Molly's Favorite Dog Treat Recipes - Beef Jerkey

Leo and I perk up our ears for this dog treat recipe - Beef Jerky!

Dog treat recipes are pretty easy to make and, let's face it, dog treats are an important part of my day! My mom, Joan, used to buy some chicken jerky treats for dogs at Costco and then she read the ingredients list and saw some very unhealthy stuff. Plus they were made in China and after that food recall a while back on dog food with Chinese ingredients, we decided it was better to eat homemade dog food recipes.

Obesity in dogs is as big a problem as obesity in people - in fact, Leo has a little trouble in that direction! It's important to give your dogs a diet of healthy, nutritious food free of fillers, additives and byproducts. This dog treat recipe of beef jerky is made of just pure beef and nothing else.

Healthy Dog Treat Recipe - Beef Jerky

We bought a nice roast beef at the store on sale so for $5 we got nearly 3 pounds of beef. If you've checked the price of quality dogs treats lately, you know this is a bargain!

$5 of beef makes a lot of dog treat recipe

First slice the beef very thin, against the grain. One tip we read about was to freeze the beef first to make it easier to slice so you can try that if you have trouble.

Place the beef slices in a large zip loc bag and add 1/2 cup beef bouillon. If you want to be really healthy,

(commercial beef bouillon contains additives, preservatives and lots of salt) make your own bouillon by throwing some of the small pieces you cut off the beef into a cup of water and simmer it until the meat is done. Cool the broth and add it to the sliced beef in the bag.

Your dog doesn't need any seasoning and too much salt can be bad for your dog so don't add any spices. You can add a little Italian seasoning if you want to, but your dog won't really care.

Marinate the beef overnight, then put in on a cookie sheet and heat in the oven to 160 degrees. We read that jerky made in a dehydrator doesn't heat it up enough to kill all the bacteria so we cooked ours just 20 minutes in the oven at 160, which does kill the bacteria.

After that, Joan put the beef strips into the food dehydrator (we've used the Nesco American Harvest FD-61 Snackmaster Encore Dehydrator and Jerky Maker for years for all our food dehydrating and love it) at 145 for about 5 hours and we were done! Delicious beef jerky treats for dogs.

If you don't have a food dehydrator, you can also use your oven. To do this put the beef strips on a greased cookie sheet and place in the oven at 160 degrees for about 2 hours. Be sure to check frequently to see if it's done. Your oven might take more or less time than 2 hours.

Allow this tasty dog treat to cool, then cut into bite size pieces. The jerky should come out a little chewy, not crunchy.

You can store your dog's jerky in a zip loc plastic bag for about 3 weeks - but it probably won't last that long!

400 Tasty Dog Treat Recipes-try them all! Your pup will love you for it.

More information on the importance of whole food nutrition for you and your dog.

Here's some more pet food recipes. We haven't tried all of these but we'll be posting our favorite dog treat recipes, homemade dog food recipes and other foods we enjoy.