Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 4 hrs 15 mins Rest time: 4 hrs Total time: 8 hrs 20 mins
Macronutrients per serving: 45g fat | 21g protein | 0g carbohydrates
Servings: 8 bars
Make it AIP or Dairy-Free: Use animal fat other than ghee or butter
The dehydrated beef gives a crunch like nuts in a candy bar, the ghee holds everything together and gives a lightly sweet flavor, and the salt finishes it off. It all comes together in one delicious bar!
What you need to make Carnivore Crunchy Beef Bars
Ingredients:
- Ground beef
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Equipment:
-
Tupperware (or container to harden bars in)
Substitutions
You can substitute the ghee for another animal fat (tallow, duck fat, etc.) and the ground beef for another ground meat (pork, etc.).
How to make Carnivore Crunchy Beef Bars
To start – cook the ground beef on the stove-top until done. Do not add any fat while cooking, as the goal is to cook out as much fat as possible and drain it.
Once the ground beef is done, drain out all of the fat. There is no need to save it unless you want to.
Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate and pat it dry with a towel. Soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
Transfer the ground beef to a baking sheet and spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible. This will promote even cooking and prevent you from having to rotate the pieces often.
Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl the entire platter around with a fork every 30 minutes or so or when I remember. The pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2.5-hour mark. Around 3 hours, I usually try a few pieces. If they’re soft when I bite into them, that’s a sign they’re not done.
Heat up the ghee (or your fat of choice) on low-medium heat until it melts. As soon as it melts, remove it from heat. Do not let it get hot or else it will re-cook the beef when you mix the two together.
Pour the beef pieces into the container you will be using. I used a 5×7 container (tupperware) to get the thick bars pictured in the recipe. If you prefer thinner bars, use a bigger container.
Pour the melted ghee and salt into the container with the beef and mix it up. Create a smooth, even layer.
Store the mixture in the fridge for 4+ hours so it hardens into bars. I usually make mine in the evening and leave them overnight so when I wake up, they’re ready to go.
Tips to make the best Carnivore Crunchy Beef Bars
- After cooking the ground beef, make sure to drain out and soak up all of the fat. The less fat you start out with, the faster the beef will dehydrate in the oven.
- When dehydrating the ground beef pieces, spread them out in a thin layer and as far away from each other as possible. They will cook faster this way. This should also prevent you from having to rotate the pieces as much.
- When heating up the ghee (or fat of your choice), do not let it get hot. Heat it only until it melts and immediately remove it from heat. This will prevent it from re-cooking the beef.
- For thicker bars, use a 5×7 container (this is what size I used to get the pictured bars) or smaller. For thinner bars, use a 9×9 container or larger.
- Since ghee softens at room temperature, these bars keep best if left in the fridge and consumed directly out of the fridge.
Looking for a sweeter version of these bars? Try this:
A few of my other favorite recipes with a crunch:
Carnivore Fried Chicken Strips
Pork Belly Chips with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Carnivore Crunchy Beef Bars
Carnivore Crunchy Beef Bars
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Tupperware (or container to harden bars in)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 16 tbsp grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- 1 tsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Instructions
- If you’re interested solely in the recipe, skip this bullet point and keep on reading. For those interested in sourcing nutrient-dense food, low-toxic household products, and discounts on brands that may support your AB journey, you may find value in my product guides. Head over to this page if you’d like to check them out. All are free (and always will be).
- Cook the ground beef on the stove-top until done. Don't add any fat while cooking.
- Once the ground beef is done, drain out all of the fat.
- Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate. Pat the beef dry with a towel to soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
- Transfer the ground beef to a baking sheet. Spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible to promote even cooking.
- Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl everything around with a fork every 30 min or so or when I remember. Pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2.5-hour mark.
- Once the beef is fully dehydrated, remove the beef pieces and let them cool.
- Heat up the ghee (or your fat of choice) on low-medium heat until melted. As soon as it melts, remove it from heat. Do not let the fat get too hot to prevent it from re-cooking the beef when mixed together.
- Pour the beef pieces into the container you will be using. I used a 5x7 container to get the thick bars pictured in the recipe. If you prefer thinner bars, use a bigger container.
- Pour the melted fat and sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off) into the container with the beef and mix evenly.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
- Store the mixture in the fridge for 4+ hours so it hardens into bars. I usually make mine in the evening and leave them overnight so when I wake up, they're ready to go.
- Savor and enjoy!
Notes
What I used for this recipe:
A few of my other favorite recipes with a crunch:
Carnivore Fried Chicken Strips
Pork Belly Chips with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
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Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
A must do and have!! I love this recipe so much I make it about once a week and always have them in my fridge. I add a little thyme and/rosemary when browning the meat. These are perfect “grab and go” snack.
This is my favorite snack! Crunchy, salty and satisfyingly sweet when I need a treat, it’s like a candy bar to me (bcz I drizzle honey over top) so much yum!
This is my favorite snack! It takes awhile to make but worth the efforts! It’s crunchy and satisfying like a candy bar bcz I drizzle a bit of honey on top!
This is my favorite snack! It takes awhile to make but worth the efforts! It’s crunchy and satisfying like a candy bar (bcz I drizzle a bit of honey on top! ) so much yum!
Do you eat these cold?
Author
Yes. If they get too hot, they could melt.
How much of each ingredient do you use?
Author
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the amounts for all ingredients listed in the recipe card.
Does the meat get crunchy and dry enough to grind into a powder?
Author
Yes! I ground up the dehydrated ground beef into “flour” and made beef cookies: http://ash-eats.com/animal-based-beef-cookies/
I’m so excited to try this. Do you think I could reserve the beef fat from the cooking and mix it in with the ghee? Thinking i could make sure to cook down the drippings to ensure any residual moisture cooked out.
Author
I don’t see why that wouldn’t work as long as all of the moisture is cooked out and you’re adding just the fat.
Thats what I was thinking too! I’m going to use salted good butter instead of ghee and omit the extra salt. My question is, can the meat be dried in a dehydrator instead of the oven?
Author
Yep! I have never used one, so I don’t have instructions for a dehydrator. But it will work fine. Just make sure the meat is fully dehydrated.
What do you think about holding these together with honey like a granola bar?
Author
They already hold together nicely with the ghee, but you could definitely add honey!
I’m addicted to these bars!! And when I want a hint of sweetness, I drizzle a tad of honey and I’m in heaven!
Have you tried using the left over cooked fat from the ground meat or bacon grease instead of ghee?
Author
I’ve never tried it. Either would probably work.
Omgosh, these are delicious! Thank you for your creativity. I needed crunch like this in my life! ❤️
I’m very interested in making these.
Have you ever frozen these? I would assume there would be no issue. I just wouldn’t want to have to eat them within 5 days. If not freezing, I’ll try just half the ingredients the first time.
Thank you!
Author
Yes, you can freeze them. They actually keep way longer in the fridge than I wrote. Weeks or longer. I will update that.
Can you help me with the macros please? Your numbers say that there’s 45 g of fat but when I enter Grassfed ghee into the MyFitnessPal app it tells me that 16 tablespoons is 208 g of fat, so what is the actual fat content for the entire recipe? And protein as well please?
Author
Sure. 2 lbs of ground beef is about 200g protein. One tbsp of ghee is about 14g fat, so 16 tbsp x 14 = 224g of fat. So the entire recipe is about 200g protein/224g fat, and you can divide that by how many bars you portion out.
am trying this today – so excited to see how it comes out! do you have any recipes that i can use the beef fat drippings for? hate to waste that….
will post again after trying – yay!