We Tried As Many Beef Jerky Brands We Could Find — And the Winner Is What We’ll Snack on Forever

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Various beef jerky packages displayed, including brands like Tillamook, Jack Link's, and Epic, showcasing different flavors and ingredients.

Credit: Alex Lepe

In This Article

Beef jerky is the answer to (almost) any snack woe. Looking for something salty while your TV show is on? Grab a bag of beef jerky. Need something to keep you fueled during a road trip? Pick up a bag at the gas station (those aisles are filled with the best snacks). Want a bite with a bit of substance to break up the day? Beef jerky, again.

Sure, you could make your own beef jerky but with no shortage of brands stocked in grocery stores these days, it’s surely easier buying a bag than spending $$$ and an entire weekend freezing, slicing, marinating, and cooking the meat. Not to mention, the store-bought options are incredibly delicious.

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So, to find the best beef jerky, we wrangled a few friends of The Kitchn and spent an afternoon tasting and comparing seven store-bought versions.

Quick Overview

So, What’s the Best Store-bought Beef Jerky?

Archer Country Grass-Fed Beef Jerky had an incredibly savory, slightly smoky flavor and a satisfying chew that wiped away the competition.

Various beef jerky brands on wax paper for taste test.

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

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We focused on original flavor (no teriyaki or barbecue!) and sourced the most popular name- and store brands based on availability and price. We also requested input from our editorial team to round out the list of seven competitors. The brands ranged in price from $4 all the way up to $18, though most were around $8 at the time of this tasting.

After about an hour of sampling, a clear winner emerged with its distinctly rich, savory flavor and tender texture.

Someone holding package of Country Archer beef jerky.

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Best Beef Jerky Brand: Archer Country Grass-Fed Beef Jerky

There’s a wealth of beef jerky styles out there. Beyond flavors, there are all sorts of cuts of meat — top round, sirloin, flank — and varying dehydration lengths. Our ideal beef jerky was salty, a bit tough yet still tender after a few chews and had a slightly smoky flavor. The Archer Country Grass-Fed Beef Jerky hit all of our tasting marks. Perfect Filet Mignon

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Perfect Filet Mignon

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“It’s salty but not drying out my mouth and has a touch of much-appreciated sweetness to round the flavor out,” said Ali, our associate groceries editor. “This is the bag that I want by my side on a road trip.” The rest of the group agreed. One taster even stuck around until the taste test ended to learn exactly which brand was just “so savory and delicious.”

What’s So Great

“So savory and delicious”
Tender

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Good to Know

Free of nitrates and preservatives
Slightly sweet

Buy: Archer Country Grass-Fed Beef Jerky, $8.99 for 2.5 ounces at Instacart

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Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Runner-Up: EPIC Beef & Pepper Beef Jerky

Though a lot of the beef jerky brands had the same deep-brown, slightly reddish hue, EPIC Beef & Pepper Beef Jerky these pieces had a lighter brown color and nugget-like shape. The pieces stood out on flavor, too. It had a “very savory taste” and “satisfying, tender chew,” wrote one taster. In fact, EPIC earned number one rankings from two of our testers.

After the results were revealed, it was also cool to see this beef jerky had the smallest ingredient list: beef, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, lactic acid, and black pepper. In the end, the Archer Country Grass-Fed Beef Jerky was just that much tastier and had that salty-sweet taste that reminded us more of a great, classic beef jerky.

What’s So Great

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“Satisfying, tender chew”
Bite-size pieces

Good to Know

Made with just six ingredients
$$$

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Buy: EPIC Beef & Pepper Beef Jerky, $10.68 for 2.5 ounces at Amazon

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Honorable Mention: Whole Food’s 365 Grass-Fed Beef Jerky

If you’re looking for a beef jerky that is “melt-in-your-mouth-tender,” then look no further than Whole Food’s 365 Grass-Fed Beef Jerky. In fact, this beef jerky was the most tender out of the group and the “most flavorful,” (according to a few testers). While it had tenderness and flavor on its side, some found it to be “too sweet,” which was a spot-on observation. Once the test was over, it was revealed that this one had the most sugar out of the group (5 grams per one-ounce serving).

What’s So Great

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Very flavorful
“Incredibly tender”

Good to Know

Too sweet, for some

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Buy: Whole Food’s 365 Grass-Fed Beef Jerky, $9.39 for 3 ounces at Amazon

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Honorable Mention: Tillamook Country Smoke Old Fashioned Beef Jerky

One tester perfectly described our group’s feelings about the Tillamook Country Smoke Old Fashioned Beef Jerky: “umami-packed, but a little tough.” The jerky was widely enjoyed for its savory taste and flavor, but the toughness (it was hard to chew!) made it a bit hard to eat without plenty of water for support. Despite that, it still deserves a shout-out.

What’s So Great

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“Umami-packed”

Good to Know

A little tough, for some

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Buy: Tillamook Country Smoke Old Fashioned Beef Jerky, $5.99 for 2.5 ounces at Amazon

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Honorable Mention: Jack Link’s Original Beef Jerky

Jack Link’s Original Beef Jerky is one of the ol’ reliable beef jerky brands on the shelves today. You can (usually) count on it to be in any gas station or convenience store, and its flavor is so recognizable that one tester noted that they had a hunch that this one was the Jack Link’s (they were clearly right!).

This beef jerky has a lot of great things going for it. According to Ali, this one has a “salty, smoky sweetness” and that “classic beef jerky flavor.” The competition was just too stiff for it to rank higher on our list, but after 140 years it’s still one of the best and most affordable ones around.

What’s So Great

“Smoky sweetness”
Classic pick

Good to Know

Budget buy

Buy: Jack Link’s Original Beef Jerky, $4.69 for 2.6 ounces at Target

How We Tested Beef Jerky Brands

We recruited five beef jerky lovers to blindly (and randomly) taste seven different store-bought beef jerky brands sold at grocery retailers today. Each brand was served on its own, alongside a jug of water. Ali randomly assigned them a letter — from A through G — to conceal the brands’ identities.

Credit: Ali Domrongchai

Tasters were encouraged to sample the beef jerky brands in random order (to avoid giving any particular brand an advantage). They were also handed a notepad and encouraged to sample each brand in random order before marking down their notes, ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5), and rankings. It was only at the end of the test, when all the scores were tallied that the winners were revealed.

Did your favorite beef jerky brand make the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.