Love salmon? Well then you are going to LOVE this salmon jerky! This recipe has a light fish flavor with a nice smokey and salty finish. Just perfect!
When it comes to fat content in fish, salmon ranks on the higher end. If you have been reading about jerky, fat is not a good thing…. But salmon still makes GREAT jerky!
I started with a wild caught sockeye salmon fillet that I purchased from my local grocery store. I always buy wild caught salmon when cooking or making jerky. The taste is sooo much better when it is wild caught. You can tell wild caught from farm raised because of the dark red color of the meat.
Run your fingers over the meat to feel for any pin bones. I have had salmon fillets with a lot of pin bones (see above) and others that don’t have any. They will feel hard and be white in color. I use standard needle nose pliers to pull them out. They should pull out easily with a little wiggling. Don’t forget this step, no one likes bones in their jerky!
Here is where you can either skin the fillet or leave the skin on. I like leaving the skin on because it keeps the meat together. If you remove the skin now, the strips can break apart easily during marinating. Once you are done drying, the skin will peel off easily before you eat the jerky.
Using a very sharp knife, slice 1/4″ – 1/2″ wide strips down the length of the fillet. Slicing from the “head” of the fillet to the “tail”.
After all the strips are sliced lengthwise, cut across the strips to your desired length. I normally cut mine between 3-4″ long.
I marinated my strips with the recipe below for 18 hours in a ziplock bag stored in the fridge. Mix up the strips in the bag several times during marinating to ensure all strips are evenly marinated.
Strain strips in a colander and pat dry with paper towels to remove any excess marinade.
Lay the strips on a dehydrator tray or a cooling rack if drying with your oven. Make sure none of the pieces are touching and there is amble room in between for air to circulate. I used my Excalibur Dehydrator when making this recipe.
Dry at 150°F or as low as your oven will go if using an oven until the strips are finished. Since salmon is high in fat I like to dry my salmon jerky more than a non fatty fish such as trout. It took this jerky 9 hours to be just perfect.
It turned out GREAT! The smoke flavor from the liquid smoke and the saltiness from the soy sauce really makes this jerky taste amazing. If you love salmon, you HAVE to make this jerky. Now all you have to do is peel the skin off and eat!
Tasty Salmon Jerky
Ingredients
Fish
- 1 lb Wild Caught Sockeye Salmon can use any salmon
Marinade
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp liquid smoke
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp curing salt optional
Instructions
- Remove pin bones from fish fillet with needle nose pliers. Leave skin on fillet.
- With a sharp knife, slice long strips lengthwise 1/4"-1/2" thick from the "head" of the fillet to the "tail".
- Slice across the previously sliced long strips cutting into 3"-4" pieces.
- Assemble all the ingredients of marinade in a bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
- Add the salmon strips to the marinade and marinate for 6-24 hours in the refrigerator. Mix the strips several times during marinating for evenly coated strips.
- Strain jerky strips in a colander and then dry with paper towels to remove any excess marinade.
- Place strips on a dehydrator tray or oven cooling rack on top of a oven pan to catch any drippings.
- Dry at 150F if using a dehydrator or as low as your oven will go if using an oven.
- Jerky will be done when it is completely dry and to your texture liking. It took me 9 hours to dry this jerky in my Excalibur Dehydrator.
- Remove skin from jerky and eat!
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