I used the recipe at Recipezaar, but had to tweak it.
First, pre-heat the oven to 100 C
- We started with 3 chicken breasts fresh out of the package, not frozen
- cut them into strips, parallel to the grain (makes them more chewy)
- lay them out on a baking sheet.
- I skipped the garlic powder, as it's on the toxic list for dogs in large quantities (but Emily's a teeny dog)
- the recipe says cook at 100 C for 2-2.5 hours
- but I had to keep it in the oven for 6.5 hours. It was just watery at 2 hours.
- that might be due to oven differences, as this one's electric (with a ceramic stovetop)
After 6.5 hours:
(No, all those strips didn't just disappear. I put away the rest.)There was a lot of water, and it hit the oven door and dripped into a puddle down outside the oven. A dripping pan under the baking sheets would be a good idea.
500 grams of chicken breast yields 180 grams of jerky. Not too shabby, and no preservatives or coloring either. Yay! This should last her about 10 days.[ETA] 2nd try was much easier.
An oven pan caught the dripping, and putting the fan on reduced cooking time to 4 hours.
(I hid one in a box that used to contain really nice Oolong tea -- a present from one of M.'s grad students from China. )
[Emily NEEDS Treaties!]
