When you’re on the go, it’s easy to reach for snacks that will satisfy your sweet tooth and give you a quick boost of energy to get through your workday or past that final errand. But so many of the convenient snacks you can grab from a vending machine or a convenience store rack won’t do your health any favors.  

Then there’s beef jerky--a snack that’s just as healthy and delicious as it is convenient. And while it’s easy enough to grab a bag of jerky off a store shelf when you need a quick energy boost, store-bought jerky just doesn’t compare to the homemade kind.

Making Your Own Honey Beef Jerky

This honey beef jerky recipe makes the perfect sweet and savory snack for when you’re on the run, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you made this tasty treat yourself. You can even wow your coworkers with it when they catch you snacking. After all, when’s the last time any of them came to work with homemade jerky, let alone jerky made from premier quality beef tenderloin and marinated in the perfect mix of honey, garlic, and soy sauce?

Related: Best Meats for Beef Jerky [Tender & Delicious]

Altogether, you’ll need about 20 hours to make this jerky, start to finish, but don’t get discouraged by that number. This jerky is quite simple to make, and most of that time goes to letting your meat marinate and dehydrate.

You’ll need to pick up some specialty ingredients to make this jerky, as well as gather a few materials to help you through the jerky-making process. These include:

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of very lean, premier quality beef tenderloin
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • ½ cup of honey
  • 5/8 cup of Japanese soy sauce (we recommend Kikkoman soy sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke (optional)
  • 5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon of fresh crushed black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon of salt

Materials

  • Wooden toothpicks
  • Aluminum foil
  • Large bowl or plastic container
  • Ziploc bags

Are you looking for hand-crafted, all-natural jerky that beats out other store brands on flavor? Then shop Two Chicks Jerky today to find your new favorite snack food!

Step One: Buying and Prepping Your Meat

You’ll want to buy your beef tenderloin fresh from the butcher and have it cut into strips 2mm thick for this jerky recipe. After bringing your beef tenderloin back home, place it in the freezer and leave it there for 2 ½ hours. Once it’s partially frozen, you can remove the meat from the freezer and cut the excess fat away from it with ease. Then, use the microwave to defrost it.

Step Two: Making Your Marinade

While your meat is defrosting, pull out a bowl or plastic container to mix your marinade in. You’ll want one that’s large enough to hold all the meat you’ll be marinading as well. To make your marinade, combine 2 minced cloves of garlic with 5/8 cup of soy sauce, ½ teaspoon of black pepper, ½ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke, 5 tablespoons of lemon juice, and ½ cup of honey.

Step Three: Marinating Your Meat

Place the beef tenderloin strips in your marinade and cover the container. Place the container in your fridge and let the beef marinate for 12 to 24 hours. The longer you leave your beef in the marinade, the more flavorful your jerky will be.

Related: How Long to Marinate Jerky: Thoughts from Two Chicks

Step Four: Prepping Your Oven for the Jerky

Once your beef finishes marinating, it’s time to prep your oven to make the jerky. First, place one of your oven racks on the lowest level and place tin foil over it. (After your jerky dehydrates, you can remove the tin foil from the rack for easy oven clean-up.) Then, place another oven rack at the highest level, and preheat your oven to 50 degrees C, or about 120 degrees F.

Step Five: Prepping Your Meat for Dehydration

Take your strips of beef tenderloin and insert a toothpick through the end of each slice. Using the toothpicks as support, suspend each of these slices from the top rack of the oven. By doing this, you’ll be able to fit the entire pound of beef tenderloin on one oven rack.

Step Six: Dehydrating Your Jerky

Bake your jerky in the oven at 50 degrees C (120 degrees F), leaving the oven door slightly open to allow moisture to escape. This way, your jerky will dehydrate instead of just cooking. After five hours, check to see if your beef is dehydrated. Depending on the exact thickness of your meat slice, this could take up to 8 hours, but be careful not to cook it for too long. The jerky should bend when touched but should not snap. 

Step Seven: Storing Your Jerky

Once your jerky is dehydrated, you can remove it from the oven and place it on a rack to cool. Then you can either dig right in and eat your delicious and savory homemade snack or store it to enjoy later by placing your jerky in Ziploc bags. Just be sure to remove all air from the bags before sealing them to keep your jerky tasting fresh and delicious.

Related: Best Teriyaki Beef Jerky Recipe You’ll Ever Taste

Want to buy jerky that’s crafted with the same care as the kind you make at home and that tastes just as delicious? Two Chicks Jerky makes high-quality, hand-crafted jerky that delivers one-of-a-kind flavors using all-natural meats, herbs, and spices!