I tried making beef jerky on my Grilla using their recipe, but it just turned out "meh." The seasoning they used was way overpowering and its all you taste. My only substitutions were Cavendar's for the marinade (instead of the Grilla seasoning) and I dusted with HEB Roast, Steak, and Rib Rub instead of the Grilla seasoning before cooking. I used pecan pellets (my preferred) instead of hickory or mesquite like the recipe recommends. All I taste is seasoning - no meat. Does anyone have a better recipe that they've used for jerky?

The Grilla recipe is below. I marinaded overnight, which may be too long. The recipe says 6 hours to overnight. I omitted the honey because I don't like sweet meat.

2 TBS Ancho Chile powder
1 TBS Onion Powder
1 TBS Garlic Powder
1 TBS Black Pepper
1 TBS Grilla Beef Rub
1-2 cup Honey -optional
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup Soy Sauce, Tamari or Panzu
3 TBS Grilla Beef Rub
1 TSP Red Pepper Flake -optional

We use the Hi Mountain jerky seasoning kits and just add a little bit more garlic and pepper for the most part. No liquid anything. We make a lot of venison jerky. Never tried it on the pellet grill though either. Just the dehydrator.

I'd cut all of the dry ingredients in half and drop the rub and chili powder altogether.

Lol...I tried using their recipe, but used all different spices, used a different smoke, and marinated for twice as long, and eliminated some of the components of the recipe

I've had good luck with a marinade of dark beer, worcestershire, and soy and a dry rub of celery salt, coarse ground black pepper and crushed red pepper.

Bronco6G said:

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Lol...I tried using their recipe, but used all different spices, used a different smoke, and marinated for twice as long, and eliminated some of the components of the recipe

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Hickory and Mesquite are ass. Both get acrid as hell on long smokes. It's what people in Michigan think Texans use for smoke. I left out the optional honey because sweet and beef don't mix, IMO. Recipe said marinade for anywhere from 6 hours to overnight - I opted for overnight because I wasn't going to stay up until 3am for beef Jerky. Even at 6 hours, the heavy seasoning would still be on the meat. It's not like it's permeating 1/8" thick slices any less in 6 hours versus overnight.

Someone above suggested cutting everything in half and omitting the chili powder. I'll do that next time because the chili powder flavor is what is overwhelming. I'll also not dust them prior to smoking like the recipe calls for, just to dial back the seasoning as much as possible. The beauty of using a chuck roast is that it's cheap and you're out very little if it sucks. If that doesn't work, I'll go salt, pepper, garlic, and Worcestershire and then add more spices for complexity if that turns out bland. Even with as overpowering as my first attempt was, it was still better than 75% of the liquid smoke flavored crap you buy in stores for a fraction of the cost.

I use Alton Brown's recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beef-jerky-recipe-2103581

I usually smoke it on my pellet smoker around 180 until I get the desired texture. I've smoked deer, cow, and turkey and everyone has loved it.