Jeff's Famous Jerky - Thai Satay Turkey

The newest flavor from Jeff's Famous Jerky is this Thai Satay Turkey Jerky. Based out of Mission Viejo, CA, Jeff's Famous Jerky is a brand owned by Jeff's Famous Foods, Inc.

The company started up in 2010 when Jeff Richards decided to make a business from his favorite snack food, jerky. Since the 1970s, Richards has been making his own jerky, getting better year after year, similar to like a 40-year old bourbon. Professionally, Richards has spent his career in the restaurant business and also coaches entrepreneurs through a consulting business.

This new Thai Satay Turkey Jerky is described by Jeff as delivering a Thai Peanut sauce without using peanuts. He apparently uses, "innovative methods to make it without nuts, so it is safe for those with peanut or nut allergies." The package is also stamped, "Sweet & Mildly Spicy".

Ingredients

Turkey, sunflower seed butter, tamari sauce, white sugar, brown sugar, chili sauce, rice vinegar, natural smoke flavoring, plum sauce, sesame oil, cayenne pepper, granulated garlic, granulated onion, ginger, sesame seeds

Review

The first flavor that hits right away is a significant sweet. A light peanut and light salt comes on next, then followed by hints of soy sauce. There's a light pan fried flavor with a hint of smoke too. The chewing brings out an increased peanut sauce definition, much like what you'd find in classic Thai cuisine. The sesame seeds themselves do add a touch of nutty character.

For being marketed as a Thai Satay style turkey jerky, it does in fact taste like the classic Asian grilled flavor, much like what you'd expect to get from a Satay vendor at a street fair. It has a light smoky, grilled flavor, but also a noticeable peanut sauce character. Overall, the peanut sauce and the sesame seeds gives this a clearly Asian profile. As for being stamped, "mildly spicy", this has zero heat that I can tell. It's totally mild.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile is a well-sweetened peanut sauce with a lightly smoked, pan-fried character, along with touches of nutty sesame seed. The natural turkey meat flavors don't really come in all that well; they tend to be overshadowed by the more significant sweet.

These slices of meat are moist and soft. In fact, it's generally mushy, and doesn't chew like actual turkey meat. As soft and tender as it is, you could certainly snack your way through an entire bag within 60 seconds. Otherwise, I found no signs of fat or other unchewable tissues.

Verdict

This new Thai Satay Turkey variety from Jeff's Famous Jerky does a surprisingly good job of recreating classic Thai Peanut Sauce flavor without using peanuts. But it also does a good job of mimicking Thai Satay grilling with a light smokey, pan-fried character. But otherwise, I found very little natural turkey meat flavor, and the chewing felt more mushy due to the stronger sweet and moist slices of meat. With very little natural goodness of turkey jerky, what you're left with is just Thai satay peanut sauce. It's otherwise, a great jerky for folks with peanut allergies who want to experience the goober gastronomies of Thai-cuisine, and it does deliver a clearly Asian taste profile. It's also probably the only commercially available jerky focused on peanut sauce, and for that reason it's definitely a recommended buy for jerky aficionados.

Rating: Good (4/5)

Buy this online:

• http://jeffsfamousjerky.com/