Smoked Venison Jerky

2 min read
Spicy homemade beef jerky coated with dry seasoning blend
Prep Time - 20 mins | Cook Time - 4 hrs | Serves - 12 | Difficulty - 5/10

Smoked Venison Jerky recipe comes from award winning cookbook author, Hank Shaw and is made in a smoker.

Curing Time: 1 day

Tips: Once made, your jerky will keep for a few weeks at room temperature, and forever in the freezer.

Pay attention to your meat when slicing. No sinew or silverskin. For those of you who harvest a lot of deer in a year, backstrap is ideal for this purpose. Hank mostly uses roasts from the hind leg.

Keep the salt-to-meat ratio as it is in this recipe, but feel free to experiment with the other spices. Some variations could include adding allspice or coriander, cinnamon, or even using Tajin from a Mexican market.

You can also soak your meat in soy sauce plus 1/2 cup of sugar, let it sit no longer than 8 hours, then smoke it. Soy is very salty, so you don't want to oversoak it.

Try a batch with just the salt and black pepper once. It really shows off the quality of your venison.

Ingredients:

  • 5 pounds venison, sliced against the grain, 1/4 inch thick
  • 1/2 cup lime or lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1/4 cup paprika
  • 2 tablespoons cayenne or other chile powder
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder, or 8 garlic cloves, minced and mashed
  • 1 tablespoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon citric acid (optional)

Steps:

  1. When making slices for smoked venison jerky, you will want to thaw your roasts partially. When they are half-frozen, it is far easier to make nice, even slices. Pieces that are around 1/4 inch thick are chewy, not brittle.

    As for the smoke, remember that you are drying the venison here, not really cooking it, although it does get cooked. That means you want your smoker relatively calm. Keep your smoker at 165°F on full smoke. Regardless of what you do, you want the smoker to be under 200°F.

  2. Mix all the spices in a bowl. If you are not using the citric acid powder (Fruit Fresh), wet the slices of the venison with the lime juice. Coat the venison with the spice mix well, pressing and massaging it into the meat. Store all this in a covered container in the fridge for up to 2 days. More than that, and things might get too salty.
  3. Get your smoker going at about 165°F, and keep the temperature no higher than 200°F. Wood choice is up to you. Remove the meat from the container and shake off any excess spices; you do want some on there, though. Lay the meat out in the smoker so that it is not touching—smoke until leathery, neither too juicy nor too brittle. Start checking the meat at 2 hours, then every 20 minutes thereafter.
  4. Once the jerky is to your liking, let it cool to room temperature before you put it in the fridge.