Painted Hills Natural Beef - Asian BBQ Beef Jerky

Painted Hills Natural Beef got its start in 1997 when seven ranchers in the Wheeler County area of Oregon got together to form a new cattle venture that would protect their top quality animals from being blended with cattle of lower quality. The company is now a wholesaler of boxed primal cuts of steaks, and just recently added deli meats and jerky to their line up.

The cattle they raise receive a 100% vegetarian diet throughout their lives, grazing the pastures of 80 family farms. The animals never receive added hormones or antibiotics. The resulting jerky is 100% gluten free and made with no MSG or preservatives.

This Asian BBQ variety comes with no additional description or claims.

Ingredients

Grass-fed beef, water, brown sugar, tomato paste, gluten free soy sauce, rice wine, natural flavoring, garlic powder, red chilies, sesame oil, onion powder

Review

The first flavors that I pick up is a light sweet, followed by a faint red chile pepper. A light salt comes in. The chewing brings on a touch of rice wine along with a noticeable garlic and onion.

For being marketed as, "Asian BBQ" it does have a light Asian-style flavor, mostly as a weak Thai-style chile paste. It's not as spicy as normal chile paste, but does have the chile pepper flavor. There's also a lightly noticeable ginger, mostly as the sliced pickled variety often served with sushi. As for the "BBQ" part of the name, I'm not really getting much of any grilled flavor, or BBQ sauce character. Certainly, this could be a sauce for grilling, but otherwise the meat itself doesn't have any kind of smoky, char flavor.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile is a red chile paste, lightly sweetened, and touched up with some pickled ginger, garlic and onion.

These are thick slices of meat, yet easy to bite off chunks, and feeling slightly moist. I don't see much fat on these slices, nor do I feel any stringiness. They take on a very meaty feel, maybe slightly gummy from the added sweet. Once chewed down soft, they don't quite feel steak-like, just meaty.

Verdict

This Asian BBQ beef jerky from Painted Hills Natural Beef serves up a Thai-style red chile paste flavor, but with very little spiciness. I like the light flavor of picked ginger that comes up from these thick slices of meat, as well as the subtle rice wine and the garlic/onion seasoning. While I don't pick up any BBQ characteristics in this, no smoky, grilled, nor charred flavor, this certainly could be a sauce that one might use for grilling. Helping out are these thick slices of beef that remain easy to bite off and chew. Overall, you get more of a Thai-style Asian flavor, not too heavy, and certainly not hot.

Rating: Good (4/5)