Mike's Jerky - Green Chile

Next in the series on Mike's Jerky is this Green Chile variety. See my previous reviews of their Black Pepper, Santa Fe, Lemon Pepper, and Special Pineapple varieties.

Mike's Jerky is a brand of Old World Beef Company based out of Albuquerque, NM. The company was started by Mike and Brenda Grier in 2008. The couple had been making jerky for many years and were always told that they ought to go into business selling it, except they were already busy running an RV dealership. But when the bad economy hit, their dealership went out of business, and that cleared the way for them to start Old World Beef Company.

This Green Chile variety is described by the company as having been made with green chiles grown in New Mexico, which have a reputation of being the best green chiles around.

Ingredients

Beef, Green Chile, Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Garlic, Sugar, Parsley, Extractives of Garlic and Carrot

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light saltiness, followed by a light roasted beef flavor. The flavor of green chiles comes in soon after, along with light bit of heat. The saltiness increases as the green chile flavor progresses.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased roast beef flavor, along with an increased saltiness. The green chile flavor opens up with some additional seasoning flavor, while its heat seems to increase a bit.

For being marketed as a Green Chile flavored beef jerky, this seems to hold up well. I get a lot of green chile flavor as well a moderate amount of heat, which I would rank on my personal heat scale as (level 3 out of 5).

But equally as noticeable is the natural meat flavor, which resembles that of deli sliced roast beef, much like all of Mike's Jerky varieties. The saltiness is also quite high, creating a trio of three primary flavors: green chiles, roast beef, and salt.

The other ingredients of garlic, sugar, parsley, and carrot are not well noticeable on their own, but they do seem to contribute to a seasoning flavor within the green chile.

Overall, what you're going to notice is primarily a flavor-trio of green chiles, roast beef, and salt, with a moderate level of heat.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced very thin, and in small to medium sized slabs, with a coating of seasoned green chile topping.

This is a dry jerky, with a dry surface feel. It has no flexibility, being quite brittle, and will snap apart with a little bit of bending. It's very easy to tear pieces apart, and very easy to chew.

The chewing texture starts out feeling dry and brittle with no chewing resistance. I get a good deal of crunch chewing a piece down, and its chews down to a soft mass very quickly with little effort. At that point it feels very much like a piece of roast beef deli cut, but more dry.

I can see several spots of fat on these slabs, but they offer no additional flavor and no additional chewing texture. I didn't find any streaks of gristle or tendon in these pieces, and no unchewable tissues.

In terms of clean eating, these seem very clean. My fingers picked up no residue, though snapping off pieces dropped just minimal amounts of meat fragments and pepper.




Snack Value

Mike's Jerky sells this Green Chile variety from its website at a price of $5.00 for a 2oz package. If you bought 8 packages, the shipping works out to $5.38 if sent to Southern California. That comes to $2.84 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.84 per ounce price, it's a decent value. I'm getting a good deal of snackability for an overall good flavor, good meat consistency, and good chewing texture. That price is a lot higher than what you'll pay at the grocery store for one of the major brands, but I think you'll get more snackability out of this.

As a green chile beef jerky, at the same $2.84 per ounce price, it's a good value. I'm getting a lot of green chile flavor, as well as a moderate amount of heat, which appears to be a lot more than what competing green chile beef jerky brands offer.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Green Chile variety from Mike's Jerky is a dry, thinly sliced jerky, slathered with what appears to be a green chile topping. I was able to get a strong green chile flavor, along with a moderate amount of heat, paired up with a bold seasoning of salt, garlic, and parsley.

Considering Mike's Jerky uses New Mexico chiles, which are said to be the world's best green chiles, I particularly liked that I could get a good taste of their unique flavor, which is quite unlike many other competing brands of green chile flavored jerky. I found the saltiness to be a bit high, but I was able to overlook it in favor of the green chiles.

The jerky itself is easy to eat, considering it's thinly sliced and dry, and gives off a little bit of a crunch, which I think adds to the overall snackability. But, it has a good chewing texture, and good overall meat consistency.

My recommended beer pairing for this, try something more refreshing that finishes clean, such as the Samuel Adams Boston Lager, or the New Belgium Fat Tire.

Rating: Best

Buy this online:

• http://www.oldworldjerky.com/