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The sweetness of the coconut sugar along with the saltiness of the soy sauce blends to make this one great tasting jerky. This Sweet Coconut Jerky recipe was seen on a blog called weedemandreap, and I just had to try it. The recipe is not exactly the same, but very close. I have added the direct link to the recipe at the bottom of this page.
While I was grocery shopping the other day I decided to pick up a different cut of beef that I do not usually use for jerky. Beef sirloin tip steak has a little bit more fat than I would like, but why not try it... What is there to lose... So how did I like the sirloin tip steak? It made the jerky a little greasy during the drying process and when finished. I used a paper towel and dried the beef jerky several times during the drying process, but the fat kept it moist. (not in a good way) I will probably not use this cut again because of this.
The sirloin was about ½ inch thick, which I wrapped in plastic and pounded (tenderized) the crap out of it until it was a good ¼ inch in thickness.
After pounding it out, it was sliced against the grain in inch wide strips. The marinade consisted of soy sauce, coconut sugar, liquid smoke, apple cider vinegar, salt, & pepper. After marinating for 14 hours, the meat had a beautiful dark color from the liquid smoke and soy sauce.
You would think that coconut sugar would be white, right? NOPE, it is brown! This is the first time I have used coconut sugar in anything I have made and was astonished when I saw it was not white. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. (If you remember that saying, you definitely are a guy and grew up in the 80's)
After drying on paper towels, these fantastic looking strips of meat were put in the dehydrator and dried for 3 ½ hours at 160° and then turned down to 90° for another 2 ½ hours. As mentioned earlier, they were patted dry with paper towels throughout the drying process due to the high fat content of the meat.
The result was very good! The sweet and saltiness really compliment each other making this a very flavorful jerky. Even though this is called sweet coconut jerky, there is not a coconut flavor. I did alter this recipe slightly from the blog I found it on. The recipe I used is listed below in detail.
This link will take you to weedemandreap's recipe.
Ingredients
Lean Meat
Marinade
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp liquid smoke (Hickory)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1.5 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Optional
- 1/4 tsp Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Equipment
Instructions
- Wrap the sirloin steak in plastic and pound with a mallet until reaching 1/4 inch in thickness.
- Slice against the grain making strips about 1 inch in width. You can also use a Jerky Slicer to achieve evenly sliced strips.
- Combine and mix soy sauce, coconut sugar, liquid smoke, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper in a medium size bowl or ziplock bag.
- Marinate the strips of beef in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours
- After marinating, pat dry beef strips on paper towels to remove any excess marinade
- Place on dehydrator with space between beef to allow airflow
- Dry for 3.5 hours at 160 degrees then for another 2 hours or as needed at 90 degrees. Check meat periodically to not over dry the jerky. (pat dry jerky while cooking if needed)
- Jerky will be done when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Nutrition
Do you use light or dark soy sauce in the recipe, Will? The meat in your photos of the pre-dried jerky look light brown which makes me think you use light soy. The cooked jerky is quite dark, though, which may be due to you using dark soy? Here in Australia we have several varieties of soy sauce for sale in the Asian stores, which is great. We just have to make sure we use the right one when we cook.
I use dark soy sauce, not the lighter low sodium soy sauce. The higher sodium content helps preserve the jerky. The meat will darken after dried, especially if you use a smoker. Thanks for checking out the site all the way from Australia!
Is the amount for liquid smoke correct? Two tablespoons seems like a lot. I only did one and it was still very strong. I found this recipe to be quite salty (didn't add a cure) and not very sweet. Super tasty though!! I think next time i might try adding some coconut flavor somehow (shredded or extract perhaps) and increase the sugar a bit. I've tried a couple other recipes of yours - good stuff! keep it up!
So it really depends on what brand of liquid smoke you buy. If you get Wright's Liquid Smoke, 1 tsp would be enough. If you buy the cheaper not as pure liquid smoke it requires a lot more. I made this recipe with the cheaper LS because I ran out of Wrights. I need to change the amount on the recipe card. Thanks for pointing it out!
Amazing recipe! I have made this several times now. About half the time I make it I add 1 tbs of red pepper flakes, just because I love the heat mixed with the sweetness! Thanks for the recipe!
No problem Russ, glad you like it.
Just an FYI...coconut sugar comes from the sap of the coconut palm tree. It has no taste of coconut & when a tree is harvested for the sap to make coconut sugar or coconut syrup, it stops producing coconuts.
Thanks for the info Marla. That would explain why this jerky didn't really have a coconut flavor. You learn something new every day!
Thanks for posting recipe!
Question? I'm gonna try with ground venison,how much did the sirloin weigh that you used?
Ray
One pound. Pretty much all of my recipes are for 1lb of meat.