Nesco makes an extruder for ground meat, so yes you can use ground. The gun makes strips or sticks of jerky, no reason you couldnt do the same by hand. Maybe place the meat into a pastry bag/heavy duty ziplock or make mini meatballs or footballs. If its not extruded under pressure it might be more friable, you would have to use your solid fruit roll up trays or cover them. I'd form it into uniform shapes or else you'll end up with beef jerky gravel. Nothing wrong with it, just dry & crunchy bits.
Most all of my recipes have soy sauce or tamari in them-too much like teriyaki? Cabellas High Mountain jalapeno flavor has decent heat and is a cure to boot.
This site has lots of recipes for jerky. We liked this recipe-tweak to your own tastes. It also has soy sauce, but you can search the site for alternatives.
T birds beef jerky