The Best Homemade Beef Jerky Recipe

This smoky, salty-sweet, chewy-yet-tender jerky is made in the oven.

The marinade contains soy sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, seasoning, and unseasoned meat tenderizer. Courtesy of Jennifer Segal

View the print-ready version of this recipe.

After road tripping with my family and sampling jerky from gas stations along the way—and spending a small fortune on it—I resolved to come up with a good homemade beef jerky recipe. The good news is that beef jerky is surprisingly easy to make and doesn’t require any special equipment other than a standard oven, baking sheets, and wire racks. However, most homemade jerky isn’t nearly as tender as the store-bought kind. That’s because commercial jerky producers use special equipment and curing preservatives to make their signature jerky.