2 lbs lean roast beef

For the maranade:

The Juice from 1 Lime
1/3 Cup water
1/3 cup Sprite 
1/8 Cup soy sauce
1/8 cup liquid smoke
1 Tsp seasoned salt
1 Tsp onion powder
1 Tsp cajun seasoning (I used my Angelo's Texas BBQ Seasoning this time)
1 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tsp Chili Powder
1 Tbl Salt
1 Tbl Paprika
2 dried habanero peppers, crushed and chopped. 

Anyway here it is:

For the meat- just get some lean beef and slice it into thin strips with a knife. I have had success in th past using packaged corned beef so this time I went to the deli counter and got 2 lbs of sliced rare roast beef.  I know some people are creeped out by the raw meat factor of homemade jerky, so this will hopefully appeal to those folks and beef jerky purists alike.






Since the lady at the deli counter was nice enough to slice the meat on the big rotary slicer, a lot of my prep work was already done!  (In case you are wondering, she used setting "3" on the machine)

For the marinade, I combined:

The Juice from 1 Lime

       

1/3 Cup water



1/3 cup Sprite  (I used this in place of the sugar in some recipes- and it usually makes the jerky more tender. I usually use Coca Cola, but since I quit drinking caffeine and had none, and I was going for a "chile limon" flavor anyway, it sort of fit the theme...)

 

1/8 Cup soy sauce

 

1/8 cup liquid smoke



1 Tsp seasoned salt
1 Tsp onion powder
1 Tsp Cajun seasoning (I used my Angelo's Texas BBQ Seasoning this time)
1 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tsp Chili Powder



1 Tbl Salt
1 Tbl Paprika



and 2 dried habanero peppers, crushed and chopped.

 




I Marinated the meat in a zip top bag for 3 hours but overnight is good too.

 


Another nice thing about the deli meat is that it came in a zip bag!  I put the bag in a bowl before storing in the fridge while marinating, just to contain any leaks.  This amount of liquid was just barely enough for 2 lbs of meat, so if you make more, I'd suggest more sprite as my jerky still came out a little dry and tough and this will perhaps help remedy that.




 
After marinating, I drained the meat on paper towels and placed the strips in my dehydrator.

 
 
I also sprinkled a little extra BBQ seasoning on the strips once I had the trays loaded.

   

Since I did not have enough trays, I had to use my grilling basket too for the 1st few hours, but then I recombined everything into the trays once the meat had shrunk down in size a little.

(at first it was like this)


(but then later...)



It took about least 8-9 hours to dry completely in my dehydrator setup.  As you can see, I use 2 dehydrators together one on top and one below to better circulate the air, but this is not required.  It just might take a little longer in a different drying setup.

 
Here is what it looked like all done!

Good luck and have fun!  Let me know what you think if you try this one

-cris