Chinese snack - Part II - Beef/Pork Jerky

This is another impressive looking "Chinese Snack", it looks complicated but it's actually quite easy to make! The idea came to me from my mother in law, she has been making a lot of HK style pork jerky lately and it soo good, so I decided to try it out as well. Unlike the beef jerky you get at the local gas station for $1, the Chinese style pork/beef jerky is more of a high end snack. There are speciality stores that sell these jerkies for upwards of $7 a piece! The main difference is that the Chinese style jerky is more moist, a softer consistency and is often sweet. I always thought making jerky will require a lot of special tools and equipments, but it turns out all you need is an oven. And all the ingredients required are mostly likely already in your fridge and pantry!

Chinese style meat jerky

Ingredients


2lbs of  minced pork (or minced beef, I used a combination of 1.5 lbs of pork and 0.5lb of beef)
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp 5-spice powder
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese wine (Hua Tiao/Shao Hsing)
dashes of black pepper
5 tbsp sugar

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix until the mixture is in a gluey consistency. Let marinate for a few hours in the fridge.
2. Place the mixture on a large cookie sheet covered with foil.

3. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap, and flatten/roll into a thin layer, as thin as possible.

4. Preheat oven to 180°C, bake for 12 minutes.

5. Set oven to broil and broil until the edge is brown and slightly char. Remove the jerky from the oven, let cool, flip the jerky over, and broil the back side until it gets brown and char as well.

6. Slice (A pizza cutter works really well) and ENJOY!