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This Spicy Teriyaki Beef Jerky is a nice tasting jerky. I got the recipe from another blog called FOODjimoto.
This was my first time using mirin, a sweet Japanese cooking wine, when making jerky. I have seen it in a couple recipes and finally got around to trying it.
I am more of a spicy jerky kind of guy rather than a sweet jerky fan. This wine, along with the sugar, was a little too sweet for my taste, but a couple friends did like the recipe. If I were to make this again, I would use less of the wine and sugar and more spices.
The recipe that was posted on their website was for 2.5 pounds of jerky. I cut that in half since I typically make only 1 pound of jerky at a time. (That way if it doesn't turn out that great, I don't feel bad about not eating it all)
After you have made jerky for a while you will find the ingredients to stay away from. Everyone is different, I am not a big fan of honey or sugar in jerky, yet loads of people LOVE IT! Find what you like and stick with it.
If you do like sweet jerky I would recommend giving this recipe a try. I used my favorite cut of beef, top round, for this recipe. If you want a little more kick, add a little more jalapeno and red pepper as this recipe as posted is not that spicy. Let me know how you like it!
For more in depth directions on making jerky, visit my Jerky method page.
Ingredients
Lean Beef
- 1 lb Top Round - Milanesa
Marinade
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup mirin
- 1 teaspoon red pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ginger (grated)
- ½ teaspoon garlic (grated)
- ½ jalapeno pepper (chopped)
Optional
- ¼ teaspoon Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Instructions
- Add soy sauce, sugar, mirin, red pepper, black pepper, ginger, garlic, and jalapeno pepper to a blender and mix until the sugar has dissolved
- Place slices of top round milanesa in the marinade and set in the refrigerator for 4-12hrs.
- After meat has finished marinating, remove from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels.
- Dry with yourfavorite 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 about 3 hours at 160 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.
Nutrition
Ron Moberly says
I have made 500 lbs of this. I have tried others but keep coming back to this one. Family & friends request this. They love my meat!!! The only thing I changed was the sugar. I only add 1/2 cup of sugar to how many pounds I use. Living in Phoenix Safeway runs top round for $1.97 lb, I get 12-14 lbs at a time. I need a freezer just for top round.
Thank you for sharing this. I smoke a batch at least 2 times a month. I use Mesquite wood temp at 170 & it takes me around 4 hrs to do 5-6 lbs,
Again thank you
Ron Moberly
Will says
That's a lot of jerky Ron! Glad to hear you found one you like with a couple twists of your own!
Poppy-Kathryn Dews says
Well, we bought a Nesco Dehydrator a month ago, and just marinated a 2 lb piece of London Broil...forgetting to slice it beforehand. Of course, we can see why cutting it while slightly frozen would have been smart, and easier. Is there anything else you'd like to emphasize for first time jerky makers??
Will says
I would have a look through the site. I have a lot of information about slicing meat for jerky, safety, storing jerky....
Dolly says
I doubled your recipe and I added two big Serrano peppers instead of the jalapeños and it is to die for. It’s sweet and spicy and I love it!!! My 17 year old daughter just tried it and she loved it as well. I’ll be making another trip to the store tomorrow for more meat. Thank you so much for sharing. I’ve had my dehydrator put away in the pantry for the last six years and brought it down a couple of weeks ago to dehydrate some figs and since it was down I thought I should try making jerky. I looked for a recipe and yours came up. Thank you for giving my dehydrator a purpose again!!! Lol
Will says
Glad to hear it Dolly! Keep making jerky and don't ever put that dehydrator away again. Six years is too long for it to be unused!
Justin says
I have a question. I’m trying this recipe for the first time and am wondering what kind of wood chips would you recomend? I use hickory and mesquite chips quite a bit but also have apple and alder.
Will says
I like hickory wood chips and think it would go great with this recipe. I have never used alder chips before...
Justin says
The batch turned out great. Thanks for the recipe, got a batch of your rig hand jerky marinating to smoke out tomorrow.
Vince says
Could you please give us a procedure for drying and vaccum sealing with a approximate shelf life . Thank you for investing your time in us.
Will says
There was a link on the page, but not in the recipe box. Here is a page that will have different ways of drying jerky. Jerky Making Methods. This is a page on shelf life of jerky.
Richard says
I have a question and I did not know where to post it so here it is.
I have my own teriyaki jerky recipe, a very good bottled sauce, cayenne pepper, soy and salt. Sweet and spicy. But my head is telling me it will be over the top with just a touch of sesame OIL. I know OIL is bad for Jerky you want to keep around for a while but my jerky is made in small batches 2 lbs and is kept in the fridge and has Prague powder in it and I am lucky if I have any left at the end of two weeks. What is your take on this? I have 2 pounds soaking right now and I added 1/2 tsp to it. I am not sure if that little will be noticeable but i am taking baby steps.
Will says
I had this same question the other day. Here was my response to him about using oil in jerky. "I try not to use too much oil in my recipes. It seems like most of the oil I use is when I am making some sort of Asian recipe. I used a very little amount of sesame oil in my Teriyaki II recipe. I didn’t notice any negative affects like it being oily or greasy. I also used some vegetable oil in my Vietnamese Jerky recipe. I used oil because I didn’t feel like water would work as well binding the ingredients together and allowing it to stick to the jerky. I also didn’t notice anything negative in this recipe. It might make the shelf life a little shorter, but I haven’t had this be a problem since I eat my jerky fairly quickly. Haha. So when it comes to oil, just keep it to a minimum and it shouldn’t have a negative impact on the jerky."