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From breakfast to dinner, we can add jerky to almost every meal, whether a sandwich, omelet, pizza, or stew. When there is nothing to add the jerky to, we can eat it raw. However, have you ever thought about how it would taste to eat jerky as a sweet and how you can make it? Dessert jerky has become a thing now, and it does not take a lot to make, but the results are exceptional.
What is chocolate-covered jerky, and what does it taste like?
Chocolate-covered jerky is exactly as its name sounds. The concept here is to take jerky pieces and cover them with the chocolate of your choice. When it comes to its taste, it tastes sweet in the beginning, as you will taste the chocolate first. However, when you get to the jerky part, it creates an amazing combination of sweetness from chocolate and salty and spicy meat.
Sweet taste to begin with and a salty and meaty touch to end tastes like heavens for meat lovers as they take a chocolate covered jerky as a sweet.
How to create chocolate-covered jerky at home?
Creating chocolate-covered jerky at home is very simple. You only need the basic ingredients, which include:
- Chocolate
- Jerky
- Parchment paper
- Dishes to melt chocolate
- Toppings for your jerky
With these 5 simple items at hand, you can begin with the steps below:
1. Get the jerky pieces ready
Begin with taking jerky and making small pieces of it. There are no shape and size restrictions, but making bite-sized, manageable pieces is a good idea. You can make rough jerky pieces if you want a more delicate experience, then take a knife and cut equal-sized pieces. It may look visually appealing to some, but it kills the vibe of the natural dish.
2. Select chocolate and melt it
You can choose which type of chocolate you want to use, from bitter ones, sweet, milk chocolate, and even dark chocolate. As a beginner, it would be a good idea to go with sweeter milk chocolate.
Set a pot with water to heat on medium flame and place a glass bowl in that water. Put your chocolate bars, discs, or chips in that glass bowl to melt without burning. You can keep stirring the chocolate to melt it quickly.
3. Dip jerky in it to cover it thoroughly
Once the chocolate has melted perfectly, you need to take your jerky pieces and dip them in the chocolate. Do this one by one if you have a few. Or put all in the chocolate if you have lots of jerky pieces and a good amount of chocolate.
As jerky gets covered in chocolate, you can get it out and put it on parchment paper to cool down. If you don't have parchment paper, then you may lightly grease a pan and put these to cool on it.
4. Sprinkle with your favorite toppings
Before the chocolate fully cools and solidifies, sprinkle it with some toppings. The toppings will be of your choice as well. However, it would be a good idea to be creative and choose one of the following toppings depending on the type of chocolate you selected. A good-tasting combination between topping and chocolate is essential. Here are a few toppings that you can select:
- A drizzle of dark or white chocolate
- Candy sprinkles
- Caramel
- Honey
- Crushed dry fruits
- Sea salt
- Pink salt, etc.
The selection of toppings completely depends on your liking.
5. Store and serve at room temperature
Now you need to let the chocolate cool down for a few minutes at room temperature so that it cools down. Take all the pieces, put them on a plate, and you are ready to serve. If you want to preserve it for a few days, you may leave it covered in an airtight container to keep moisture away.
What are the benefits of making chocolate covered jerky?
Do you ever think why you should combine these 2 different items? Chocolate and meat are from different food categories, and even their combination is not that common. However, when jerky is combined with chocolate, a tasty product is made that comes with the following benefits:
1. It is a unique sweet
The sweets and desserts we usually have after meals are very basic. They are usually sweet with nothing new. However, it is a unique sweet from the looks and from the taste as well. Especially if you have a cured-meat lover present, this sweet will instantly become their favorite.
2. It is a combination of sweet and salty.
There are rarely desserts that bring such a combination. Dessert or chocolate-covered jerky is a perfect example of that phenomenon where you get a sweet and salty taste together. Its taste starts with the sweetness of chocolate, but as you bite into the jerky under the chocolate, you get the meaty and salty taste.
3. Chocolate-covered jerky is a good movie snack.
Movie snacks are those which can be easily eaten and do not require a lot of attention. Otherwise, they make a disturbance and distraction from the movie. That's why popcorn is so popular as a movie snack worldwide. However, you can change that by creating dessert jerky.
This combination of meat covered in chocolate will be easy to eat, and every bite will provide you rich, creamy, and meaty experience.
4. It makes a unique gift with a little surprise inside
You can prepare dessert jerky for meat lovers on your list and gift them. They will never know what's under the chocolate's layer unless they try it out. Once they try it, it will be a sweet and salty surprise, making it a perfect gift for any occasion.
Final Remarks:
While looking for ways to make chocolate-covered jerky, you may find several latest recipes. However, the ones we used here maintain all the original steps to keep everything normal and good like the original recipe.
While making dessert jerky, you need to ensure that neither the chocolate nor the jerky overpowers the taste of the other. Instead, both must enhance the decadence of the other, and that's the beauty of this dessert.
Image by Alexander Stein from Pixabay
