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Everyone loves going to their favorite Mexican restaurant and having sizzling fajitas delivered to their table. Not only does it sound fantastic, it tastes fantastic! After going out to eat and having fajitas last week, I decided it was about time I try making a fajita jerky.
I have never made fajita flavored jerky and wasn't sure how it would turn out. It has to be good, right? After all, fajitas are super amazing! I began looking for a good fajita recipe online that I could use for my fajita jerky. I stumbled upon Grilled Skirt Steak Fajitas on the website Seriouseats and it looked perfect.
I cut the ingredients in half to suit my need of a marinade for only one pound of beef. I also switched out the skirt steak for an eye of round, my favorite cut of beef for making jerky.
I started making this jerky like I do every batch, putting the beef in the freezer while I mix the marinade. Add all of the ingredients (listed below) in a bowl. I did go a little light on the lime juice as a personal preference. I enjoy lime in my jerky, but just a hint. I feel like too much lime can really take over the flavor and quickly become too overpowering.
I could tell from the start this was probably going to be a great jerky recipe simply by the smell of the marinade. I couldn't keep from thinking that fajita jerky might be my best jerky yet! Okay, Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
After slicing the partially frozen eye of round, I marinated the meat for 10 hours per the recipe. I usually marinate jerky longer, but have been noticing that with such thin meat that 8-10 hours does the job. You will also see that I heat treated the fajita jerky before drying instead of after. This is the process of bringing the jerky to an internal temperature of 160° F to kill any possible bacteria.
I just love my Polder thermometer. This thing is great for telling you when your meat hits the right temp so you can remove it from the oven as soon as it is finished. Heat treated for 10 minutes at 325° and then dried with my Nesco dehydrator for 4 1/2 hours at 130° .
How did it taste? Pretty damn good! If you are looking for a fiesta style jerky I would highly recommend fajita jerky. Even though it does have the typical soy sauce, it strays away from the "usual" jerky taste. The lime gives this fajita jerky a great little splurge of flavor that goes great with the sweetness of the brown sugar. I hope you enjoy!
Ingredients
Lean Beef
- 1 lb eye of round
Marinade
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin seed
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 clove garlic (finely minced)
Optional
- 1/4 tsp Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Equipment
Instructions
- Pick a lean cut of beef and trim all visible fat. After trimming the fat, place the meat in the freezer for an hour or two to partially freeze.
- While the meat is in the freezer, combine and mix soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, canola oil, ground cumin seed, black pepper, chili powder, and minced garlic in a medium sized bowl or ziplock bag.
- Remove meat from the freezer and slice against the grain between ⅛" - ¼" in thickness.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture and marinate for 8-10 hours.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and pat dry with paper towels.
- Place slices on a baking sheet and insert a thermometer in the thickest slice. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, about 10 minutes. Remove as soon as internal temperate is reached
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. A dehydrator was used when making this recipe. The slices were placed on dehydrator racks so they were not overlapping or touching. Dried for 4 1/2 hours at 130 degrees.
- Jerky will be finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half. Allow to cool for several hours before storing in air tight containers.
Everything I've tried from SeriousEats.com has been a success, so I will be sure to try this recipe when I start making some jerky next week!