Chicken Jerky

For my last birthday I received a food dehydrator from the boy, it may or may not have been given because I did not stop going on about wanting to make my own jerky. It arrived and I dehydrated everything in sight, didn't make jerky and it has sat in it's box for three months while I have mostly been chained to my office and the library. Until now! Christmas holidays has meant I have had a lot more time to experiment and I finally found a jerky recipe I didn't hate the sound of and didn't cost the earth.

For my first trial I only used two chicken breasts but obviously scale up if needed. If you don't have a dehydrator I am reliably informed that putting the oven on low heat and leaving the door ajar works in the same way, I haven't tried this because I can't imagine the horror on my flatmates faces at the electricity bill after I've left the oven on for 3 straight days while I make jerky.

Ingredients (makes 100g of jerky)

200g Chicken Breast

50ml Light soy sauce

1 garlic clove

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp ground ginger

Some grinds of black pepper

Sprinkling of lo-salt

You will also need a sharp knife, some form of dehydrating equipment, a bag for marinating, a box to store the jerky.

1. Slice the chicken into very thin strips, a couple of millimetres if possible. This was a lot easier to do because I didn't let the chicken defrost fully.
2. Put the chicken strips in a bowl and cover with all the other ingredients.
3. Mix the chicken in the marinade and pour it all into a freezer bag.
4. Steal the freezer bag and leave the chicken overnight to soak up the flavours.
5. The next day empty the marinade and arrange the chicken on the dehydrating sheets.
6. Stack the sheets in your dehydrator and turn it on to 65 C.
7. Dehydrate for around 6 hours rotating the sheets every two hours.
8. Turn off the dehydrator and allow the chicken to fully cool before placing in an airtight container.

Tip: The jerky is done when the chicken is no longer squishy and takes on a glass like sheen.

Total Cost: £1.66

Chicken Breasts: £1

Soy Sauce: 40p

Half a lemon: 11p

Spices: 15p

Nutritional Information

Calories 26 kcal

Carbs 1g

Fat 0g

Protein 5g

Sugar 1g

I tend to grab a couple of strips on the way out of the house so this makes 10 servings for me.

I store my jerky in this lovely re-purposed mayonnaise jar! Airtight and it fits in my cupboard.