This post may have affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions if you choose to purchase through links I provide (at no extra cost to you). Thank you for supporting the work I put into this site!
This Jerky Lover’s Jerky starts off tasting sweet and then finishes with a little spice.
After seeing this recipe on the popular recipe website allrecipes, I decided to give it a try since it had over 140 favorable reviews. I normally like trying recipes from small time websites such as my own, but I made an exception. I am glad I did, this was a pretty good recipe.
The description read of a jerky that was sweet, hot, and spicy. Who doesn’t love ALL of those things?! I know I do! I do agree that it is sweet and does give a little spice after a couple chews, but this is not real spicy. The only spice comes from a topping of red pepper flakes added right before dehydrating. If spice is what you want, make sure to add extra red pepper.
This recipe calls for heating part of the marinade to dissolve the brown sugar. This won’t take long, only a couple minutes. Make sure that you cool the marinade before coating the beef! If you follow this recipe as is, you will have enough marinade to make about 5 pounds of beef jerky! I did not alter the recipe, but do not double the recipe if you are trying to make more than 1 pound of jerky. Like I said, keep the recipe the same as long as you are making 5 lbs of jerky or less.
I also added a pre heat step of heating the meat to 160° F to kill any bacteria before drying as an extra safety measure. I used a dehydrator for this recipe as it is my favorite method of making beef jerky.
You will not be disappointed with this recipe, it does produce a tasty snack. Drop me a line and let me know how it turned out for you. Thanks for coming by guys!
Jerky Lover's Jerky
Ingredients
Lean Beef
- 1 lb sirloin tip
Marinade
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp black pepper cracked
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
- 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 5 tbsp liquid smoke
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
Optional
- 1/4 tsp Curing Salt Prague Powder #1
Topping
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
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; mix together the onion powder, garlic powder, and some cracked black pepper in a small bowl.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, liquid smoke flavoring and pineapple juice. Heat until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat and cool the marinade in the refrigerator.
- Remove meat from the freezer and slice against the grain between ⅛" - ¼" in thickness.
- Season the meat with half of the previously mixed onion, garlic, and pepper mixture. Place in a plastic bag and place in the fridge until the marinade has cooled.
- Once the marinade has cooled, add it to the meat and mix until fully coated. Allow to marinate for 3-24 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.
- Sprinkle with the remaining spice mixture and red pepper flakes.
- 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 and dried for 5 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.
Hi Will, Just stumbled upon your jerky page. I am new at the jerky making as, I am right now making my third ever batch. So far all I have used is ground beef mixed with Nesko jerky mix with cure so I am eager to try some of the recipes you have shared! However, one thing that I do not understand; every prebought mix that I have bought contains a package of cure (sodium) …these recipes don’t need this?
thanks Randy
Welcome to the world of jerky making Randy! I would say about half of the recipes I make have cure in them. The cure that I use is Prague Powder #1 curing salt. You do not NEED curing salt to make any jerky recipe. Cure makes the jerky last longer, gives it that red color, and also gives it that common “jerky flavor”. If you choose not to use cure, make sure that you heat the jerky to a temperature of 160F to kill any bacteria and eat the jerky within a couple of days. With that said, I do recommend using cure when making ground meat jerky because the meat has been handled and processed making it more susceptible to having bacteria. So in short… No jerky recipe NEEDS cure as long as the meat is heated to 160F. But it is another line of defense to kill bacteria and allows your jerky to last longer. Hope this answers your question! Let me know how your jerky turns out! -Will
Hi Will, I am new to jerky making but my kids love to eat them so I’ve decided to try some of your recipes. I plan on making jerky and would like to store some away for future use, in other words hide them from my kids. How do I know how much prague powder to add to each of your recipes?
When you make good jerky, you tend to learn to hide it very quickly! Ha. To answer your question, always make sure to follow the directions on your specific brand of prague powder (curing salt) you are using. For the cure I use and the standard for most brands is 1 level teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat or 1/4 teaspoon for 1 pound of meat. My recipes are for 1 pound of jerky so I always use 1/4 teaspoon of prague powder per recipe. -Will
This is the closest thing online that I’ve found to my recipe, and mine is literally the best jerky I’ve ever tasted anywhere, so I know this would be amazing. I like the idea of pineapple juice. Too many people don’t use a citrus. I always do usually orange juice or lemon juice, but I think I’m gonna try pineapple soon, ’cause that sounds awesome. Nice website.
Hi will I am also new to making my own jerky. I wanted to know if I use curing salt do i not need to heat the meat to 160 before dehydrating?
Great question. To be safe, you always need to heat the meat to an internal temperature of 160F. Cure helps inhibit bacteria growth and allows you to make jerky without raising the internal temperature to 160F BEFORE dehydrating. You still need to heat the meat to an internal temperature of 160F, but you can slowly bring the internal temperature to 160F while dehydrating instead of before dehydrating. Hope that helps. Let me know how your jerky turns out!
Hi Will! Thanks for sharing these great recipes!
First timer and late bloomer to what I’ve wanted to try since a kid in 64. Inspired by your tasty looking recipes I got my nesco square dehydrator and started my first batch of rig hand with a 2 pound flank. Had to try the Cajun recipe too so marinated a pound in that n the other in rig hand. Epic results! Rig hand won the vote from all who tried. I’m try jerky lovers now and couldn’t resist adding molasses and real maple syrup from your maple recipe. It’s been marinating ovr night and I can hardly wait for 24 hrs to pass to get this batch in the nesco. Thanks again for sharing all your recipes and experience. I salute you!
I have made this recipe several times. It’s my favorite and people that try it CRAVE it. I make mine in a Dehydrator . 5 to 5 1/2
Darryl, so you skip the oven step and go straight to the dehydrator? If so, what temp do you set your dehydrator? Thanks.
Laura
I have made this recipe a number of times… it is pretty much a basic beef jerky recipe that you will find all over the internet. After the first time I made a few alterations to this recipe but only because I had the capability readily available, but it is good even without. First, I skipped the teriyaki sauce as I’m not a fan of the flavor of teriyaki. Second, I skipped the oven step because I have an Excalibur that gets to a temp of 165F. Realistically the only meat jerky you need 165F for is poultry products, beef can safely be dehydrated at 160F (the temp required to kill e Coli). Last, I put it in a smoker for half an hour under billowing smoke at 185F then put it in the dehydrator for 6 hours at 163F (in case of temp fluctuation in the dehydrator). Even when I followed the recipe I didn’t do the oven step because of the temperature range of the dehydrator. If you have a dehydrator that does not get to at least 160F DO THE OVEN STEP or you risk e. coli infections. If you don’t know, check the model number with the manufacturer or find it on Amazon and it should give a temp range. Don’t think that just because you have an expensive dehydrator it will get to 160F, I’ve seen $300 box dehydrators that only get to 158F and $70 Nesco dehydrators that get to 160F.