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When ingredients blend together perfectly making a fantastic tasting beef jerky, you know the recipe is just right! Smokey Joe's beef jerky is one of those recipes and NEEDS to be on the top of your 'to make' list.

Slicing Meat for Jerky

The first step to making beef jerky is choosing a lean cut of beef. This beef jerky recipe utilizes the great flavored beef bottom round. You can find a complete list of the best cuts of meat for making beef jerky by clicking here!

The second step of slicing meat for jerky is to trim the cut of meat of all visible fat.

That white fat is called the fat cap. 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 in ¼″ thick pieces. If you wrap the roast in plastic and put in the freezer for an hour or two, slicing even strips is easier. If you don’t want to freeze the meat to firm it up a bit, make sure to have a REALLY sharp knife.

Then slice the meat in strips to your liking. Slimmer strips sliced with the grain were used for this jerky recipe. Slicing with the grain gives the jerky a little more chew. Slicing against the grain would make the jerky a little more tender and easier to chew. This is a personal preference on how chewy of a jerky you like, so slice it the way you like it!

If you need more information on slicing meat for jerky, check out my slicing jerky page, it explains EVERYTHING.

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 Jerky Marinade

Thirdly, put together a well balanced and great tasting marinade. Smokey Joe's Beef Jerky is a super quick and easy recipe that blends well together and has a smooth finished taste.

Start by mixing all of the ingredients in a bowl or ziplock bag. You can see the parsley really gave some great color to this marinade. Use fresh parsley and garlic for even more intense flavor.

Taste the marinade before adding the beef to make sure it is how you like it. If not, feel free to tweak the recipe! Once it is perfect, place the previously sliced beef into the marinade and mix the bag up really well to make sure the strips are covered evenly with marinade.

If you are in a rush, a vacuum marinating machine works really well. About ½ an hour and your jerky will turn out like it marinated for 12 hours. Not bad! This Chef Elite is the one I own and use.

RELATED PAGE: DOZENS OF GREAT TASTING JERKY RECIPES – CLICK HERE

Drying The Jerky

Once the meat has finished marinating, strain any excess marinade in a colander and pat the strips dry on paper towels. This beef was marinated for a total of 23 hours before straining. The longer the marinade process, the more intense flavor the jerky will have!

Patting the meat with paper towels removes any excess marinade which speeds up the drying process and also prevents a “sticky” feel when the jerky is finished dehydrating.

A Nesco Gardenmaster Dehydrator was used when making this beef jerky recipe. I LOVE the Nesco dehydrators. They work great, are reasonably priced, and they last a long time!

Leave space between the jerky so it's not touching, this allows air flow between pieces drying each jerky strip evenly.

Testing For When The Jerky Is 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. The jerky will harden slightly once it has cooled down, so not allowing a piece to cool before testing can result in over drying the jerky.

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 or bent in half.

This jerky took 5 hours to be 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. If pre-heating the meat in the oven, drying time can be as little as 2.5 hours.

Storing Beef 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 beef jerky and steps you can take to make your jerky have an extended shelf life.

Smokey Joe's Beef Jerky turned out tasting GREAT! The flavors blended together very well making a smooth tasting jerky with a great smokey flavor. Using fresh garlic and parsley will really give the jerky a fresh taste, making it that much better.

Old Pro Tips:

Using fresh garlic and parsley makes a more intense and fresh flavor
Use liquid smoke that does not include filler ingredients, such as Wright’s Liquid Smoke is the best.
When finished, jerky will bend and crack but not break in half. Test for doneness after a piece has cooled for 5 minutes, not while warm.
Store in ziplock bags or vacuum seal for longer storage. Check out my page on Storing Jerky for more information.

For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods.