pequin powder for a nice punch of flavor!
Nice! Let me know how it turns out.
If you’re having problems with liquid flavor being faint, add some brown sugar. The brown sugar will absorb the liquid better and than sticks to the jerky. I do this with my maple bacon recipe and it works wonders.
Thanks for the tip Chris!
Will def be trying this one in the near future as well as a Dr pepper Jalapeno recipe that was sent to me on facebook. Later this week i will be trying a mix of the two above using a pre made jalapeno spice kit i got from a local store. The part that i am not fully understanding is how to make the liquid marinade itself though?
I tried the Doctor Pepper. and taste was faint. Chris says add brown suger. How much did you add to your mix? I am also thinking of adding some freshly made ground cayenne.
I am going to add brown sugar to this recipe as it does need a little something else. A 1/4 cup of brown sugar should do it. Let me know how the cayenne flavor works out!