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Looking for a great peppered flavored jerky? Look no further, this tropic thunder beef jerky is bursting with flavor and is sure to impress.
I'm not sure if you could tell, but my wife loves the movie Tropic Thunder. You know, the one with Ben Stiller that takes place in the jungle. Yeah, she loves that movie... So when I made a jerky with pineapple juice she thought of tropical jungles and wanted to name the recipe, and here we are.... Tropic Thunder Beef Jerky.
This is an amazing tasting jerky, I like it a lot! However, it does not have a huge flavor of pineapple juice, but more of a soy sauce and black pepper flavor.
I started with beef top round steak that was sliced thin from the supermarket. Sometimes I feel a little lazy and can't resist the already thin sliced meat that works so great for jerky!
After combining all of the ingredients in a ziplock bag, the beef top round was marinated for 12 hours in the refrigerator. I normally like to marinate my recipes for 24 hours, but anything over 6 hours will produce some great tasting jerky.
After straining the meat in a colander, I patted dry the jerky strips with paper towels to soak up any excess marinade. My Excalibur Dehydrator was used to dry this jerky. It heats the jerky to an internal temperature of 160F, so there was no pre-heating necessary. After 4 1/2 hours the jerky was just perfect! Visit my Jerky Making Methods page for in depth step by step directions on how to dry jerky!
Make sure to remove a piece and allow it to cool to room temperature before checking if the jerky is finished. It should bend and crack, but not break in half. White fibers will also be seen if the jerky is dried correctly.
As mentioned earlier, the jerky had a great soy sauce and black pepper flavor. I would categorize the spice as mild. There was a kick from the black pepper which I really enjoyed. The brown sugar balanced the spice however, making a great standard beef jerky flavor. I wish the pineapple would come through a little more, but have had a hard time getting that flavor without using an extract. Even without the pineapple juice, it has a great flavor.
Give this Tropic Thunder Beef Jerky a shot if you are looking for a great tasting traditional jerky, I highly recommend it!
For more in depth directions on how to dry your jerky, visit my page Jerky Making Methods or click on the pictures below.
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef top round
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp curing salt (optional)
Instructions
- 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 marinade ingredients in a bowl or ziplock bag.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew. Cut with the grain for a more chewy jerky. (I did not freeze the jerky since I bought already thinly sliced meat. I sliced the thin meat into 1" wide strips)
- Add sliced beef to the mixture in the ziplock bag or bowl and marinate for 6-24 hours in the refrigerator.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and strain excess marinade in a colander and pat dry with paper towels.
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. I used my Excalibur Dehydrator and dried for 4.5 hours at 165F.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Nutrition
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Figured I should leave this comment so no one makes the same mistake I did if they try to use fresh pineapple! I used 1/4 cup of blended fresh pineapple instead of canned pineapple juice. Using fresh pineapple resulted in jerky that was the consistency/texture of a gummy worm (but the taste was great!). I later learned that this is because there is an enzyme in pineapple that breaks down meat super fast. This enzyme (bromelain) is heat neutralized, so it isn't a problem in canned pineapple juice because it is neutralized during the canning process. I retried this recipe with blended fresh pineapple, but this time heated the blended pineapple to 160F (apparently bromelain is neutralized at around 158F) and let it cool before making the rest of the marinade. This resulted in some really yummy (non-gummy worm) jerky that I will definitely be making again..... probably with canned pineapple juice to save myself an extra step!
Ha. Thanks for the info Bob!!! It's good to hear you got it figured out and were able to make some great jerky.
You could try boiling a 1/2 cup of pineapple juice down to your 1/4 cup. You can get that super concentrated pineapple flavour that way!
That's a very good idea Crystal!
Tropic Thunder is and AWESOME movie!