Everybody likes beef jerky. Recipes are easy to come by, you can make it with different meats, cuts, and processes. I went with my favorite recipe, added that ForensicBBQ touch, and with my tried and true process. If y’all haven’t seen been to heygrillhey.com, you’re missing out. Thank you Susie for this recipe.. let’s roll!

The Prep Table

Since we’re marinading the beef, get this going the night before. I stopped off at a new market and they had a perfect 2.5# eye round waiting to be purchased. Now, I normally hand-slice my own, but I’ve never had it cut by the butcher before. Today was that day.

Note: if you’re going to slice it on your own, put her in the freezer for a little bit (~15 minutes or so) to get it a little firm to make your life a little easier. I’ve done it without this tidbit, I’ve done it without a nice butcher/carving knife. Telling the butcher to slice it thin and taking it home – awesome time saving move.

The usual preparatory picture – not sponsored by Kroger, I promise.

What you don’t see is the bloody mess the original packing became. The dude put the slices in a paper tray, wrapped it in butcher paper and I was on my way. When it was time to take it out – my kitchen sink looked like a murder scene. Took each slice out, patted it dry with paper towel, and threw it in a gallon ziploc to ready for marinade.

If you checked out heygrillhey like I told you to, you’ll have her recipe as the base. What I changed up is swapped out the 2 jalapeño for 6 habanero. Shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m going to amp it up a bit on the spice level, and today was no exception (Spoiler alert: Wasn’t overly spicy – but did get hotter with time)

Starting the simmer on this beautiful blend.

2 Cups of Dr. Pepper, 6 thinly sliced habanero, 1Tbsp of Worcestershire, 2Tbsp of salt, 2tsp of black pepper and a teaspoon each of garlic/onion powder. Get this heated up to a boil, give it a stir and let it go for about 15 minutes. This will reduce to a gorgeous, full of flavor marinade that sticks to that meat.

Reduced by about half – concentrated goodness.

We’re good now. You saw I had the meat already in the ziploc, now it’s just pouring it in and playing the waiting game. Obviously, let that marinade cool before you do so… you don’t want to throw “boiling water to defrost ribs” (inside joke).

I took two pictures, so I’ll post two pictures
Love that habanero looking at me.

I’ve never let the meat marinade for anything less than overnight – so I don’t really know what’s your minimum time. When you’re planning a solid smoke, or in my case, a forensicbbq.com post AND a solid smoke, plan the week before and know what you’re going to do. Overnight marinade – put it in the fridge and sleep on it.

The Process

Get ready to burn through the paper towel. That meat has soaked up all that flavor, now it’s time to beat the shit out of it and dry it out. Lay down some layered paper towel, take a piece out and put some muscle into squeezing out juices. I took a picture of what I’m actually doing, because I’m actually putting a fist into that meat. (We go through a TON of safety gloves in the forensicbbq household)

Not quite Rocky in the meat freezer, but pretty close.

You’ll see in the top of that picture that this is where I do my trimming also – post marinade. Your fat isn’t going to help you out much. If it’s run through your cut, not a lot you’re going to do unless you’re going to strip out your cuts. I just squared off some of the pieces and tossed the fat. We can also get into the “same vs. cross” grain debate here, but truth be told – I don’t care too much. It’s jerky. Insert in mouth, rip pull and chew.

Using the new jerky racks – Frogmats are great too, but wanted to try these out.

So you dried out your jerky, trimmed it up and placed it on your racks/mat so it’s time to get to cooking. I’ll probably do another jerky post where I use my dehydrator, but I’m obviously overly partial to the smoker, so that’s what I’m going to do here. I loaded up the RecTeq Bull with apple wood pellets and set it to “XTREME SMOKE” – or “Lo” – or 180 degrees. It’s the lowest setting – and also a tie between this and 225deg for my most used settings. “FUL” – or 500+ is a distant third, but this speaks to the versatility of your pellet grill. And why I throw my full support behind RecTeq.

Here’s where I throw another change from the recipe. I LOVE a peppered jerky. Mrs. ForensicBBQ and I stopped at a gas station/jerky shop in a small town (the best) on our honeymoon – and the peppered jerky was outstanding. Pretty sure they used a brisket flat vs. my eye round – but they do it right in Michigan. If you’re in the upper peninsula of Michigan – get to Gustafson’s and tell them ForensicBBQ sent you.

I throw a dusting of coarse ground black pepper on the top to get that peppery taste, with that dr. pepper sweetness, and that habanero pepper spice. We’re getting PEPPERY over here.

Two racks, spaced out for maximum smoke, low temp

The Result

Now that we prepped, we went through the process, let’s get to the result. We’re only smoking this for a couple hours – so check every 45 minutes or so to see what you like. You’re going to get a firm jerky, not a crispy one. You’ll bit through it, but it won’t break. This is my perfect jerky, and I hope it’s yours too.

That RecTeq precision – Setpoint: Lo, Actual: 180. Perfect EVERY TIME.

The first 45 minutes or so in the smoke. Low temp, apple wood smoke.

Word of caution – these did stick to these cheap racks pretty good – not a huge deal, you’re ripping about an 1/8″ tough piece of meat, so it’s not going to break – but I did get some stickage. If you want to flip it, this is probably a good time. You don’t really need to, in my experience – but to each their own.

This is where I flipped it – about 1.5 hours in or so. I let it go for another 45 minutes (Just over 2 hrs)

I saw this and knew we were getting close. I hate the blur in that bottom left, so pretend it’s not there. One day I’ll get some professional photography here – but I’m here for fun. You can tell that smoke kissed that eye round as we’re at a pinkish-red color. I flipped at this point – partly to test the firmness of each piece.

After about 2 hours, I took a piece off the smoker, brought it inside and tried it. We nailed it. You taste that sweetness of the Dr. Pepper, you get a slight heat from the habanero (I thought it’d be hotter, but it wasn’t). You get that black peppery taste that I love. It’s a perfect marriage (Second perfect marriage – Mrs. ForensicBBQ and I get first place. Major brownie points gained with that comment)

Get those off there – and it’s time for an overlooked, but an important step that Susie nailed – get it in a Ziploc bag. Steam up that bag and get some moisture in there. This is KEY, I’m telling you. She said it, I said it – trust us.

I took this last picture a week later. Gave some to some close friends and I think everyone enjoyed it as much as I do. Even the kids enjoyed it. It did get hotter as it sat, or I just had a softy piece to start – but it’s so flavorful. I have yet to throw any Prague powder or any preservative in there – because honestly – it doesn’t last. A co-worker tried it and his response was, “That’s actually pretty good. I’m serious, that’s a perfect heat and sweet blend”.

I know.

I know because I started with the Dr. Pepper/Jalapeno starter. Upped the game with habanero. Upped it further with more habanero. Added a dusting of black pepper. I know what “I like”, but it’s a tricky business making to what “everyone likes” sometimes.

Please check out my About Me page where I mention some outstanding pages where I take a lot of my recipes from. I’m throwing Susie and heygrillhey a huge shoutout in this post, because it’s well deserved. Some of you have reached out for some actual tsp by tsp recipes – and I’ll of course let you know what I do. Spread the love!

If you haven’t already seen – I’m LIVE on Instagram. I’m catching up on a lot of old posts, with the winners so far being the Beef Tenderloin and Carne Asada posts. Many of you are showing serious love, and I appreciate it greatly.

And because these cutting boards look cool as hell, Check the The Bull’s for some solid masterpieces. I hope you’ll see one of their pieces in future posts – I gotta have one!! Thanks everyone.

The Recipe

Dr. Pepper/Habanero Jerky

ForensicBBQ

Susie at HeyGrillHey has her Dr. Pepper/Jalapeno jerky. I need a little bit more oomph – so I went with Habaneros!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Cook Time 3

Ingredients

2.5 Lbs Eye Round Sliced Thin
6 Habanero Peppers Sliced
2 Cups Dr. Pepper Soda
2 Tbsp Salt
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Onion Powder

Instructions

Marinade

Combine Dr Pepper, Habanero, Salt, Worcestershire, Black Pepper, Garlic/Onion Powder into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce and simmer for 15 minutes until reduced by half. Allow marinade to cool before adding to beef.
Pour marinade into Ziploc bag with the thin sliced beef and marinade overnight (at least 8 hours)

Jerky

Pre-heat your RecTeq to XTREME SMOKE (Lo) or 180 degrees.
Remove a piece of meat from the Ziploc, place onto a bed of paper towel. Grab a second piece of paper towel and press the hell out of the meat. Get as much liquid out as possible and place onto frogmat/jerky rack for smoker.
Optional: Shake a little more black pepper on top before adding to smoker
Smoke until jerky is firm. After the first hour, check every half or so until it's how you like it. It won't be shingle jerky, it'll be good chewy beef.
When a piece is done, put it in a Ziploc bag and keep adding pieces to it. Let the steam work in the bag. Crucial step.
Eat it up!