How to make beef jerky from ground meat; with Hi Mountain Seasonings
If you have been following us for a while, you already know we love jerky, so I’m excited to bring you yet another way to make beef jerky! Did you know that you can actually make beef jerky from ground meat? I often use ground hamburger from the store, but you can also make the same from ground turkey or even ground wild game! It makes delicious jerky sticks that the entire family will love!
Make beef jerky at home with ground hamburger
If you remember a few weeks ago we showed you how you can easily make Hi Mountain beef jerky from a roast. It is a loved way of making jerky, and especially when I use the Hi Mountain jerky knife and cutting board it makes it a very easy method! But sometimes my kids like to have a softer jerky in sticks that resemble jerky sticks you get from the store. So I’m going to show you how you can easily make beef jerky at home with ground hamburger! It’s simple and delicious.
First you need to start with selecting your hamburger. It all really depends on how you prefer your jerky. I am a bit obsessed with lean meats so I always use 93% lean ground hamburger. It’s a little more pricey but it offers a more lean flavor that I really enjoy. If you needed a less expensive way, you can definitely do the same with regular ground hamburger.
Now you need to select the flavor you want. I have used many different jerky seasoning packages; but my favorite by far is Hi Mountain. The flavors are more enjoyable, they are less salty, and a lot more cost efficient. Plus they offer a large array of flavors from sweet, to spicy, to oriental, and even original flavors.
You will need to weight your hamburger exactly once you get it home and out of the package to ensure you have the exact weight. Based on the weight of the hamburger, you then carefully measure out the seasoning and the brine according to the directions on the seasoning directions.
Just like when making the regular Hi Mountain Jerky, you will want to follow the instructions in the seasoning kits very closely. When they say to measure a certain amount, you want to be very thorough on your measurements! Use a measuring spoon and a kitchen knife to level the measuring spoon. Weight your meat carefully, after it has been sliced, to ensure you are seasoning for the proper weight. I used my kitchen scale to be sure I had the right weight. Any “free handing” in the seasonings can cause your meat to be too potent, too salty or not enough.
Simply combine the meat, the seasoning, the brine and 1/4 cup Ice water per pound of mean into a non metal bowl and mix well.
After the seasoning and brine has been mixed into the hamburger, you need to let it marinate. It will need to be placed in an air tight container and stored in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.
The easiest way is to simply wrap it up in saran wrap. I molded the meat, and rolled it into the saran wrap. Since I was making more than one flavor at a time, I found it important to label each package of meat as I went. It would be really bad to be all said and done and end up giving the kids an inferno jerky when they were intended to have original.
Make beef jerky at home from ground meat with a jerky gun.
After your meat has had time to marinate in the seasonings; it is time to shape it into jerky sticks. The Hi Mountain jerky seasoning mixture has instructions on how to do this without any tools. But I happen to have a Jerky gun that came with my dehydrator and it makes it a lot easier. Hi Mountain also has a Jerky Gun and many other jerky making accessories at very affordable prices.
Now all you do is select the tip or shape you want your jerky to be and assemble your jerky gun. I always love strips, so we use the appropriate tip. Then you fill the jerky gun with the ground meat.
Now you simply squeeze on the jerky gun trigger until the ground meat comes out into the length you prefer. It is best to squeeze the strips directly onto the jerky wracks you intend to dry the jerky on. If using a dehydrator you will want to ensure you are using the jerky/herb tray insert.
Once all the meat is formed into jerky strips you can then prepare for drying. If you are drying in the oven, you can follow the instructions on the Hi Mountain seasoning kits. Basically you will want to dry it on the top rack in the oven at 200 Degrees or on the jerky/meat setting on your dehydrator for 1 hour and 20 minutes. You can check it and see if it is to your preference. If you like a dryer product you can continue to dry but be sure to check it every 30 minutes or so.
Once your jerky is dry, you can then enjoy! Be sure to store for it in an air tight container. For longer lasting jerky you can store it in the fridge or even the freezer.
Soon you will have your family singing your praises for providing delicious homemade jerky! You can feel great knowing that your kids are eating only natural foods that make great snacks, are filling and full of flavor!
That’s another reason why I love Hi Mountain jerky seasonings so well. Not only are they well priced with amazing flavors, but they are also only made of the best natural ingredients! My husband loves the inferno flavor best, T. and myself prefer the hunters blend and J loves the Original!
My kids absolutely love this homemade jerky and even though I made 4 pounds of our ground meat jerky; it was completely gone in just a few weeks. And now the kids are asking for more! We have loved the three original flavors we tried, but this next time I want to try new flavors. I just ordered four new flavors, plus we’re going to give some of the marinades and smoke cans a try! I can’t wait; and my kids are asking each day if the new flavors have arrived. I think they are excited too!
You can learn more about Hi Mountain Jerky, their products and get tips and recipes from their website.
Also be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for newest products, news, sales and more!
What Hi Mountain Jerky Seasoning flavor sounds the most appealing to you?
What do you love most about Homemade Jerky?
Did you ever think you could make beef jerky so easily?
Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free to facilitate this review and tutorial in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.. All opinions are strictly my own and were not influenced.
Wow, I didn’t realized you could make beef jerky from ground beef! Interesting!
Oh, that is awesome! I love beef jerkey but had no idea you could make it from ground beef! Thanks for sharing!
I love the fact that this can me made at home. My boys love jerky and love to cook as well. I think this would be a perfect project for them!! Thanks so much for sharing!
CAN BE* sorry for the typo,lol
Umm..beef jerky fan here! I need to try this out!
I had no idea you could make jerky from ground beef!
I LOVE beef jerky. I used to make my own many years ago. Thanks for the reminder that I can use my oven if I don’t have a dehydrator! Yay!
I make jerky at least once a month, but never with chopped meat! I buy a nice cut of beef and slice it on my meat slicer, marinate it and put it in the dehydrator. I will have to check this out though, because it looks great too!
That is really neat! We love beef jerky, we should look into this!!
That is AWESOME!! I never thought about making my own before!!!
I have NEVER heard of making jerky from hamburger meat. What a neat idea!! Thanks for sharing!
had no idea this could be done thank you for the awesome recipe and easy details of how to make it i appreciate it
So glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t realize you could make beef jerky from ground beef….LOL!
It does look relatively easy to make – a fun project for my boys one day perhaps. Thanks for sharing!
I have a dehydrator but have never used it for jerky. This looks pretty easy, so I will have to try it. Thanks for the recipe!
Very informative! I learned a lot from your review. I wouldn’t have thought you could make jerky with ground meat. We’ve been considering buying a dehydrator to make jerky but the nicer ones are a little out of price range at the moment. Perhaps I’ll try making some in the oven in the meantime. I’m definitely going to check out Hi Mountain Jerky. Thanks!
I never knew you could make jerky from ground meat. I would guess you could use ground pork or turkey also.
We all love jerky here at our house. It is really good to take along when going on a trip or snack for the kids at the park. I like the fact that you can store it in the frig or the freezer too. The jerky gun makes it so much easy and quick to make the correct sizes needed.
Wow! How cool! I am going to have to try this for my jerky loving hubby:)
My hubby made jerky with ground meat before, he used his own seasonings and i gotta admit it did not taste like store bought, perhaps this seasoning would make a difference, i will bookmark this page, thanks for the reveiw.
This is so awesome. My husband would love the inferno blend! I never thought it could be so easy to make at home but I know my hubby would love to try it!
My fiance loves jerky and has been asking me to make some… I haven’t tried yet but this makes it sound doable! I think I’ll give it a shot.
I actually never thought of making home-made jerky. Good idea. It keeps, and helps with the protein rationing for food storage. I am thinking about getting a food dehydrator, it would solve a lot of problems, and our oven doesn’t work real well right now anyway.