Deer Jerky Recipe: Easy Venison Marinade in 4 Steps

This easy deer jerky recipe uses a simple venison marinade and four basic steps. All you need is a dehydrator or oven, a lean venison roast, and a little patience.

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If you take your animal to a processor, you can pay out the nose for jerky, but you don’t need to do that. Consider butchering it yourself or take the roasts supplied by the processor and make the jerky yourself.

Where deer jerky comes from — All the good roasts and best jerky meat come from the deer’s posterior muscle groups

Step 1: Choose the Best Venison Cut for Jerky

I like to use front shoulders and even rear-quarter meat to make jerky. These are going to be labeled as roasts from the butcher. We don’t eat a lot of stews or roasts in my house, but we eat plenty of jerky. Some might frown at this, but I like to use the top round cut to make jerky. It’s a nice rectangular chunk of meat off of the hindquarter. It’s a great cut for steaks, too, but we’re a jerky family. Plus, the top round is lean and easy to slice, making picture-perfect jerky. Be sure to trim off the silver skin, tendons, and any fat. For easier slicing, throw it in the freezer for about 30 minutes once thawed.

Step 2: Slice the Venison 1/4 Inch Thick

Slice it into quarter-inch pieces against the grain. Again, slice against the grain. If you slice with the grain, you’ll be gnawing on one piece for days.

Step 3: Make the Deer Jerky Marinade

If you want jerky to taste like something other than dried meat, you’re going to need a marinade. I’ve tried plenty of concoctions and landed on a favorite: Doc’s Best Beef Jerky. I once tried cutting the salt. Don’t be like me. That wasn’t a good batch. Use the following deer jerky marinade for every two pounds of venison. Mix everything in a bowl until the sugar and seasonings are mostly dissolved.

¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons liquid smoke
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon meat tenderizer
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika

Dump your meat into the bowl and mix it up again, being sure to coat all those choice slices of goodness. Then place in the fridge overnight to allow the meat to soak up the marinade.

Venison jerky marinade ingredients — MEAT! dehydrator

Step 4: Dry the Deer Jerky

There are plenty of dehydrator options on the market, and I swear by my MEAT! dehydrator. The six-rack version handles a good-sized batch. Pictured here is the 10-rack, which will hold roughly 10 pounds of sliced meat. Before dehydrating, USDA recommends heating venison to an internal temperature of 160°F by steaming or roasting it. Then dry the meat in a dehydrator that will maintain 130–140°F. Drying time varies with thickness, humidity, and the dehydrator, but I start checking mine at about four or five hours. USDA explains the food-safety reasoning here.

Unless you like crispy jerky chips, you don’t want to overdry it. Check the batch periodically. Properly dried jerky should be dry but still somewhat pliable; when bent, it should crack slightly without snapping cleanly in two. Try a piece. If the texture is where you want it, pull the batch.

My batch of 2.2 pounds of fresh meat (seen above) produced about a quarter-pound of jerky. Your yield will vary depending on the meat and how dry you like it.

Can You Make Deer Jerky in the Oven?

Yes. The same marinade works in the oven. The important part is temperature control. USDA recommends heating venison to an internal temperature of 160°F before the drying stage, then maintaining 130–140°F while the meat dries. If your oven will not reliably hold that drying temperature, a dehydrator is the easier option. The oven also tends to make a bigger mess because the marinade drips. The upside is that you can make a large batch at once.

How to Store Homemade Deer Jerky

Let the jerky cool completely before packaging it. USDA says home-dried jerky can generally be stored for one to two months. I usually vacuum seal mine and put it in the freezer if I’m not going to eat it soon. Better yet, just eat it.