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BBQ beef jerky on a smoker.
Dried, not cooked! Beef can be a tasty snack without even cooking it. Let me show you how to make BBQ beef jerky on the Weber Smokey Mountain.
Dish Info
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 1 hour (plus 24 hours - ideally - marinating time )
An easy yet tasty beginner beef jerky recipe for the Weber Smokey Mountain BBQ smoker.
Contents
🥩 Ingredients for beef jerky
- Beef - Picking the right cut of meat is always a contributing factor to any good BBQ. The quality that goes in will determine what comes out. For beef jerky, you can be fairly flexible with the cut of meat but one thing I will advise: use a lean cut of meat. This means no fat. If you have a cut of meat with fat on it, trim it off before you start.
- BBQ Sauce - A simple Heinz variety is just fine. You can even go for a cheaper own brand one if you want.
- Teriyaki Sauce - A powerful flavour from the far east and this works so well with jerky.
- Salt
- Pepper
- Worcestershire Sauce - The Lea & Perrins is the original and best.
🔪 Instructions to make beef jerky
Its a pretty simple 3 step recipe. Slice the beef, marinade the beef, dry the beef. That's it!
I love beef jerky and since getting my own Weber Smokey Mountain smoker I wanted to try making my own jerky on there. It was a lot more simple than I'd first thought it would be too.
The key to success with this recipe is making sure that the smoker keeps a good low (and I mean low) temperature. The aim is to dry out the meat, not actually cook it. Low and slow is the main focus of using a Weber Smokey mountain to dry our beef to make beef jerky.
Aim for 65C or 150F and you'll be golden. I enlisted the "snake method" of putting my coals in the Weber Smokey Mountain - check out my BBQ tips to learn more. This was the first time I tried this and I have to say it came out so well. I was really pleased with the results.
For the full process, check out the recipe card at the end of this post.
⏲️ Marinade takes time
So a key part to this process is the marinating of the beef. To get the full flavour beef jerky you need to ensure that your raw meat is fully soaked in the flavour before it goes on to the Weber Smokey Mountain.
A good marinade will be allowed to soak in to the meat at an absolute minimum time of 30 minutes. However for the best results and to really taste it, you will need to leave the meat in for at least 24 hours. If you can plan ahead and organise, a good two days time soaking gives some excellent results. Anything that takes far longer to make it that to eat it is always worthwhile!
The ideal tub to marinade in will be air tight and something that can be put in the fridge. Something like these tubs available online are perfect. They have sealable lids and can also be put through the dishwasher.
💭 How to monitor the temperature on a Weber Smokey Mountain
This is one of the biggest challenges that you will face when it comes to using a Weber Smokey Mountain. Keeping a constant temperature takes skill and effort. You really need to learn how to use the vents in the smoker to help keep a constant temperature.
Temperature Probe (Bluetooth)
I found a good way to monitor the temperature was to use a digital Bluetooth thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature without needing to be next to the smoker. My preferred monitor of choice is the 4 probe Inkbird IBT-4XS BBQ Thermometer. This is a Bluetooth device so I can link it to my phone, while monitoring the internal temperature of the smoker along with a probe in the meat itself to ensure it is cooking (when necessary).
I recommend this to be one of the extra investments to make in your BBQ equipment setup. It will always be useful when being used with any BBQ and smoker recipes you may make such as this beef jerky.
Tip Top Temp
So here is a unique simple little gadget called the Tip Top Temp and is a smoker temperature controller. So simple yet so effective.
Have you ever had the issue with trying to control the temperature on your Weber Smokey Mountain or other smoker? Even a normal BBQ (anything with temperature control vents can benefit from one of these beauties. It has a dial which can be set and the vent opens and closes automatically to keep a steady temperature throughout the cook.
Getting the most from your Weber Smokey Mountain
It takes time and patience for the WSM to start getting a steady temperature. This is due to both skill and science. The skill is simple - you will understand it more the more you use it. Environment factors such as outside temperature, wind etc will all play a part on how steady the temperature remains.
The science bit comes down to the build up of carbon from the smoke. The more build up there is, the more the inside metal will get covered. This in turn will provide a constant surface which is all the same. Rather than some areas being reflective and some not which is what happens with brand new metal. The internal temperature of a Weber Smokey Mountain will be more constant with more use as heat will not bounce around as much as it would in a new grill.
Starting up the fire is a skill too, so some useful tools such as the Weber chimney starter kit is one of the greatest pieces of kit you will use with your smoker. That combined with the coals, smoke wood and firelighters will help get things burning and you'll be smoking beef jerky in no time.
Sure you can. You just need a smoker box that sits in the grill. Check out my post on cooking a pork loin on a gas BBQ.
Very easy, it just takes a bit of time. With my recipe there are 3 easy steps: Slice the meat, marinade the meat dry the meat (in the smoker).
You can create the same type of effect using a Weber 57 BBQ. Set up the BBQ as a smoker by ensuring you have a water tray (use a tin foil tray) and the coals set on one side (still using the snake method).
Accompaniments for BBQ Beef Jerky
Did you make this recipe?
Leave me a comment and tell me how this recipe worked for you?
The Recipe
Simple Smoker Beef Jerky
Equipment
Ingredients
- 500 g Lean beef Trim off all fat
- 175 ml Teriyaki Sauce
- 175 ml BBQ sauce
- 75 ml Worcestershire sauce
- 1.5 teaspoon Garlic Pepper
- 1.5 teaspoon Onion Powder
- 0.5 teaspoon Salt or Cure
Instructions
- Slice your beef into really thin slices. As thin as possible works best in to 2 - 4 inch long pieces (like the size of jerky you'd buy in the shops)500 g Lean beef
- Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and put in your beef slices. Pop in the fridge for at least 24 hours.175 ml Teriyaki Sauce, 175 ml BBQ sauce, 75 ml Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 tsp Garlic Pepper, 1.5 tsp Onion Powder, 0.5 tsp Salt or Cure
- Set the smoker to burn low and slow. You don't want to cook the meat but you want to be drying out. The ideal temperature is 150F or 65C. Regarding smoke, have the burn smoke the meat in the first hour or so for it to absorb the smoke flavour.
- Place the pieces of marinaded beef on the smoker. Both levels and leave on for at least 5 hours. Keep an eye on the temperature. You don't want to cook it - just dry it out.
- The jerky should be ready after about 5 - 6 hours. It will be dry and chewy, but not burnt. This can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months (if it lasts that long!!!)
Notes
Nutrition
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One response to “BBQ Beef Jerky”
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The thing with this recipe is I want to make more but it takes ages. I'll have to do some in bulk. It was fantastic.
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