Healthy Turkey Recipe
August 6, 2019
Nothing is more satisfying or tastier than some healthy, delicious, and homemade jerky. This tasty snack is easy to prepare, has a long shelf life, and with a trusty dehydrator close at hand, it really takes minimal effort to get it done. Most of the time it’s either beef or chicken jerky, but today we’re introducing another delicious dish—the turkey jerky.
Ingredients
Soy sauce
Garlic (powder or chopped cloves)
Brown sugar
Salt to taste
Worcestershire sauce or liquid smoke (If you prefer)
Turkey meat (breast and thigh meat is the best)
Directions
1Start by mixing soy sauce, garlic (powder or chopped cloves), brown sugar, salt, and spices. You can add Worcestershire sauce or liquid smoke if you prefer.
2Once this mix is unified, pour it into a ziplock. Toss your strips in and make sure all of it is well mixed. After that, place the ziplock and the strips inside it into a fridge and leave overnight.
3When placing the strips into the dehydrator, make sure that each strip is separate and no overlapping occurs. This way you ensure an even drying process. The temperature of the dehydrator should be at 140°-160˚F, and the whole process should take about 10 to 12 hours on average. Your best bet is to either start the process early in the morning or late in the evening.
4After the initial 3 to 4 hours, you can start checking it regularly, each hour, until you’re satisfied with the result.
Choosing and preparing the meat
When choosing your turkey meat, keep in mind that breast and thigh meat are the best. This cuts make slicing easy and straightforward. When preparing the jerky, you need to slice relatively thin (3 to 5 mm). The thicker your slices, the longer the drying process. Also, if some are thicker than others, the drying will be unequal, and you risk either over or under-drying.
A good tip to keep in mind is to place your turkey meat into the fridge for a while before the preparation. Once chilled, the meat is much easier to cut evenly.
If your meat contains strips of fat, do your best to remove it. Fat doesn’t dry out efficiently and can shorten the shelf life of the finished jerky as it tends to spoil much quicker than meat.
You’ll also want to cut the meat parallel to the grain—these are the strands of meat running lengthwise.
The jerky is usually finished once it’s crispy and rigid but still able to bend. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to prepare this healthy and nourishing snack, and you’ll also be certain that you’re choosing a much more nutritious meal. Remember that this snack has a long shelf life, and can last up to a month in the fridge. This makes the process all the more rewarding!
Henry
March 19, 2021
I would have thought this jerky would turn out pretty dry considering that Turkey is a dry meat, but I was wrong! Thanks for sharing this!