Cooking time: 4-6 hours
I ended up getting into this to treat my jerky fix -- it's not available in my city. It costs me about $4 to make 500g / a pound of this jerky. A pound of beef jerky probably costs $40 or something outrageous at the WalMart. It tastes and looks like beef jerky when it's finished. All you need is some wax paper, a baking sheet, and a wire rack.
Buy some thin-sliced chicken breast; let it marinade overnight in a bowl with soy sauce, garlic powder, chili powder, ginger powder, black pepper, turmeric, whatever sounds good. But you want to use soy sauce as the base; it gives a lot of salt, flavor, and color. I leave the chicken in the fridge loosely covered because that helps dehydrate it.
Preheat oven to 150c/300f. Put some wax paper on an oven sheet. Press the marinated breasts very thin against the wax paper -- you want them 1/8" - 1/4" thickness -- 3-6mm. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes to kill off bugs, then crank the heat down as low as it can go. 60c or 70c is ideal. Crack the oven door by putting a wooden spoon in the top of the door to help moisture circulate out after the 10 minutes have gone by.
After 2 hours or so, take out the chicken; if it's dried out enough, you should be able to peel it from the wax paper: flip the meat and put it on wire rack. If you want to cut the jerky into specific shapes, now's the time: do that before peeling the meat off the wax paper. If it naturally breaks into smaller pieces, let it be.
After another 2 or 3 hours, your jerky should be close to done. Use clues like color and texture to judge. Some jerky wisdom: "done" jerky bends easily instead of breaking, and when it rips, white muscle fibers are present. It should be real chewy and dry. Since you already killed the germs at the very beginning, it's safe to steal small bites to check for doneness, too.
Rearranging pieces or re-flipping may be necessary. Not a problem! Just go with your gut!
When the jerky's done, remove from the oven for 10-15 minutes and let it cool; then put into a sealed container and throw it in the fridge. Should be tasty for at least a few weeks. But it's not going to last that long because it's damn tasty.