Smoked Teriyaki Jerky Cook In Progress

[AZ Monsoon]

There's not a ton of info here on jerky cooks, so I thought I would document my first one for others and see how it works out.

I'm shooting for about 150 degrees for 4-6 hours. I went with a 1x1 snake using 6 coals to start the snake as recommended by a member here in AZ. For smoke I went with hickory chips and some apple towards the second half as I ran out of hickory chips.

I basically cut a clay brick in half to use as supports to prop up a 18" grate for a second level. With this configuration I think you will max out at somewhere around 3 lbs of beef.

Here's the marinade recipe I found which looks good. The recipe was for 5 lbs, so I halved it for 2.5 lbs of flank steak. The butcher at Albertson's was cool and sliced up my flank steak to pieces around 1/4" thick. Anywhere from 1'8" to 1'4" seems to be the norm. The less fatty the better as the fat can go rancid.  I didn't have the McComick's seasoning so I didn't use it. I did add a dash of Tabasco, one tsp of cayenne pepper and a little meat tenderizer.

From what I've read 4 hours is the minimum time for the marinade. I went with overnight.

Marinade (5 lbs of beef)

2 Cups Soy Sauce
2 Cups Teriyaki Sauce
2 Cups Worcestershire
1 Cups crushed pineapple
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. coarse ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. McCormick's Mesquite seasoning
2 Cloves fresh chopped garlic.

Snake setup:



2.5 lbs of flank steak is on:

[AZ Monsoon]

Had to crack the lid about an inch, but can't complain about this - about an hour and a half into the cook.

[AZ Monsoon]

Two hours in. Just flipped them.

[SixZeroFour]

Looking good! Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

[TheDude]

Gonna have to give this a go. Been trying find a good jerky since getsomejerky shut down.

[AZ Monsoon]

Three hours in:

Creeping up. Closed the top vent to 50%

[AZ Monsoon]

All right. All done. A couple of observations. The jerky on the top grate cooks quicker than the jerky on the bottom grate. The base marinade is a winner. I really like spicy jerky though, so I will kick it up a notch next time. Overall observations - really good. Pull it off when it's done to your satisfaction. Obviously the longer you go the more crispy it will be. I pulled mine after about 5 hours. Overall 7/10. Plenty of room for improvement, but really good. Definitely try and max out your grill space. You end up with less meat than you anticipated. I'll try a full 3 lbs or more next cook.

[AZ Monsoon]

Redacted 

[AZ Monsoon]

I take that back. I've been knawing on this stuff. Plenty spicy.

[Uncle Al]

Looks great!  I would have never thought about jerky on a kettle, I'm going to have to give it a try now. 

[Davescprktl]

Great job! Gota try this.  Nice thermopop.  Got one just like it.