Learning how to make beef jerky is a time-honored tradition among hundreds of cultures worldwide. This high-protein snack is not only delicious but it can be seasoned according to your taste and is an easy treat to make at home.

If you want to make your own beef jerky at home, there’s no better way than using one of our Traeger pellet grills. The consistent temperature offered by our grills makes it easier to control the entire beef jerky cooking process from start to finish, all while infusing it with amazing smoke flavor — and being a much more cost-effective option than buying it from the grocery store.

So let us take you through how to make beef jerky on a pellet grill step by step, from preparing and marinating your beef, to setting up the pellet grill, drying the beef, storing it properly, and finishing up with a look at some innovative beef jerky recipes to liven up your diet with.

Preparing The Beef For Jerky

The best beef for making jerky should be both lean and affordable.

Affordable because, well, one of the best parts of making beef jerky at home is that it’s much more cost-effective. And lean because when you’re drying out your beef, fat won’t dry — it will just go rancid later.

Preparing the beef for jerky, then, comes down to choosing the right cut of beef, and trimming and slicing it correctly. Let’s take a closer look at both steps before we get into the next step, marinating.

Choosing the Right Cut of Beef

As we mentioned earlier, you’ll want a lean and affordable cut of beef for your jerky; no need to go for filet mignon here.

These cuts are the best for making beef jerky: top round, bottom round, rump roast, sirloin tip, flank steak, or skirt steak. Check with your local butcher to see which ones are available at the best prices, and which ones look to be the leanest (without much visible fat).

And don’t worry about these cuts being “too tough” — once they’ve been marinated, salted, dried, and smoked, they’ll come out with a perfect texture for jerky.

Trimming and Slicing the Beef

Even before you begin marinating your beef for jerky, you’ll want to trim off as much fat as possible. The rule is this: The leaner the beef, the longer your jerky will stay fresh.

Among the different cuts we've listed above, the amount of marbling will vary depending on the animal the meat came from. So when you get your beef home, you’ll want to get your sharpest knife ready to trim off all of the visible fat that you can.

After that, you’ll need to thin-slice your beef in preparation for marinating and drying. We recommend ¼ inch thick slices for beef jerky; any thicker and they’ll take too long to dry, and any thinner and they’ll crack and fall apart.

If you can, have your butcher slice your beef on their automatic slicer for consistent results; if not, do your best to get evenly sized strips so they all cook at the same rate.

To slice your beef at home, you’ll want to put it in the freezer for about an hour to firm up the flesh. Then cut it across the grain into ¼ inch strips, and as a final step, trim any excess fat that you might see on individual strips.

How To Marinate Beef Jerky

Sure, you could just throw some salted beef strips on a smoker and get a decent final product. But trust us: for the best results, you’re going to want to marinate your beef strips before turning them into jerky.

Importance of Marinating Beef for Jerky

A marinade does two main things for beef jerky:

First, it will give your jerky its signature flavor. The marinating step is where you can decide exactly how much smoke, spice, sweetness, and salt your final jerky will have. This is where you can make adjustments from batch to batch, until you arrive at your own perfect beef jerky recipe.

And second, it helps to tenderize the meat. Salt does a great job of breaking down tougher muscle fibers, and any liquid component helps the salt to get fully saturated into your beef jerky strips.

Beef Jerky Marinade Ingredients

The main flavors used for making beef jerky are salty, savory, and sweet, with an option to add a bit of spice and aromatics as well.

Salty and savory ingredients used in beef jerky marinades can include soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and Terriyaki sauce. Soy sauce is the most common base, as its flavor seems to pair so well with beef.

Sweetness can come from sugar, brown sugar, honey — or the addition of a sweetened beverage, like Coca-Cola or root beer, which will bring along their own aromatic touches as well.

If you like your jerky spicy, chili peppers are the way to go. You can add them freshly chopped to your marinade, or use dried pepper flakes.

And lastly, a few aromatic touches like ginger, cumin, fennel, or lemongrass can add a nice finishing flavor to your jerky.

Marinating Techniques and Timelines

The basic idea behind any marinade for beef jerky is that you want it to completely cover the beef.

That means making enough marinade for the size of beef jerky batch you’re making, and then sealing it up in a ziploc bag with the excess air squeezed out. Once you’ve done that, put the bag of soon-to-be-jerky in a bowl, and store it in the fridge overnight — that’s just the right amount of time to fully infuse the beef with salt and flavors.

With your lean beef strips fully marinated, the next step is firing up the pellet grill and getting it ready to dry them out into perfect strips of beef jerky.

Which Pellets Are Best For Beef Jerky?

When you’re selecting pellets to smoke your beef jerky with, think of big and bold flavors.

That means choosing pellets that add a strong smokey component. Try any of these three pellets, and we think you’ll love the results:

• Traeger Signature Blend Pellets
• Traeger Hickory BBQ Pellets
• Traeger Mesquite Pellets

Preheating the Pellet Grill

The key to getting consistently delicious jerky on a pellet grill is to cook it low and slow.

That means preheating your grill to 180 degrees and leaving it there the entire time.

At this stage, go ahead and set your Traeger to full smoke as well — and leave it on that setting the entire time, to infuse the jerky with rich, smokey flavor.

Preparing the Grill Grates

This step might go without saying, but we’re going to mention it anyway: Make sure your grill grates are nice and clean before you start smoking your jerky. If you don’t already have one, be sure to pick up one of our Traeger BBQ Cleaning Brushes.

With your pellet grill prepped and ready to go, it’s time to lay on the beef strips and start smoking and drying them.

Patting the Beef Dry

Because the goal in making beef jerky is to remove as much liquid as possible, you’ll want to start by drying your marinated beef before it ever hits the grill. For each strip of marinated beef, just give it a quick pat down between two paper towels to remove as much marinade as possible. It’s fast and easy, and will make the beef jerky drying process that much smoother.

Arranging the Beef on the Grill Grates

Give each strip of beef enough room to dry — meaning that you don’t want any of them overlapping. And of course, lay each strip perpendicular to the grill grates, not parallel, so they don’t fall through while cooking.

Adjusting the Temperature for Jerky Cooking

180 degrees is the sweet spot for smoking and drying jerky. And thankfully, it’s easy to keep a Traeger grill at exactly this temperature thanks to its in-built monitoring. Set the pellet grill to full smoke as well, and plan on cooking your beef jerky for 4 to 5 hours.

Monitoring Your Beef Jerky

Unlike cooking a steak, there isn’t an exact internal temperature that you’re trying to get beef jerky to.

Instead, look for visual and tactile signs that your jerky is fully dried. Starting at about the 4-hour mark, take a piece of jerky off the grill and set it aside on a plate to cool a bit. Then take a close look at it: Does it look fully dried? Try breaking it apart with your hands. How moist is it?

When your jerky looks and feels fully dried, it’s time to take it off the grill.

Finishing the Beef Jerky

You’re almost finished with your first batch of beef jerky on the pellet grill. So what’s next?

When to Remove Jerky from the Grill

Assuming that you’re cooking ¼ inch strips of beef into jerky, and smoking them at 180 degrees, they’ll be ready in between 4 and 5 hours. Look for the signs of complete dryness listed in the section above, and don’t be afraid to leave the strips on the grill a little bit longer — as the drier your jerky is, the longer it will be able to be stored at room temperature.

Cooling and Storing Your Beef Jerky

With your jerky pulled off the grill, it’s time to arrange them on a plate or two and give them time to cool.

Give each strip plenty of room on its own, and don’t pile them up — that will just take longer to cool and dry. Once they’re fully cooled, it’s time to store them away.

Shelf Life and Storage Tips

To store your beef jerky, seal them in airtight containers. If your jerky has been fully dried, it will keep well at room temperature.

Shelf life estimates for homemade beef jerky vary widely, and that’s because it’s hard to control the exact amount of moisture left in the jerky. Commercial beef jerky has a shelf life of about a year, but homemade beef jerky is best within 1 to 3 months after you’ve made it. But you can always store it in the fridge for an even longer shelf life.

Beef Jerky Recipes

Now that you have a basic idea of how making beef jerky works, it’s time to look at different jerky recipes.

We’ve collected a good amount of beef jerky recipes in our Traeger recipe archives. Here are our favorites, with descriptions of the flavors you can expect from each:

• Teriyaki beef jerky is a classic flavor, with plenty of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger.
• Smoked paleo beef jerky uses coconut aminos to great effect, and completely cuts out the sugar you’ll find in most other jerky recipes.
• Chimayo beef jerky uses chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to add a spicy kick, and lime juice to tenderize the meat even further.
• Smoked bourbon jerky uses America’s most popular spirit to add a unique flavor, and brown sugar to round it out.
• Spicy chili beef jerky uses beer as a liquid base, and complements it with plenty of pickled jalapeno pepper spice.
• Coffee break beef jerky combines the rich flavor of espresso with sweet cola for a truly interesting flavor and texture.
• Smoked elk jerky is a way to use lean game meat to great effect with a simple marinade.
• Smoked turkey jerky is a light and lean alternative to classic beef jerky.