If you love beef jerky but hate the high price of buying it in the store this is the recipe for you! Using Pirate's Gold Original as our base, we combine all of these ingredients into an incredibly sweet and spicy flavor you won't get from store bought jerky. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 8-10 lbs Top round or eye of round (flank steak works too)
- Half a bottle of Pirate's Gold Original Marinade (8 oz)
- 5 Peppers - Habanero for hot, jalapeño for less heat
- 2 Cups brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup Worcestershire
- 3/4 Cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 Cup orange juice
- 1/2 Cup Grapefruit juice
- 2 tbsp Liquid Smoke
- 4 tbsp Red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp Onion powder
- 2 tbsp Garlic powder
- 4 tsp Black pepper
Instructions:
- Trim away any fat from the beef and slice it against the grain at roughly 1/4" thickness. You can also get it trimmed and sliced direct from the butcher to save time.
- Combine all ingredients (except your peppers and 2 of your 4 tbsp of red pepper flakes) into a mixing bowl.
- In a food processor, blend your peppers and remaining 2 tbsp of red pepper flakes with a half cup of your prepared marinade mix. Blend until completely smooth.
- Combine your mixing bowl of ingredients with your blended peppers.
- Place your sliced beef into a heavy duty ziploc bag or air tight container.
- Pour your marinade over the beef and mix together. This is where the ziploc bag is best as you can seal it up and mix all ingredients easier.
- Marinade in the refrigerator for 18-36 hours. Remember, the longer you let it marinade, the hotter the flavor will be.
- Using either a dehydrator or smoker you will want to lay your strips out individually so they are not stacked or touching.
- Set your temperature to 160 degrees and let cook. Jerky will be done when you can pick it up and it remains straight and rigid. Typically 5-7 hrs depending on the unit you are using.
You can eat it straight off the dehydrator/smoker or let it set up in the refrigerator for a day to get a nice glaze to form. Letting it set up really helps enhance the flavor!
