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This peppery smoked beef jerky really turned out fantastic! Don't wait, fire up the smoker and get ready to make some really great tasting beef jerky.
*Recipe Updated 5/1/19 with more pictures and step by step instructions*
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How to slice the meat
I chose to use a Beef Eye of Round when making this recipe. I love the eye of round because it has minimal marbling (fat) and the cut makes jerky that has a great finished texture.
Before you slice the cut into jerky strips, trim all visible fat. Fat spoils faster than meat and will shorten the life of the finished jerky.
I sliced this meat by hand for this recipe, make sure to use a really sharp knife. You can also wrap the roast in plastic wrap and put in the freezer for an hour or two to partially freeze. This keeps the meat firm when slicing and allows even slices more easily.
Slicing with the grain of the meat gave this jerky a little more of a tough chew. Visit my page on slicing meat for more information on how to slice strips for jerky.
Another way to slice meat is by using a jerky slicer. I LOVE using my Weston Jerky Slicer to cut strips of jerky. It slices all the strips the same thickness allowing them to dry evenly in your smoker or dehydrator. No more pulling pieces out that are finished and letting thicker pieces that are unfinished continue drying.
It’s definitely nice when making a bunch of jerky for every piece to be finished at the same time! Below is a picture of some beef eye of round I sliced the other day with the jerky slicer.
Making the marinade
The reason this recipe is SO good is because it has great ingredients. The saltiness from the soy sauce, spice from the black pepper, and the sweetness from the brown sugar will have you trying to hide this jerky from friends and family so you can hoard it all for yourself!
Start by mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
Add the jerky slices to the marinade and marinate in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours. The longer you marinade, the stronger the flavor!
Related Page: Beef Jerky Recipes - Dozens of Great Tasting Jerky Recipes!
After marinating, strain the jerky in a colander and pat dry the strips with paper towels. The paper towels should not lift off any of the pepper or spices, just remove any excess marinade. This helps speed up the drying process.
Dehydrating / Smoking
I went with the toothpick method when making this peppered jerky since I was using my smoker. This method is where you pierce each piece of meat with a toothpick which you will hang from the rack in your smoker or oven. I like this method because the jerky dries evenly and any fat or excess marinade drips off of the jerky allowing it to dry faster.
I smoked this recipe along with my Teriyaki II Beef Jerky recipe in my Masterbuilt Smoker. The meat was dried for 1.5 hrs at 160°F then turned up to 200°F for 1 hr while hitting it with a handful of hickory wood chips. One handful of wood chips is all you need when smoking jerky.
After it gets that tasty smoke from the handful of chips, the temp is lowered back down to 160°F and finished off. Mine took another 5 hours to finish, bringing the total time in the smoker to 7.5 hrs.
In the picture above you can see the Garlic Black Pepper Beef Jerky on the left and the Teriyaki II Beef Jerky on the right. Both recipes turned out amazing!
Testing for when it's 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 as seen in the picture below.
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.
I was extremely happy with how this beef jerky turned out. It had a subtle taste at first, but then hits you with a nice spice from the black pepper. The garlic is not over powering and if you really like garlic, you could even add a little more. You will definitely love this recipe!
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:
- Marinate for 24 hours for the most flavorful tasting jerky.
- When using a smoker, make sure the smoke is a nice clear/blue color, NOT white. If you have white smoke, increase your temperature. The white smoke can alter the taste of the jerky... not in a good way!
- When testing the jerky to see if it is finished, let it cool for 5 minutes before testing it. Once cool, bend a piece, it should bend and crack but not break in half.
- Best wood chips to use are apple wood and hickory.
Related Posts
Ingredients
Lean Meat
Marinade
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
Optional
- 1/4 tsp Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Equipment
Instructions
- Trim all visible fat from the beef, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for an hour or two to partially freeze.
- While the meat is in the freezer, combine the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, ground black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder, & onion powder in a bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew. Slice with the grain for a chewier jerky. Or skip the freezing phase and use a Jerky Slicer.
- 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.
- Pat dry the strips with paper towels.
- Dry with your Dehydrator, Smoker, or Oven. Click the links or read the post above for more detailed drying information.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Pro Tips
- Marinate for 24 hours for the most flavorful tasting jerky.
- When using a smoker, make sure the smoke is a nice clear/blue color, NOT white. If you have white smoke, increase your temperature. The white smoke can alter the taste of the jerky... not in a good way!
- When testing the jerky to see if it is finished, let it cool for 5 minutes before testing it. Once cool, bend a piece, it should bend and crack but not break in half.
- Best wood chips to use are apple wood and hickory.
Nutrition
Hello Will thanks for all the great recipes! One question on this one. It is called Garlic black pepper, but you only add half a teaspoon of garlic powder. Shouldnt there be fresh garlic in the recipe? Or does that half teaspoon does the trick?
Thanks
It will have a slight garlic taste as is. You can totally add fresh garlic, fresh is great when it's minced very small allowing it to stay on the meat when removed from the marinade. If you really want a strong garlic flavor, I would increase it to 1 - 1.5tsp of powder or 5-7 fresh cloves minced.
As a new jerky maker, I appreciate and enjoy the variety of recipes offered here!!
If using a dehydrator, would you recommend adding hickory liquid smoke to the marinade? Or just leave it as is?
Hickory smoke would go great with this recipe if you are using a dehydrator or oven!
Hi Will,
Thanks for taking the time to share your jerky recipes. We've tried out a couple and they're tasty, modified a couple slightly and it works out well too (eg. half black pepper and half chipotle for the garlic black pepper jerky recipe for a bit more spice).
Thank again,
Craig
Greetings Will..my name is Ray..and i was going to make 3lbs. Of your pepper garlic jerky...is it as simple as trippling your 1 lb. Recipe? For 3 lb.
Sorry it took so long to respond. Yes, just triple the recipe.
Hello Will, first of all THANK YOU for this awesome website. I leave in Turkey (the country not the animal... :)) and it's very difficult to find beef jerky here; even impossible to find good one. Your oven drying technic gave me the courage to give it a try and I dried my first batch yesterday evening. Since then I can't keep myself going back to the finished product (I think it won't last more than 2 days). Just one question: I have pre-heated the oven to 300F as you said and but the meat pieces has began to leave most of the moist/liquid (which is good) after 6 min. The main problem was that it began to make cooking noises. Is that normal? I have been afraid and turned down the heat to 160F at time...
Pre-heating the jerky to an internal temperature of 160F is cooking the meat. Depending on how thick the strips are, it might only take 6 minutes. The real important part is reaching that internal temperature. You can use a thermometer and wrap a VERY thin piece around it and as soon as you see it reach 160F, take it out of the oven, turn the temperature down, crack the door, and once the temperature has decreased put the jerky slices back in the oven. The sizzling sounds are normal, you just don't want the oven pan to start searing the outside of the meat. Hope that helps. Thanks for checking out the site all the way from Turkey!!!