Beef Jerky 2 Ways

I am always looking for tasty ways to get protein and its a bonus if they are easy to make and easy to take along to work or for a pre-workout snack. Both of these jerky recipes fit the bill. If you went to the Halloween party this is the recipe I used for the jerky I was handing out. I have a super sweet food dehydrator and its what I used to make the jerky, if you don't have one you can always cook it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 5 hours.
I got this dehydrator at Cabela's for $79.99 and Its been great! With the rectangular shape you can fit so much more on the screens then the round versions that you typically see.

For the traditional Jerky I used a roast that I had the butcher at Safeway cut super thin when it was on sale for $1.99 a lb. ( It happens often in the fall watch the ad's and stock up, jerky usually runs about $8.99 a lb so you save big when you make it yourself!). I made a marinade and soaked the meat for 24 hrs. 1/2 C Tamari (wheat free soy sauce), 1/2 C Pineapple juice, 1 tsp each Salt and Pepper, 2 tsp each Chili powder and Garlic powder, a dash of nutmeg and 1 Tbsp Vinegar (this helps tenderize the meat). I also made a little rub out of the dry spices and sprinkled it on the meat as I put it on the trays to dry.

For the ground beef jerky I mixed 1 lb of ground beef, 2 tsp each Salt, Garlic powder, Onion powder, Curry powder, 1 tsp Cayenne pepper and 1 tsp Black pepper.

with rolling pin roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness between 2 sheets of waxed paper.

Peel the back sheet of paper off and place on the rack then peel off the top sheet.

You have a few options here, you can either roll it into big sheets that cover most of the surface of the rack or you can make smaller pieces, you just have to roll alot more out! If you do it in a sheet cut a hole in the center to get better circulation.

Here is what they look like when I did them out of 1 Tbsp of meat and rolled them out to make medallions.

Here is the Jerky out of the roast when its all dry and ready to eat.

Here is the medallions, I found that its best to take the ground beef jerky out about 1/2 way and dab it with a paper towel to remove some of the excess grease.

This is the finished ground beef jerky that I made into sheets. I took a pair of kitchen shears and cut it into uniform pieces. I think this way looks pretty legit but I like the medallions better they just seem more caveman to me! You can see in the picture the grease that I had dabbed of the jerky during cooking. It really does need to be done I'm not sure how it would turn out if it was left.

Making jerky is NOT as hard as it seems and is totally worth it in the end! If you have a great marinade or recipe for jerky please post it to the comments for us to try!