Smoked Beef Sticks

5 from 1 vote

These smoked beef sticks are super fun, straightforward and made right on your backyard smoker — the perfect clean protein-packed snack.

Prep Time1

Cook Time5

Total Time6

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Servings: people

Author: Derek Wolf

Ingredients

Beef

5 lbs 90/10 ground beef
10 oz cheddar cheese small cubes
3-4 fresh jalapeños finely diced
⅓ cup Cowboy Butter Rub

Binder & Cure

1 tsp Pink Curing Salt #1 ideally Prague #1
1/2 cup ice water

Instructions

Combine ground beef, seasoning, and curing binder. Add ice water slowly while mixing. Mix aggressively until the meat becomes tacky/sticky. Fold in the cheese & jalapeños at the end until well incorporated.
Load the meat into a jerky gun. Grease some wire cooking racks and press out long ropes of the beef sticks with spacing between. Make sure to go slow and steady to not create breakage.
Add to your smoker at 150F for one hour to dry the outside and create a pellicle. Bump up the heat 10F every hour until the smoker gets to 180F. Let cook until the beef sticks are at least 150F internal. Cooking should take about 5-6 hours total. (Optional) In the last hour, brush with beef tallow to get some extra flavor and shine if you like.
Once done, pull off and place in the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Jerky Gun 101

This recipe calls for a jerky gun, which resembles a caulking gun— but for a versatile lineup of beef sticks! If you don't have one already, I get the feeling that once you make this recipe, you'll want a jerky gun in your live fire cooking arsenal. When you're looking for a jerky gun, here are a few things to keep in mind for a good fit.

Accessories: Does the gun come with other nozzles or attachments?
Capacity: How much beef can you pack into the chamber?
Material: What is the jerky gun made out of?
Ease of cleaning: Bonus points if it's dishwasher safe, am I right?

Nutrition