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The best homemade beef jerky recipe made with Habanero Peppers is the last and only recipe you will ever make from now on! Learn how to make great tasting beef jerky with this easy to make recipe.
The spicy kick of the peppers and the saltiness of the Sea Salt really makes this the top jerky recipe ever!
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📋 Why this recipe works
This is a great tasting jerky because of the original flavor it has beneath the heat from the habaneros. The sugar and worcestershire help with that original flavor and also balance the heat of the peppers. I love spicy jerky, and I really love the flavor of habanero peppers, and this beef jerky recipe checks both of those boxes!
🔪 Slicing the meat
Start with a great cut of beef when making this jerky. Making sure to choose a lean cut of meat is important, the cuts below have little fat and are great for jerky.
Best meat to use
- Beef Eye of Round Roast
- Top & Bottom Round Roast
- Flank Steak
- Sirloin Tip
- Ground Beef (10% fat or less)
I used Beef Eye of Round, but you can find a complete list of the best cuts of meat to dry beef jerky 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 beef 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
This beef jerky recipe has some great ingredients including: garlic powder, sugar, fresh cracked black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and of course some fresh Habaneros! To make the marinade, just combine all the ingredients that are listed on the recipe card below in a blender and add the fresh Habaneros.
Readers Tip: Substitue 1/3 cup of the water for 1/3 cup of soy sauce for a more salty intense flavor.
Blend until the peppers are fully incorporated into the marinade. Smelling this marinade made me say "Oh Wow!" after blending these habanero peppers you see in the picture above. It was a STRONG smelling of fire, heat, and goodness! Ha.
Combine the jerky slices and marinade in a bowl or ziplock bag and marinate for 6-24 hours. I like using a ziplock bag as it seems to allow the marinade to fully coat the meat. Mix the bag up a couple times during the marinading process to also make sure each piece gets an even amount of these great tasting spices!
⏲️ Dehydrating
After marinading, strain the jerky strips in a colander to remove any excess marinade. Place the strips on a paper towel and pat dry to remove even more of the excess marinade that is sitting on the surface. Doing this will help speed up the drying process.
Transfer the strips to your dehydrator trays, oven rack, or smoker racks to dry. I used a dehydrator, but you can also use an oven or smoker when making this jerky.
The beef marinated for a total of 18 hours before 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.
🌡️ Testing for when it's finished drying
The jerky will be finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half. You will also see white fibers within the meat when bent. Make sure to check the beef jerky when it is room temperature, bending when warm will appear to be unfinished and result in over drying.
🥡 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 beef jerky have an extended shelf life. Check it out!
💭 FAQ
Yes you can! Choose a ground meat that is 10% fat or less and simply omit the water. Keep everything else the same.
No, you can substitute any pepper or decide to leave the peppers out totally and have more of an original flavored jerky. Feel free to change things up!
No, curing salt does help extend the life of the finished jerky and prevents bacteria but it is not needed. Just make sure the finished beef jerky is heated to an internal temperature of 160°F. Curing salt does give the jerky that classic red color and a distinct taste, so if you decide not to use it, the finished jerky will look and taste different.
👨🏽🍳 Old Pro Tips:
- Trim all fat from the meat for longer lasting jerky
- Use fresh Habaneros for the best flavor, and cut the stem off each pepper. Use 0 peppers for no spice, 1 pepper for mild spice, 2 for medium, and 3 for HOT!
- Use a blender to blend the peppers into the rest of the marinade for more spice and even flavor.
- Use gloves when handling spicy peppers.
📖 Learn more about making jerky
Ingredients
Lean Meat
- 1 lb Eye of round
Marinade
- 1 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cracked black pepper
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 whole habaneros (3 if extra hot is wanted)
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1/4 tsp curing salt (optional)
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 marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until the peppers have been chopped into very small pieces. Place in a bowl or ziplock bag.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew. Cut with the grain for a more chewy jerky.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture in the 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 in a colander and pat dry with paper towels.
- Load dehydrator trays with jerky strips leaving room for air to circulate I used my Excalibur Dehydrator and dried for 3 hours at 165°F and 1 hour at 145°F
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Pro Tips
- Omit Habaneros if you don't want a spicy jerky
- Wash hands before handling meat
- Make Sure to use a blender to incorporate ingredients
- Adjust the amount of peppers to your liking
Nutrition
I have used your recipes before and loved the results! This time I noticed that my Nesco dehydrator only goes to 160° tops. I must assume that it will still be safe, right?
It's always good to check your own dehydrator and make sure that it reaches 160F, but I have found the Nesco Snackmaster & Nesco Gardenmaster to both dehydrate the meat to 160F internal.
Have been using this as a base for months with moose and/or rib eye. If I can't find fresh peppers then I use my five pepper hot sauce, pop instead of sugar. Made it true to the recipe the first time except I had Scotch bonnies instead of habaneros, it was delicious.
This is just like my go to recipe. By far a fan favorite at work.
2-3 habaneros and 3 jalapenos (blended)
1/2 cup soy
1/2 cup worcestershire
honey or brown sugar
garlic powder
onion powder
black pepper
red pepper
few splashes of Louisiana hot sauce
with the marinade being so salty, i only need 2 hours, then smoke 2-3 hours, and finish on dehydrator.
This one is the best so far I tried from the site! 🙂 I completed total of 3 recipes but this one will be one of the best!
Thanks Will!
It's a damn good one!
I just used 1 habanero and it seemed to give plenty of heat, next time I'll probably double the recipe and still use just 1 habanero though. Anyone using more than 2 of them must have burnt out taste buds. I don't use them much but I like habenero heat, kind of a slow burn. I increased the salt a little to 2 tsp of kosher salt. Not sure why sea salt would be any different, salt is salt. No one has been able to convince me otherwise.
Just the right amount of sugar to not make it sweet and the Worcestershire isn't overpowering .
As far as the temp, I use my pellet grill on low smoke, about 160 degrees for about 3 hours, smoky and delicious. The only problem with smoking it is that it gives the jerky a stronger aroma so you can smell it as soon as you open the bag and it attracts the other carnivores ;).
"attracts the other carnivores" Haha! I'm glad it turned out well. How do you like that pellet grill? Thinking about getting one...
Have you made the Sweet Heat Sriracha Jerky? It has a heat that is more mixed in to the meat and same taste as Habanero.
Super good man, used this recipe for 5 lbs. and multiplied it by 5x! I used 6 Habaneros.
Nice! Hopefully the spice was just right.
This is my 4th recipe from your site in about 3 weeks, these are the first jerky recipes i've ever made and I can see its an addiction lol. While I was at the store today picking up Habaneros for this i also saw a Manzano chilli. I looked it up on my phone and found it is a larger not as hot varient of the same kind of flavor I like in a Habanero so I'm trying one of those in the mix, I'll let you know how it goes. keep up the good work on this site!
I'm interested to see how those Manzano chilies taste, let me know. I will have to keep an eye out for some.. Thanks for the comment Steve!
Can you clarify this for me? If I use the curing salt do i need to heat the jerky up to 165, or does using the curing salt take care of that? I'm not clear on whether the curing salt makes it safe to eat without heating it to 165 or if the curing salt just makes it shelf stable longer.
Thanks
It is good practice to heat the jerky to 165F even if using curing salt. Curing salt will further prevent the possibility of bacteria surviving and as you mentioned, will make it shelf stable for longer.