The base of this recipe is from Allrecipes.com's "Homemade Beef Jerky". I've tried several variations on that, but I still follow it pretty closely. Alterations and minor changes are noted below.
Ingredients:
¾ cup Worcestershire sauce
¾ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon smoked paprika, or to taste
1 tablespoon honey, or more to taste
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 pounds beef top round, thinly sliced
Directions:
Slice the beef in strips, ⅛ to ¼ inch thick.1,2
Whisk Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, paprika, honey, black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and onion powder together in a bowl. Add beef to bowl and turn to coat beef completely. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator, 3 hours to overnight.
Preheat oven to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C).3 Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack over the foil.
Transfer beef to paper towels to dry. Discard marinade. Arrange beef slices in a single layer on the prepared wire rack on the baking sheet.
Bake beef in the preheated oven until dry and leathery, 3 to 4 hours. Cut with scissors into bite-size pieces (or not).
Notes:
Eye of Round roasts are a good alternative to top round. Much cheaper and very lean, but it tends to be tougher than the top round so be sure to cut either cross-grain or on a diagonal. I personally like more chew than I get with a cross grain cut, but cutting on the grain is too much. 45 degrees to the grain is a nice compromise.
Partially freezing the meat before slicing makes getting sufficiently thin and even slices easier. Of course, an electric meat slicer is best of all.
If your oven supports it, dry at a lower (135F-150F) temperature and adjust time accordingly.
Alterations:
Add ½ tsp Liquid smoke.
Replace honey with blackstrap molasses.
Add coarse ground black pepper to surface of jerky strips before drying (for peppered jerky). For something spicier, dust with cayenne pepper.