Beef Jerky in Electric Smoker: A Complete Guide (with Pictures!)

What Meat to Use for Beef Jerky?

This recipe used London broil (from the chuck instead of top round.

Other cuts that work great for jerky:

• Round tip
• Bottom round
• Eye of round
• Brisket flat
• Flank steak
• Round tip

If your intention is to preserve the jerky, I’d look for cuts that are as lean as possible.

Slicing the Meat for Beef Jerky

The way you slice will depend on your taste preferences:

• For tender/soft jerky – slice against the grain.
• For jerky with a “tug” – slice with the grain.

If you need more help identifying grain direction, check out this article.

In terms of thickness, you want to slice around 1/8 – 1/4″ thick. This is both for ease of dehydration and salt/marinade penetration.

Beef Jerky Marinade Ingredients

This Honey Teriyaki marinade is for 1 lb of meat:

• 1/3 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce
• 1 tsp Granulated garlic
• 1 tsp 16 mesh black pepper
• 1/4 cup Bachans Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce
• 1/4 cup McClure’s Creamed Honey*

*If you don’t have creamed honey, use regular honey.

Combine the Above Ingredients in a Pot

Ingredients like creamed honey will have a hard time combining with the other ingredients.

I prefer to heat them up under LOW heat, agitating the mixture until the honey is combined.

Once combined, you take off the heat to cool.

Marinating the Jerky

Once the liquid is cooled, put it inside the ziplock bag with your beef jerky.

Force as much air out of the bag as possible; I prefer to roll the bag on top of itself and then zip the end.

Then put in your refrigerator for at least 2 hours to marinate; I prefer to marinate overnight.

Getting Jerky and Electric Smoker Ready

The next day, get your electric smoker pre-heated to 180F.

From here, either place directly on the grill grates or put them on skewers and hang between the grill grates.

Once the meat is skewered and your smoker is up to temperature, lay the skewers across the grates and allow the jerky to hang between the grates.

You may need to spread it out as you don’t want the jerky to touch (as this would prevent drying).

Adding Wood Chips to the Smoker

This is where a lot of people go wrong and that’s speaking from experience.

ONLY add 3-5 wood chips every 45-60 minutes for 2 hours.

I prefer cherry wood smoke with beef jerky so that’s what I used.

The biggest reason I like cherry is because my goal with smoke is to use it as another ingredient for flavor purposes.

My goal in terms of taste is:

1. Marinade ingredients
2. The beef
3. The smoke

By using a stronger wood you change this order of taste to smoke first, then marinade, and then maybe the beef.

Waiting for the Beef Jerky to Be Done

Smoked beef jerky that’s been cut to 1/8 – 1/4″ thick will be done at around 3-4 hours.

After 3 hours I did a bend test at the center of the meat and it showed the typical “spider webbing” I’m after.

Put in a Bag

What I’ve found is that the flavor tends to improve a day after with smoked jerky.

Simply put it in a paper or plastic bag with the top open. Doing this will allow the jerky to cool and allow it to aerate.

The next day simply take out of your bag and enjoy.

If you’re after long term storage solutions, be sure to check out this article where I tested several options.