This past week I made the Nua Kem (Thai-Style Beef Jerky) recipe J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

The recipe is straightforward but takes some time. Flank steak is sliced against the grain into 1/2-inch slices. Those slices are tossed in a mixture of a soy sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar, and white pepper.

Kenji says that these strips should be placed outside in the sun, but provides the alternative of baking in an oven at it’s lowest temperature. We did not like the idea of leaving meat out side for the flies, squirrels, and chipmunks to get, so we went with the oven option. Our oven gets as low as 150°F, which is right in the middle of Kenji’s 125–175°F target range.

In the oven, the strips get flipped every 30 to 45 minutes “until the surface feels dry to the touch.” It took about 4 hours for them to completely dry out.

Once dry, the strips are fried until “well browned and crisp at the edges but still pliant.” Kenji calls for the fried strips to be served with jaew dipping sauce.

In the notes, Kenji says that it’s typically served with jaew, sticky rice, and som tam. I had some sticky rice on hand, so made that, too. Kenji also recommends nam pla prik, sukang sawsawan, and sriracha as sauce options. Since I still had some sukang sawsawan from a few weeks ago, I pulled that out as an option too.

Overall, the nua kem was tasty, but I think I missed the mark. Kenji introduces the dish as “far juicier than any preserved beef snack I’ve ever had” when differentiating it from beef jerky. My result was crunchy and not juicy. I wonder if I sliced too thin, or over dried in the oven. Everyone still like it. My son really liked it.

I’d like to try this one again and slice a little thicker.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.