Beef Jerky in the Oven

Ahh, beef jerky…the essence of long car trips and trekking through the backwoods.  Well, for us anyway.  The protein boost keeps you going much better than carby snacks!  Two things I DON’T like about store beef jerky, though: too much salt, and preservatives. Our family is moving more and more towards getting that stuff out of our system.  I don’t know what the long-term effects of that junk is and I don’t want to find out, so I’ll just stick to eating REAL food.  Joining a CSA this year has definitely helped with that goal!  So many fresh veggies at every meal has really made us feel better and refined our palettes.  Now we can walk down a grocery aisle (which is WEIRD in itself because we don’t go there much anymore), see a box of some kind of pre-packaged, processed junk with loads of sugar and white flour…and it’s totally unappealing (even the baking aisle.)

So anywho, upon their recommendation for a cut of meat, I picked up a pound of London Broil from Rockin Z Ranch in Mountain Grove, MO.  (I actually picked it up at the Ozark Farmer’s Market – much more convenient!)  I talked to the lovely gals at the market about making homemade jerky & decided to take the plunge.  It was a really good cut of meat because it was so lean.  When you make jerky, lean is good because excess fat that melts off the meat when you dehydrate it can lead to early spoilage.  Make sure you get a cut that is pretty flat, as it will be easier to slice and dry uniformly.

Now there are several ways you can dry meat.  Oven, food dehydrator, Alton Brown’s box fan contraption….this post happens to include the oven method. (Mostly because my food dehydrator doesn’t rotate evenly, which scares me when it comes to drying meat.)

Step One - Slice thin

Step 1: Freeze (or thaw) meat until it is semi-frozen.  Slice into quarter-inch strips.  I did it cross-grain so it would be easier to tear off chunks in the end.

Step Two: Mix marinade

Step Two: Add marinade and cover meat evenly.  Cover and marinade in the fridge for overnight or longer. Your marinade should have some acid in it to help break down the meat, like vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, tomato juice, orange juice, etc.  Try combining different tastes!  Here’s what I did for a slightly sweet-salty-spicy-savory combo:

1 c. apple cider, preservative-free
1/2 c. raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp each garlic, cayenne, pepper, and salt

The juice was really nice because it lent a natural sweetness and we didn’t need to add any cane sugar (another thing I’ve practically cut out of my diet this year – I feel so good without it!  No more headaches, and more REAL energy!)  Red juices like grape, cranberry, pomegranate, blueberry, etc. would be tasty for this too.  Another natural sweetner that would be good is honey.

Don't try this at home

Step Three: Pat meat dry

Step Three: Pat meat dry.  The drier it is now, the easier it is to dehydrate.  You’ll notice how it’s brown now from all that yummy marinade!  You can reduce the used marinade down for another dish; just don’t use it raw for something else.

Step Four: Insert toothpicks

Hanging in the oven

Step Four: Insert toothpicks into one end of each slice of meat and hang between oven racks. Place a foil-covered pan on the bottom rack to catch the drips of fat.  There won’t be many, but some.

I tried not to insert the toothpicks into a fat sliver because it felt flimsier that way, like it might fall off the pick more easily.

Step Five: Dry

Step Five: Set temperature as low as your oven will go (140 is ideal).  Dry in oven until entire length of meat is tough.  It should tear somewhat easily but not snap when you bite into it.  My drying time in this oven was about 8 hours.

The finished product!

Step Six: Let cool, package in an airtight container or bag, and enjoy when you have your jerky craving – whenever you want to, because it is dry!  (Since it doesn’t have a bunch of preservatives or salt, it will keep longer in the fridge or freezer.  We took it on a weeklong+ camping trip (to a drier climate) and it did just fine.

Mango Chicken dish

I made this last night because I had a very soft mango that was pretty much good only for a puree.  Then the color of it reminded me of a peach-chicken dish I had made before, so I came up with a brilliant idea for dinner: Chicken with a mango sauce!  I was kind of scared because I was completely making this up, but I felt confident with the knowledge about flavors that I have accumulated over the past few years.

Everything below is approximate and to taste; I didn’t really measure a single thing.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients & Directions for chicken:

• 2 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breast
• salt
• pepper
• fresh thyme
• cilantro
• lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• olive oil
• water
• dash of cumin
• dash of curry

Season the chicken on both sides with lemon juice, oil, salt & pepper.  Crush garlic & add thyme and cilantro.  Let marinade for a while if possible.  (Cooking tip: NEVER cook chicken without marinading it with at least some salt & pepper!  It’s disgusting!  Unless you like that “pure, unadulterated chicken” flavor…)

Heat up a pan on the stove with 1/2″  of water.  Put the chicken in the water & add curry & cumin.  Cover with a lid.  Keep an eye on the water level so the chicken stays moist & doesn’t burn.  (Cooking tip: This is a really healthy way to cook chicken & keep lots of flavor locked in – plus it’s a lot faster & cooler than heating up the oven in the summer!)

While chicken is cooking, prepare the mango sauce.

Ingredients & Directions for mango sauce:

• olive oil
• 1/4 c. sliced red onion
• 1 jalapeno, chopped fine (seed to your level of spice)
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 c. pureed mango
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• water
• 1 tsp. dried cilantro (more if fresh)
• 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

Slice & sautee the onion in a little bit of olive oil with salt until soft.  Add jalapenos and black pepper and sautee for a minute.  Add mango, lemon juice, and a little bit of water at a time until a medium consistency is formed.  Add cilantro &  tomatoes.  Season to taste with salt & pepper.  Cook over med-low until chicken is just about finished.

Putting it all together:

When the chicken is just about finished, you can leave it whole or slice it up and brown it in the pan for a minute.  Keep a little water in there still!  Add the chicken to the mango suace and cook for a few more minutes over med-low heat.  Serve over brown rice, orzo, couscous, quinoa, or something of the sort.

(We had this over orzo with olive oil, lemon juice, & some yummy Moroccan black olives – feta cheese would have been good in there but we didn’t have any.)

Sorry, no picture!  I was too hungry & it looked too tasty to stop & take one.    Next time!  Or, if you make it, send me one & I’ll post it on here!