Homemade Beef Jerky and Easy Steak Stir Fry:

 Homemade Beef Jerky

To tell you the truth, I didn't set out to make beef jerky.  I spotted the bowl of stir fry sliced veggie's for $3.99 and that inspired me to make stir fry.  I asked the guy in the meat department what kind of steak that I should use for stir fry, and he directed me toward the London Broil Top Round Steak, which happened to also be on sale.  The family pack that I bought was close to $11.00.

I thought that if I marinated the steak first that it would have more flavor, so I gathered what I had on hand and got to work. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Beer?  Yep.  Beer is a cheap meat tenderizer and the alcohol burns off during the cooking process.  Into my covered container, I poured in the can of beer, one can of beef broth, 1/2 cup of soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce, sliced green onions and a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic.  It looked like this:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I then took half of the steak in the package and sliced it thinly:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 And then I soaked the sliced steak in the fridge for overnight:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I cubed the rest of the steak to use later.  I was going to use it for beef stew sometime and actually froze it.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

The next day, I thought, hey, I wonder if I can make jerky out of those sliced pieces of steak?  Why not give it a try?  I could still use my beef chunks and the remaining marinade for the stir fry.  So I arranged all the sliced steak onto one tray and dehydrated it on high for around 6 hours until it was done.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Man, it tastes so good!  Some of the larger pieces still had a bit of moisture in them but I didn't want to keep the dehydrator on overnight, so I stopped the cooking process.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I placed the jerky in a freezer Ziplock and put it in the fridge.  I'm sure if I would have cooked it for longer it would have been fine in a canning jar in the cupboard though:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Easy Steak Stir Fry

Next, I took the cubed steak out of the freezer and plopped it into the rest of the marinade.  I let it thaw throughout the afternoon, breaking it up and stirring it when I thought about it.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

When it was time for dinner, I took out some oil and the bowl of prepared stir fry pieces.  I had veggie oil on hand; other people might prefer olive oil.  

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I heated up a thin coating of oil on the bottom of the pan and then added the marinated meat.  I cooked it for about 10 minutes by itself before I added the veggie's.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

After the meat had a good head start, I added the veggies and some of the marinating sauce, and cooked until the vegetables were done:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ti-da!  It was very good.  If I would have thought about making rice in time, I would have.  But for Cary and I, this was a tasty dinner just as it was:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment and I'll answer you the best that I can. 

Enjoy, 

Kathy M.

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