06 October 2026 · motty

Crispy Beef Jerky: How Beef Becomes a Chip

Crispy beef jerky is beef dried so far that it snaps instead of bends. It crunches like a chip and still carries the protein of real meat. We make certified Glatt Kosher biltong and jerky, and our Grub Lab Beef Crisps are a small test batch of exactly this.

Most people have never eaten crunchy beef. They know jerky as a chewy strip you work at for a minute. Crispy beef flips that. It breaks cleanly, dissolves quickly and eats more like a snack chip than a piece of meat. This guide explains what is happening to the beef, how crispy differs from the jerky and biltong you know, and when it is the wrong pick. Everything we make is certified Glatt Kosher, and the beef crisps are no exception.

What "crispy" actually means in dried beef

Texture in dried meat comes down to one thing: how much water is left in it.

Fresh beef is mostly water. Every dried beef product is a decision about how much of that water to take out. Take out some, and you get a soft, bendy strip with a moist center. Take out more, and you get a firm, leathery chew. Take out nearly all of it, and the meat turns brittle. The fibers no longer stretch. They fracture. That fracture is the snap you hear.

So crispy beef is not a different animal or a different cut. It is the far end of the same spectrum. Think of it as three stops on a line:

Soft and moist. Air-dried biltong sits here. The outside is firm and the middle gives way. The soft middle is a feature of the method.
Chewy. Classic jerky sits here. It is cooked and dried until it bends but resists you.
Crisp. Dried until it shatters. No chew, no stretch.

Thickness matters just as much as drying. A thin slice loses water faster and more evenly, so thin pieces are the ones that turn crisp. A thick strip dried to the same point would be rock-hard rather than crunchy. Crisp beef is a thin-slice product by nature.

Crispy is not the same as overdried

Here is the part most jerky articles skip. Plenty of bad jerky is hard and dry, and that is not crispy. It is a failure.

Overdried jerky is tough, dusty and fibrous. You gnaw at it and it fights back. Crisp beef is brittle all the way through. It gives way at the first bite instead of resisting. One is a mistake in the process. The other is the goal.

The two can look alike in the bag, so use your mouth as the test. If you have to tear it with your teeth and chew for a long time, it is dry and tough. If it snaps clean and breaks up quickly, it is crisp.

The opposite problem is just as real. Jerky that is mushy or oddly soft usually points to poor meat or a poor process, which we cover in why your beef jerky is mushy. Crisp and mushy are far apart, and a good maker knows exactly where on the line each product should land.

Meet Grub Lab Beef Crisps

Our answer to the crunchy-beef question is Beef Crisps (2oz) - Grub Lab. It is real beef, dried until it snaps. You get the protein of biltong with the crunch of a chip. It comes in an Original flavor, two ounces to a bag, and it is certified Glatt Kosher.

The "Grub Lab" name is a plain warning. This is a test batch. We made a small run to see whether crisps deserve a permanent place on the shelf, and your answers decide that. When this batch is gone, it is gone until we decide otherwise. We would rather tell you that now than have you stock up on something that may not come back.

We are not going to publish a recipe-level description of how the crisps are made. What we will say is what they are for: anywhere you would reach for a bag of chips and regret it later. A desk drawer. The car. The fourth quarter.

Crisps, biltong and jerky: which one for which moment

These three are not rivals. They are tools. Here is how we think about them.

Reach for crisps when

You want something that eats like a chip. The crunch is the point.
You are snacking at a desk or in a car and want something that breaks into bites with no tearing.
Someone in the house finds chewy jerky tiring. Crisp is easy on the jaw.
You want a salty, crunchy handful alongside a drink.

Reach for biltong when

You want savory, air-dried beef with real flavor in the meat itself. Sliced Biltong comes in Original, Peri Peri and Loaded Garlic, ready to eat with nothing to cut.
You like a texture that gives way rather than fights. Biltong is often a surprise to people trained on jerky.
You are buying for a table or a gift. Original suits almost everyone.

Reach for jerky when

You want sweet and smoky. Our Meat Candy is cooked, glazed beef in Hickory Kickory Dock and Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep.
You want the classic chew that most people mean when they say jerky.

If you are trying to decide between the last two, our full biltong vs beef jerky comparison goes through the method, the flavor and the texture side by side.

The honest trade-offs of crispy beef

We like crisps. We also think you should know where they fall short, because a snack that is right for one moment is wrong for another.

Crisps are the wrong pick if you want to chew. If what you love about jerky is the long, satisfying pull, crunchy beef will feel like a different food. It is.
Crunch does not survive an open bag. Anything dried that far wants to take water back from the air. Reseal the bag after you open it, and do not leave a handful on the counter overnight if you want the snap.
Crisps are fragile. A bag knocked around in a backpack will have crumbs at the bottom. That is part of the format, not a defect.
They are a test batch. If you fall for them, we cannot promise they stay. Tell us you want them and that helps.
They do not replace a meal-style snack. A two-ounce bag is a snack, not a lunch. When you want something you can sit with, biltong or jerky does that job better.

None of this makes crispy beef a lesser snack. It makes it a specific one. Match it to the moment and it is great.

What to look for in any crispy beef, kosher or not

If you are shopping around, a few checks keep you out of trouble.

Read the ingredient list first. Beef should come first. Short lists beat long ones.
Ask what kind of beef it is. Whole slices of real beef are the standard. Be wary of anything that does not say.
Check the certification on the bag. For kosher shoppers, the symbol and the words "Glatt Kosher" should be right on the package. Our kosher beef jerky collection lists every product we make under that certification.
Test the snap. It should break cleanly. Tough or rubbery means it was dried badly.
Check the portion. Crunchy snacks go quickly. A small bag is easier to finish while it is still crisp.

If you are new to dried beef in general and want to try more than one style, Buy Biltong Online shows every size and flavor we sell. US orders over $50 ship free.

The bottom line

Crispy beef jerky is dried beef taken all the way to brittle. It is a different pleasure from chewy jerky or soft biltong, and a good one if you want crunch with real protein behind it. Grub Lab Beef Crisps are our certified Glatt Kosher take on it, and they are a test batch, so try them while the run lasts and tell us what you think.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is crispy beef jerky?

It is thin-sliced beef dried until it is brittle instead of chewy. It snaps and crunches like a chip, but it is still real beef with the protein that comes with it.

Is crispy jerky the same as overdried jerky?

No. Overdried jerky is tough and fibrous, and you have to gnaw it. Crispy beef is brittle all the way through and breaks cleanly at the first bite. One is a mistake, the other is the intended result.

Are Grub Lab Beef Crisps kosher?

Yes. They are certified Glatt Kosher, like the rest of what we make.

How big is a bag of Grub Lab Beef Crisps?

Each bag is two ounces, in Original flavor.

Will Beef Crisps always be available?

Not necessarily. They are a Grub Lab test batch. We made a small run to see if they deserve a permanent spot, and customer feedback decides that. When this batch is gone, it is gone until we decide otherwise.

How do I keep crispy beef crunchy?

Seal the bag tightly after opening and eat it within a short time. Dried beef this dry tends to soften if left out in the open air.

Is crispy beef better than biltong or regular jerky?

Neither is better. Crisps are for crunch, biltong is for savory, air-dried beef that gives way as you bite, and jerky is for a sweet, classic chew. Many people keep more than one in the house.