This beef jerky recipe has a fantastic sweet cherry flavor with every bite!
I actually got the idea for this cherry flavored beef jerky from a stop I made while driving back to Austin from Corpus Christi, TX. I stopped to get gas at a HUGE (Texas Sized!) gas station / market/ convenient store called Buc-ee’s. (These stores are VERY popular in Texas) They have all types of foods, snacks, chocolates, knickknacks, etc…. Anyways, I tried several samples of their jerky and really liked their cherry beef jerky. So, I decided to make my own!
Like the Smiley face? Ha. That was my wife’s artistic input into this Sweet Cherry Beef Jerky recipe post. Thanks Linda! The cherries were picked up at my local grocery store, sweet cherries of course!
The cherries had the seeds taken out of them and blended with a blender with the other ingredients to make a smooth marinade. They were then marinaded for 20 hours and dehydrated in my Excalibur dehydrator for 5 hours.
You can see small bits of cherry all over the jerky strips. These helped give the jerky that great cherry taste.
This cherry jerky was a lot of fun to make! I love making new recipes and LOVE when they come out tasting great. So what are you waiting for? Grab some cherries and get to work!
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods
- 1lb beef top round
- 1 cup sweet cherries (seeds removed)
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- ¼ tsp Almond Extract
- ¼ cup cold water
- 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 cherries, sugar, lemon juice, almond extract, and cold water in a blender and blend well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips with the grain. Cut against the grain for an easier chew. If sliced with the grain, tenderize with a meat mallet if you want a softer chew.
- 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.
- Pat dry the strips with paper towels
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. I used my dehydrator and dried for 5 hours at 160 degrees.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods
I found this jerky to be a little bland. I followed the recipe to a T and marinated for over 24 hours. Won’t be making this one again. I like the other recipe I tried here. Thanks for the great “go to” jerky site!
I agree I just made it following the directions and it is plain. I even used the cherry pie filling. What’s a good jerky recipe like a typical beef jerky.
I’m sorry to hear that it was plain. As you mentioned, several people have had this result. Not sure what is going on… If you are looking for a typical beef jerky, I would try Dos Pepper Jerky or Original Jerky.
I just made this jerky but instead of fresh cherries, I used cherry pie filling and it was AWESOME !!! It is my wife’s favorite.
Interesting! Cherry pie filling… Probably easier and full of flavor. Glad your wife enjoyed it!
Since there is alot of sugar in cherry pie filling, did you cut the sugar out?
No, I kept everything the same, but I have worked on this and I now add some 2 tablespoons of Teriyaki to it also. This has become very popular with the guys I work with.
Hi Will!
I just got a 30″ MES for Christmas and used your site to help me make the basic jerky for my first ever batch. It was a huge hit!
How do you think the cherry jerky would do smoked with cherry wood?
Thanks for the site! I can see myself spending a lot of time here…
Nice on the smoker! I think that it would be great with the cherry wood. I have been wanting to try it with cherry pie filling and see how that turns out! You can see a comment above where David tried it. Let me know how it turns out.
So I didn’t try it with the filling, but I did make it per your recipe, and then made the jerky in my smoker with cherry wood.
Brought it to work and 2.5 pounds (pre smoked weight) is gone in a day.