Black Pepper Seitan Jerky

This recipe is for my friend Reiko that asked me about making seitan jerky. This is my first attempt, and it turned out better than I expected. I decided to use a mild and slightly sweet sauce and let the flavor of the jerky come mostly from the black pepper (which will please my pepper loving husband). I would say this is more of method than a recipe. The important things to remember are to slice the seitan very thinly using a serrated knife. Next you need something to give the seitan its flavor. I think a little agave or sugar is required to give the final jerky a more well rounded flavor.

Black Pepper Seitan Jerky
Makes 12 ounces – 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 Seitan Roast
2 tablespoons of adult ketchup
2 tablespoons of agave
2 tablespoons of liquid aminos
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line a half sheet pan with silpat or parchment.

Slice the seitan roast as thinly as possible using a serrated knife. My slices were 1/16 of an inch or less.

Heat the ketchup, agave and liquid aminos over medium heat to combine. Put the seitan slices in the sauce to help it absorb the flavor. Give the slices a gentle stir to get them evenly coated in the sauce.

Place the slices on the lined baking sheet making certain they don’t overlap. Give them a fresh grind of pepper and put them in the oven for 30 minutes.

After thirty minute flip the strips over (provided they have dried on top). Use a silicon pastry brush to coat this side of the strips with more sauce and give them another grind of black pepper. Put them back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Continue to flip the seitan strips every 30 minutes until you like the texture. I wanted mine to be mostly dried out and chewy (this took 1 hour and 45 minutes). How long they take will depend on how thick you sliced them and the variability of your oven temperature. When they are done remove them from the oven and allow the strips to come to room temperature.

Put the strips into Ziploc bags and store in the refrigerator. These will probably keep without refrigeration for a few days, but I think it is better to keep them in the refrigerator and be safe.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 77.72
Calories From Fat (7%) - 5.4
Total Fat - 0.61g
Saturated Fat - 0.11g
Cholesterol - 0.21mg
Sodium = 686.91mg
Potassium - 89.93mg
Total Carbohydrates - 7.76g
Fiber - 0.92g
Sugar - 1.49g
Protein - 10.62g

Comments:

The seitan jerky has a more mild in flavor than I anticipated. Next time I will add a little cayenne pepper and chili powder to the sauce. The texture of the seitan is nice, but doesn’t have the chew of traditional meat based jerky. It will make a great meatless protein packed snack when we will be out of the house for a few hours. Protein based foods always keeps me full longer than vegetables, fruits or grains.