Easy Curry Beef Jerky

Easy Curry Beef Jerky

Bite of Curry in a Hurry

Difficulty: Easy

Cooking time: 6 hours

Serves 4

I love beef jerky personally, and it’s one of the snack foods I find satiates me anywhere I go. It doesn’t matter if I’m outside hiking, indoors studying, or just hanging around in the middle of the night, beef jerky is almost always perfect. It’s got plenty of good protein, it’s tasty and low in both fat and sugar, so it’s a pretty safe snack for almost everyone. Just one problem. Generally, it’s pretty expensive and I’m not normally happy with the flavors I find at my local Costco.

Luckily, I’ve had a lot of free time lately and incidentally, while supermarkets seem to run out of most meat pretty fast, the types used for jerky (top round, sirloin, bottom round) seems to be in a surplus. It seems like now is a more perfect time than ever to start making it yourself, and with the steps of this recipe, you’ll find it’s a lot easier, and more rewarding, than you may think.

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds lean round, fat caps trimmed off

• 2 Tbsp ground coriander

• 2 Tbsp ground cumin

• 2 Tbsp chili powder

• 2 Tsp ground cardamom

• ½ Tsp ground cinnamon

• Opt: 1 Tbsp ground fenugreek

• 2 ½ Tbsp kosher salt

The Process:

Preparation: 

1. If they haven’t been trimmed  already, slice off any noticeable slivers or chunks of fat as well as you can

   1. A little bit is fine here and there but too much fat can actually cause the jerky to spoil, which is why round is a perfect candidate for preservation

2. Slice the round in half along the grain so when you cut it across, the pieces aren’t incredibly large (think jerky sized, or your preference. I like about 2 inches by about 3-4 inches)

3. Take your sharpest knife and begin cutting slices across the grain, about an 1/8th of an inch (about 3 mm) thick, and lay it out on a large cutting board or lined baking sheet for seasoning

4. Mix together all your spices seasonings together and sprinkle lightly on both sides of all the slices of meat until out of seasoning

Drying:

1. Take out the top rack of your oven and (unless you’re a very clean person) scrub down with soap and water in your sink until reasonably clean

   1. Alternatively, if it’s a bit too much work, you can pierce the meat on wooden skewers and lay it across the grated so the meat hangs between the metal rings of the rack but I find cleaning it is easier

2. Drape the slices of meat across the metal rungs of the rack spaced out as evenly as possible, filling up the whole rack 

3. Lay out some tinfoil on a baking sheet on the bottom rack or bottom of the oven to catch the drippings

4. Place your rack back onto the top level of the oven and preheat to 225 Fahrenheit (107 C) and allow to dry out for 6-8 hours

   1. Notice we don’t need to preheat our oven in this recipe because the temperature is so low anyway

5. Check every 2 hours or so. The jerky is done if when you bend it, it cracks a bit but doesn’t snap into pieces. 

6. Keep in a sealed container and keep for up to about a week and a half

   1. I like to line the container with a couple of paper towels to help absorb excess moisture, which helps keep it longer