Sweet and Spicy Jerky

Chris has been working on his jerky recipe off and on for years. He recently picked it back up when I got him a dehydrator for Christmas and perfected it. While most jerky recipes call for spices, ours is mostly fresh ingredients, which make a world of difference.

First is a dehydrator. We have the Magic Mills Food Dehydrator from amazon. It has stainless steel wire racks, digital adjustable timer and temperature settings with automatic shut off and keep warm function. It currently retails for $139.99 on amazon and has an additional $12 off coupon. I chose this one over several other cheaper brands because I knew we wanted one that would last awhile. There are several cheaper ones on the market that are made primarily of plastic but ultimately I didn’t think they would last us. You can also use an oven but we do not recommend this method. It cooks it more so than dehydrates it, and cooks unevenly.

You can find most of the ingredients at your local grocery store and Asian market. The hardest thing to find is the Spicy Chili Crisp, so I have linked it in case you can’t make it to the Asian market. All ingredients are to taste, but we included the measurements that we use and like. I honestly hate spicy food and it was not too spicy for me. You can always add more or less Spicy Chili Crisp to your taste.

We recommend cutting the fat off the meat and not including it in the jerky. This is because the fat will spoil before anything else. If you want the flavor of the fat, we recommend eating the fatty pieces first. Cut the meat against the grain. This will make it easier to tear apart and chew.