Chicken Jerky

[Lee Seidman]

I just received our 425 watt Nesco dehydrator from Amazon. I am ready to tackle chicken jerky for the first time. I have been looking on the net for an easy receipe .... plain chicken breast partially cooked and sliced into 1/4" pieces is as far asI have gotten.

Has anyone used a dehydrator to make these. I can't find a suggested time to cook them, do you put the chicken in the tray  plain, how do you store the jerky after cooking? please get me started,

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Oh I'll be watching to see how you do.  We spend way to much money buying organic chicken jerky in bulk, on line.  It would have to be so much cheaper to do it ourselves.  Good luck!!

[Lee Seidman]

Dehydrator was $37.00.  If I can learn how to make Jerky I believe it will be much healthier for Lexi and Billy. We are now paying almost $28.00 a pound for chicken Jerky and it is made in China . I hate the thought of all the chemicals and bad reports for that product. I know we can make our own jerky for a lot less money and it has to be healthier then the made in China brand.

 

 

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Good deal!

[Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper]

Though I haven't tried to make jerky, page 20 of the recipe book that I got with my Nesco Dehydrator says to use pre-cooked meat.  It doesn't say for what length of time to dry them but marinating 4 to 8 hours and there seems to

be no specific recipe for chicken.  I would call the 800-288-4545 number for more info.  If you get one, please post it, I would like to try it, too.

[Wendy Gunkel]

Lee, Try some top round steak. It's very lean and your kids will love it. A friend mine who has a dog who is allergic to chicken gave me some that she made when I was up in Chicago last month. Dexter and Frank loved it. Check on line, I'm sure there has to be directions to make beef jerky which is made with top round. Just leave some of the seasoning off for the doodles.  

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

If it is for your human family I have no idea - I'm a vegetarian and don't keep up with these things. I just dehydrated liver for my canine crew and it took 10 hours. I didn't do anything other than cut the liver into manageable chunks and put the slimy stuff on the trays. I cut them into treat size or training chunks after they were done. I turned the pieces over once about half way through. The liver STINKS when it is cooking and I finally moved the dehydrator into the garage. The dog were drooling and I was turning green from the smell.  I just put it in a seal a meal type container in the fridge, it should last a few weeks but  will be gone long before it goes bad.

I am going to do apples and sweet potatoes over night. The directions say 12 -18 hours, so I plan to put them up before I go to bed.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

I've done sweet potato and meat jerky (chicken, turkey, and beef) in the dehydrator. The sweet potato was dead easy - slice and dry. Still experimenting with the meat. The first try with chicken didn't work out very well; ended up with "lumps of dry-ish chicken", not that Lach complained. Then I bought a jerky gun and tried it with ground beef and turkey. That worked out a bit better, but I did it too long and ended up with crispy meat crackers instead of chewy jerky. I plan to try again next weekend when I have some extra time off and see if I can work out how to make chewy strips of meat jerky.