Oklahoma Makes The Best Beef Jerky

If you didn't already know, there's a small beef jerky outfit in the Oklahoma panhandle that makes the best beef jerky in the world. It's tough as nails, will dry you out, and it's delicious. It's made the same way jerky should be made throughout the industry, but "should" just doesn't sit well with shareholders anymore. Because of that, Oklahoma is king of beef jerky.

I'm not sure when beef jerky turned its back on "jerky," but it went soft years ago. Pick up any bag of it in store and you know what you'll find, soft and plump little nuggets of muscle packed with sugar to make it addictive to the jerky consumer. That isn't beef jerky. That's just smoked steak. Beef jerky is something you have to work for. The endless chew, the fibrous rip, and those pesky little tendons that take forever to choke down... That's beef jerky.

Over the years, you could usually find a random bag or two of the good, tough, dry stuff at the gas stations of stop-sign towns, but eventually, the jerky conglomerates grew to dominate shelf space at those one-horse places too. Luckily, there's one company that still makes it the old fashion way, and they're straight out of our own state.

If you've never been to Boise City, I cannot tell you how little there is to do there. It's a place so remote, it's easier to shop for groceries in Colorado than it is to find what you're looking for in that small strip of Oklahoma land. But apparently there's a market for the best beef jerky in the world. Try it sometime. I've been on a black pepper kick this month, but their hot and spicy variety is also really good.

Pro-Tip: Instead of over-spending for it on Amazon, stop into Atwood's. They sell it about as cheap as I've ever seen it. Try not to get sticker shock, while it's sold by finished weight, keep in mind that 16 ounces of No Man's Land is the equivalent to a few pounds of the other guys. It'll last you a long time as there's no way to eat an entire bag in one day. Can't say that about the meat candy/fake jerky makers of the corporate world.