when it comes to meat snacks beef jerky is one of my favorite it's perfect in between meals great as a snack great on a road trip really any time is always a good time for beef jerky the only downside is that it's pretty expensive when you buy it at the store so today I'm gonna show you my super easy method of doing a delicious beef jerky at home for our protein we're going to be using this beautiful beef eye of round as you can see it is nice and lean you can see which way the grain goes there's a little bit of fat on the underside we're going to trim all this off but otherwise it is a very nice and lean looking piece of beef this beef I have round cost 6.99 a pound it's a little bit under two pounds and cost me just about 12 dollars this is going to be a whole lot of jerky for not a lot of money I like using leaner cuts to make my beef jerky which is why I'm using this eye of round but you can use other Cuts as well flank steak works great any sort of a roasty larger cut of beef can be made into beef jerky to start I'm going to trim off some of this excess fat that's on the underside we don't really need any of this in our jerky you can also leave the FED on I just like my jerky to be more on the lean side so I like to trim all this off we're also going to remove the silver skin that you can see on the beef this will never render down and it's going to be super chewy and tough once it's cooked so just take your knife insert right underneath and slowly cut the silver skin off to expose the meat our beef is trimmed up and ready to be sliced up now there's two different ways you can make your beef jerky and a lot of this will depend on your personal preference if you like your beef jerky to be more tender or more chewy if you like your beef jerky to be more tender once it's done you're going to have to slice across the grain which as you can see the grain goes up and down so you have to cut across the Grain and if you like your beef jerky to be more on the chewy side you have to slice with the grain we're going to do it both ways with this one so you guys can see how it turns out so as you can see the grain goes up and down this way so I'm going to slice this guy right down the middle in half and we have two nice pieces we're going to start with this half first and we're going to cut this across the grain as you can see the grains go this way so I'm going to take my knife and cut this way so when the beef jerky is done it'll be much easier to pull apart and it will seem much more tender take your knife and slice about a quarter inch thick slices making sure they're nice and even so they cook and finish at the same time you can also pop this in the freezer for about 30 minutes beforehand to firm it up it will make the slicing much easier and this is what you're going for sliced across the grain you can see the strands this is the thickness that you're looking for this is going to be super tender and delicious and on this piece we're going to go for a more chewy bite so again the grain goes this way so we're going to slice along the grain so it's not as tender once it's done going for the same thickness again about a quarter inch or so and this is what this piece looks like so again you can see the grains going up and down long ways so it's not going to be as tender as the other piece but still super tasty here's a side-by-side comparison so here's the one that's cut across the grain you can see all the individual grains and here's the one that's sliced with the grain you can see the long strands going up and down the way that you cut and prepare your beef really only affects the final tenderness and mouthfeel of the jerky the flavor is going to be the same regardless so try both ways and see which one you like next up we're going to prep our marinade now there's a bunch of different ways you can do your beef jerky depending on the flavors that you're looking for you can go sweet Savory spicy but today I'm going to do one of my favorites which is teriyaki to start we're going to go with one bottle of teriyaki sauce use whichever one you like We'll add some black pepper smoked paprika onion powder minced onions crushed red peppers honey and we'll whisk all this together what I learned from making jerky in the past is that if you use just the base marinade so for example if I did just the teriyaki sauce the jerky tends to come out kind of bland because it's going to be cooking or rehydrating for a long time on the grill so that's why I like to add a whole bunch of other spices to help Elevate those flavors I'm going to put my cut up beef into a Ziploc bag notice that we're putting both Cuts in the same bag it really doesn't matter you'll still be able to tell the difference after it's cooked and we're going to pour our entire marinade right into to the bag make sure to get all these seasonings bits and pieces from the bottom in there as well squeeze as much air as you can out of the bag we're gonna seal it up and now just massage everything in to make sure every piece is nicely coated I'm going to put the Ziploc bag in the fridge for at least a couple hours ideally you want to prep this the day before so we can marinate for at least 24 hours the longer it sits in this marinade the more flavorful our jerky is going to be I'm going to be doing my jerky on my big green egg at that low indirect heat you can also do the same recipe in your oven if you choose to do so follow the same temperature and time guidelines and it should come out just the same as always I've got a couple starter cubes in my charcoal I'm going to put in the plates that are next so this is going to create that indirect cooking Zone and my grate will go right on top the key to making good beef jerky is to cook it at that low temperature we're not really trying to cook the meat as we are trying to dehydrate it or pull all the moisture out so I'm going to bring my big green egg up to about 180 definitely no more than 200 degrees before I put the meat on if you're doing this at home keep your oven at the low temperature or use a dehydrator for the best results our jerky has been in the marinade for a couple hours so I'm going to take it out of the bag put it on a wire rack and get it ready for the grill and just look how beautiful this beef looks I think on this beautiful color you can see the seasonings the crushed red pepper this jerky is going to be delicious I'm going to lay my beef jerky on the wire rack this is going to help with two things one it's going to provide a little better airflow on the grill and two it'll make it easier and quicker to get this on and off the grill when you're laying these guys down make sure there's at least a little bit of space between each piece so that smoke can penetrate all the sides our wire rack is full and this beef jerky is ready to hit the grill Big Green Egg is cruising just shy of 200 degrees we're going to put our wire rack on with the Beef close this guy up and we'll let them cook our beef jerky has been on for about four hours and it is done and this is what it looks like done you can keep this on the grill or in your oven longer if you like to dry it out some more but this is how I like my jerky as you can see it is still nice and pliable but before we eat it there's one last step that we have to do I'm gonna put my jerky in a Ziploc bag seal it up and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes to kind of steam a little bit and to get even more tender this is a crucial step and I guarantee you your jerky is going to be much tastier if you do this last step seal it up and we'll let it hang out our jerky has rested so first up let's compare the piece cut with the grain and the one cut Against the Grain this is the piece cut Against the Grain you can see the muscle fibers inside and just look how tender it is breaks super easily and you can see the inside nicely dried out this is as good as it gets and here's the piece that we cut with the grain so you can see the muscle fibers going across so if we bend it just like with the other one you can see it's much harder to pull apart because we have to pull the muscle fibers apart this piece is much easier to pull off similar to a string cheese because we're separating the muscle fibers lengthwise so again nicely dehydrated inside nice color just a different texture and mouth feel compared to the other piece let's give it a try this is the piece that we cut across the grain for a much more tender bite that's really good the marinade super flavorful has that nice little kick from using the crushed red pepper a little sweetness from the teriyaki sauce a little smokiness from cooking it on the grill the inside isn't completely dried out I don't like my jerky to be super dry we're just kind of cracks and break apart put it more dried out jerky just keep it on a little bit longer you really can't overcook it it'll just kind of eventually dry out way too much this right here is as good as I like it and now for the piece that we cut with the grain so again the long muscle fiber so this should be much more chewy and it is same flavor because we use the same marinade just a different mouthfeel if you like your jerky you have that more chew more mouth feel to it cut it with the grain and you should be happy that's gonna be it for this video hopefully you guys liked it if you like what I'm doing hit that subscribe button leave a comment give it a thumbs up and I will see you next time oh