A Japexican jerky, Beefjerky.

So lately I have been trying to eat a lot healthier than usual and it has been pretty good so far, except for the moments when I'm craving a snack (which luckily is usually salty), man those moments are hard. I was also looking for a good way to pack up some extra protein in my day. Dry meat is amazing, it is light, savory and chewy, and most of all it is mostly protein. I used to have some beef jerky but paying 6 bucks for a tiny bag of jerky is not my idea of a bargain. There's got to be a better way.

I was surfing around Amazon and found this great little gadget, a low power food dehydrator / yoghurt maker for about 50 bucks. And I thought to myself, 'let's give it a try', I can make jerky, dry fruits and veggies and maybe even yoghurt. I first tried the fruits with relative success. The yoghurt making works like a charm, though the little containers are a little troublesome to wash, but it took me a while before I actually forced myself to make the jerky, and boy o boy was I missing out, it turned out to be fucking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, way better than any store-bought bags, and certainly cheaper.

I did the math and making about 300 grams of jerky will set you down less than 10 bucks, and this is including the meat, spices and electricity to run the dehydrator. That should be  about  6 portions of 50 grams with around 20 grams of protein per portion… not bad at all. So I am now basically making one batch every week and combining the meat with some roasted nuts and dried fruits to make a super awesome little snack.

Alright, enough introductions, here is the Japexican jerky.

PS. You don’t have to use a dehydrator, you can set your oven at the lowest temperature and it will work pretty well, it will just not be that efficient.

Look at that gorgeous and delicious meat. 

You will need:

• Meat. Duh! You are looking for a big chunk of beef, as lean as possible. I have used Round, Rump, Brisket and Flank. About 600 grams of raw meat will yield about 300 grams of jerky.
• Salt. About 3 teaspoons.
• Spice Mix. My go to mix includes dry ginger, garlic powder, smoked paprika, sumac and isot pepper. But really anything goes. You can go wild, or simply do salt and pepper, your choice.

The Ingredients

Let's get to it!

Man, this is so simple it really does look like a magic trick.

1. Slice up your meat, I like very thin slices but anything under 1 cm will be good. The thicker it gets the longer it will take to dry. Try to use a very sharp knife otherwise your will be shredding your meat instead of slicing it.
2. If the cut your chose still has some fat, remove as much as you can.
3. Mix your spices and salt.
4. Add them spices to the meat and let it rest for a while. There is some value on leaving the meat marinating in the dry spices, some people do it overnight in the fridge, but I just do it for less than an hour.
5. Lay the meat in the dehydrator trays (or in you baking tray if you chose to go that way) leaving good space between each piece, you don’t want them to touch eachother.
6. Set up the temperature to 70˚C in the dehydrator or the lowest in the oven (should be around 100 ˚C) and a timer.
7. You want to check how your meat looks after around 6 hours and see what level of dryness looks the most appealing for you. I leave it for about 10 hours since I like it nice and dry.
8. Let it cool and store in an air tight container, air and moisture are the enemy. It will keep good for a couple of weeks but I guarantee you it will not last even a single week, you will be munching it on regular basis.
9. Enjoy and thank me later.
10. 
    

The meat is marinating

Ready to start