We frequently get the question of what is the best road trip or traveling snack, and now we can confidently say Low Carb Beef Jerky made at home! Matthew and I always face the dilemma of having to cut back on our favorite snack, beef jerky, due to the high sugar content in most store bought jerkies. So, naturally, we were left no other choice but to make a recipe for easy, homemade beef jerky! Check it out below.
Now You Can Have The Best Homemade Beef Jerky Too!
To get the best homemade beef jerky you'll ever eat all you need is a low in fat cut of meat and a can of your favorite Zevia. We went with the flavor of cola this time around, but we also think their cream soda and Dr Zevia would make great options for homemade jerky. The Zevia comes into play during the marinating process. Marinating is something that ups the flavor on any meat 100 times so we think its important, especially in this case!
The Best Cuts Of Meat When Making Beef Jerky
When looking for the right meat, the most important thing to take note of is its fat content. You want a very low fat content and then to trim any fat that is on the meat prior to cooking. I'm sure you can guess that fat doesn't make the best jerky! We went with top round for our recipe, but other good options are bottom round, flank steak and sirloin tip!
Low Carb Beef Jerky
We know, it's even easier than you expected! You can mess around with different cuts of meat, different seasonings and even different size jerky strips. One thing to note, however, is the thicker the strips the longer you'll want to marinade for the flavor to really come through. Thicker strips would also mean cooking it for longer! Some other great on the go snacks are our Pizza Zucchini Muffins and Parmesan Crips, but this Low Carb Beef Jerky is definitely our number one go to snack!
*This post is sponsored by Zevia*
Recipe can be quickly added to MyFitnessPal - Search "KetoConnect - Low Carb Beef Jerky"
Low Carb Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
- 1 can Cola Zevia
- 3 lbs top round beef
- 1/2 cup liquid aminos
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp liquid smoke
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Onion powder
- 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 3/4 tsp Paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- bamboo skewers
Instructions:
- Pour a can of zevia into a gallon size ziplock bag and add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, liquid smoke and add the seasonings.
- Trim the top round of any excess fat and cut into strips to your desired size. We like them on the smaller side for easy grab and go!
- Add the cut up strips into the marinade and shake around. Seal the bag (removing any excess air) and place the bag into a bowl so there is no leakage.
- Place the bowl into the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Once the meat has marinated remove the bowl from the fridge and pat the strips dry with paper towels (the marinade will have already penetrated the meat enough!).
- Using the bamboo skewers pierce the tip of the meat so you have anywhere from 5-7 pieces of meat hanging from each skewer.
- Set your oven to its lowest setting (we did 170 degrees) and hang the skewers through the grates in the oven so the strips are hanging.
- Bake for 4 hours (for thicker strips you may need to bake longer), remove from oven and serve immediately or store in the fridge up to 1 month.
- NOTE: 3lbs raw meat will yield 1lb cooked jerky.
Notes
Written by
Megha Barot
Megha has always been a passionate cook, but she took this to a new level after starting her keo journey in 2015. She loves creating new recipes and producing educational content for KetoConnect, which she co-founded in 2016 with Matt. Her passion for healthy eating and personal development continues to thrive. She's the proud mom of two awesome kids.
Hi! Can you test healthsmart chocorite protein bar? (Blood sugar test) are this bar ok on keto?
From Mary
They contain IMO fiber which we try to avoid.
We made it with the Stevia cream soda. had a sweet taste, we loved it so did the cat…had to hide the jerky in the pantry cuz she was nibbling the tops 😉
I have been making homemade beef jerky for about 20 years and when I went Keto it was the first thing that I made to have a snack. Mine is a bit different than yours but I plan to try your marinade, I use lemon pepper and worchestershire sauce. Most of my friends look forward to when I make my jerky because they can always grab some. I have a dehydrate setting on my oven so I use that, and I usually let it go for about 6 hours. thanks for the great recipes.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I used diet Coke instead of the Zevia and it came out perfect. Next time I may use a little more red pepper for more of a kick. I have made jerky in a dehydrator and an air fryer, but find this method far superior.
This jerky is amazing!! I have had a hard time finding jerky without added sugar. I made it a couple weeks ago and everyone loved it. We have a second batch marinating now to cook up tonight. I used Diet Coke and rice vinegar (not sure how different from rice wine vinegar that is?)
I don’t dry it after marinating and just put it on baking sheets on racks over tinfoil and bake with the oven door propped open just a little bit on the lowest temperature.
We had it at the same time as some Jack Links, which I love, and this was better.
Thanks so much for the recipe, it is definitely a keeper!
Can’t wait to try this. BTW, Costco sells big bottles of coconut aminos
So I noticed that in the instructions it says to add the soy sauce, but there is no soy sauce listed in the ingredient list. Could you tell me how much soy you use?
Thanks Allison
The liquid aminos are used in the recipe as the soy sauce. Liquid aminos are just a soy free version, so you can use that same amount.
This might seem like a silly question – but is 170 C or F?
Farenheit!
I couldn’t find the cola zevia at Target but they did have Dr. Zevia. Their version of Dr. Pepper. It’s in the oven now and smells great! I’ll let you know how the Dr. worked.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe and tips! We just got a Traeger and thought this would be a fun recipe to try. Thanks for sharing low Carb beef jerky with us.
do you have a recipe using ground beef or venison instead of cutting strips of steak?
No, we don’t. I know a lot of people use their dehydrator and a jerky gun for ground meat though. You can still use the same spices (maybe not the cola) and mix it together, but you’d probably have to put the strips on a rack with a pan in the oven so they don’t fall apart. Or even putting them on parchment paper on a pan.
Has anyone tried this with rootbeer zevia? I made it twice already with the cola, it’s great, tweaked it to my liking! I have the rootbeer here…what do ya think?
I’m about to make this today and I see you say it needs to be refrigerated, but if you’re traveling, how long can it be out of the fridge? Thank you.
No longer than a few hours, best to keep meat cool!
I am really interested in making this beef jerky and I also want to be able to correctly input the nutritional information into my macro diary. However, I’m not sure the nutritional information for this recipe is entirely accurate. If you look at 1 ounce of commercial jack links beef jerky there are 12 grams of protein. The nutritional information from this beef jerky recipe is exactly double the amount of protein (24g) in jack links for the same 1 ounce serving size. I’m new to this and just getting into this diet, and I want to make sure I’m not making mistakes. If the nutritional information in this recipe is correct, then could you please tell me the difference between these 2 foods and where I’m getting things confused. Thank you so much! I’m a big fan!
I made this this morning, marinated overnight in a FoodSaver container with the air sucked out. Dehydrated in my dehydrator for 7 hours. It’s amazing. Thank you for this great recipe. First time making jerky and I don’t need to find another recipe.
Hi there, this looks perfect thanks for the recipe! I have always gone for the south african jerky before as it contains very little sugar comparatively and I don’t like the sweet taste. I was wondering what I could use in place of the soda to leave the sweetness out alltogether, presumably you need some kind of liquid for the marinade?
A broth of some kind would work or water.
Hi there,
hello. I was just worried about the carbs. i am new and don’t really know a lot about all this. I make jerky i use a bottle of moore’s original marinade(1g carbs-1 tbs) 1/2 a bottle of stubb’s hickory liquid smoke (0 carbs). marinade for a couple days. Then put crushed red peppers.its is very great. Everyone here loves it. But not sure how much carbs to count.I’m only doing 20 a day right now(just started and don’t want mess up
The ads on this site are ridiculous; it makes a pain out of navigating between recipes.
OMG Matt & Megha I am so excited excited to try this recipe. My husband has deer jerky meat cut up each hunting season and I still have some in the freezer. I always had it on hand prior to keto andi have really missed it since starting. YOUr recipe matches my go to recipe by replacing brown sugar with zevia. Brilliant! I always marinade mine for several days like the previous commenter. just intensifies the flavor but I don’t think I’ll be able to wait that long this time. My hydrator tIme is usually overnight and rotating the trays half way through. Thank you guys so much for all of the inspiration.