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This Jalapeno Lime Beef Jerky is an easy to make jerky with a little spice from the jalapenos, sweetness from the honey, and a strong citrus flavor from the fresh limes. Who doesn’t love jalapenos and limes?
I have been cooking a lot with jalapenos lately, I just LOVE how they taste! Everything from my omelets in the morning to my favorite corn bread get a heavy dose of jalapenos these days.
I do leave the seeds out when making my jalapeno and lime beef jerky, but feel free to leave some in for a hotter flavor. With the seeds out, this jerky doesn’t have much of a spice, just a little bit of a kick. So definitely leave the seeds in if you are wanting to sweat a bit!
I blended the ingredients in my blender to give everything a good mix before adding my beef eye of round to marinate.
After marinating for 12 hours, I dried the jerky with my Nesco Dehydrator. With the temperature set at 160°F, I had amazing tasting beef jerky in 4.5 hours!
I was happy with how these turned out. I am not usually a honey fan when it comes to beef jerky, but the local honey added a great sweet flavor that worked great in this marinade.
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page How to Make Beef Jerky or click on the pictures below.
Ingredients
Lean Meat
Marinade
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup lime juice freshly squeezed
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 jalapenos Diced
Optional
- 1/4 tsp Curing Salt Prague Powder #1
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 orange juice, lime juice, honey, ground cumin, salt, garlic, and diced jalapenos in a blender until jalapenos are cut small and the honey is evenly mixed. Add to a bowl or ziplock bag.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew or with the grain for a more chewier jerky. Or skip the freezing phase and use a Jerky Slicer.
- Add sliced beef to the mixture in a 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 and pat dry the beef strips with paper towels
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. I used my dehydrator and dried for 4.5 hours at 160 degrees.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Nutrition
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page How to Make Beef Jerky
Cool sight, been looking for this for along time..Thankyou.
Hi Will! Just made your rig hand recipe…outstanding! Thank you. Question – what do you know about making bacon jerky?
Glad you liked it Mike, it’s one of my favorites! Unfortunately I have never made bacon jerky. I definitely need to look into that soon, it sounds like it can’t be anything but amazing!
I’ve just started making my own jerky, definitely going to bookmark your page. Thanks for sharing.
If I want to increase the recipe for 4.5 pounds of meat, how much curing salt would I need?
Hey Michael. I would always check the specific brand of curing salt you are using as all amounts might not be the same. I use Hoosier Hill Farm Prague Powder # 1 which calls for 1 level tsp per 5 lbs of meat.
Hey Will, thank you for your site! My wife and I registered for a dehydrator and got it as a wedding present. We just made a bunch of jerky with our siblings and it was a very fun time! I have a question about curing salt: You always mention it on your recipes, but never tell how to use it. If we want to include the curing salt, what does it do and what do we do with it?
Nice! Such a great gift. Curing salt is added to the marinade at usually 1tsp per 5lbs of meat. It helps extend the life of the jerky and helps kill bacteria. You can purchase it online as it is hard to find in stores. Check out my page on making safe jerky.
Hello & thank you for the recipe from one Coloradoan to another. Yum! Yum! Yum! Just made this today. Had my local grocery store slice some rump roast for me. Delicious! I will be snacking on this post workouts.
Nice! Glad you liked it Natasha!
I love, love, love this jerky. Its only the second recipe that we’ve tried but having a hard time trying something else.
This site is also a godsend. Thanks a bunch for setting me on the right path.
Glad you are enjoying the site Joe! Thanks for the kind words man.
I left the seeds in….. Best Jerky, Wow!!!
Glad you liked it Steven!
If I were to smoke this, what kind of chips do you recommend with this style of jerky?
I like using mesquite chips when making spicy jerky.
Great site! Question for you- I tried this recipe with 2lbs of eye of round. I put in the Nesco dehydrator you recommend and 6 hours later I’m not sure it is done? It still looks pink, not as dark of a color as yours. I put my thermometer in one of the bottom vents of the Nesco and was getting 135 max temp. Is this normal?
I wouldn’t worry about the color so much. Just make sure that it is dry enough. It should bend and crack but not break in half when finished. If you are testing your dehydrator, put the thermometer in a bowl of water inside the dehydrator and check the temperature that way. If it still only reaches 135F, I would contact Nesco.
Thanks for the quick response!
Love this recipe. Without the jalapeño seeds it’s a great trail jerky for camping or hiking since it’s not salty. Made it with and without the seeds and for general snacking prefer with seeds for a little bite to it.
Hey Will, I want to try this recipe. I bought the cure salt that you recommended from Amazon and some meat today, I was wondering if there was a general rule when adding the curing salt. You say to put 1/4 tsp for 1lb of meat. How would I measure if it’s below a pound of meat? I just want to be safe here. Thanks in advance!
The actual measurement on the curing salt I use is 1tsp per 5lbs of meat. If you are using 3/4lb of meat to make jerky, I would use about 1/8tsp of curing salt. You really just have to eye ball it at that point. You will be fine as long as you don’t use way too much.
Thank you for all of these awesome recipes. I plan on trying a lot of them in the near future. I still have all of my venison meat in the freezer from last year and every time I open the freezer it screams to be made into jerky. All of the recipes show using a dehydrator. Can I use these recipes following your smoking directions at the top of the page?
Thank you for your time.
You definitely can use a smoker on all of the recipes. Let me know how some of your jerky turns out!
First recipe I’ve tried from your page. Flavor is spot on. Could use a touch of salt though. I think a tsp could make this recipe sing
Can this be used for ground beef jerky?
You can use this recipe, but it needs to be tweaked a little bit. I would cut the orange juice down to 2 tbsp and 1 tbsp of lime juice. That should work pretty well!
Hi,
Quick question, I’m this recipe, does garlic stand for minced garlic cloves or garlic salt?
Garlic Powder. Sorry, I updated the recipe.
I’m wondering how this would taste with turkey instead of beef?
There is only one way to find out… Make some! Let me know how it turns out.
Hey Will…
I ran across you about a year ago as I have always wanted to make my own jerkey. I even bought the same equipment you have. LOVE the jerkey slicer!! I even have your book, but I am printing some of the recipies on this site as I have made most of them in your book. Dos Peppers and Rig Hand are probably my two favorites!!
I am getting ready to make this jalapino lime marinade. Would I get more flavor out of the peper if I roasted the jalapino first, like a Hatch chili or a pablano???
I have three batches of jerkey mariniating in the fridge right now. I have a couple of guys that come into the store and we all talk about making jerkey, I always send them to your site for advise and have even told them about your book. That book is my jerkey Bible!!
Thanks for all you do…
(By the way, I am a fellow native Colorodan living in Rio Blanco County)
Thanks Tim! I’m glad you enjoy the book, I put a lot of work into that. Those are some of my favorite recipes as well. The Rig Hand is just such a classic tasting jerky. I’ve never roasted the chilies before adding them to a marinade. I will definitely do that the next time I make a spicy jerky. If you do roast them, let me know how it turns out. I would think it would enhance the flavors!