Summertime Venison Recipes

Venison Barbecue

Ingredients for the barbecue sauce:

• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cups ketchup
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon molasses
• 2 cups water
• Chili powder, black pepper and salt to taste

Ingredients for the meat:

• 4 pounds venison
• ribs or other cut of roast
• 2 bay leaves
• Hamburger buns or hoagie ribs
• Coleslaw, optional
• Chili powder, black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

1.Boil a large pot of lightly salted water and allow venison and bay leaves to simmer for two hours. If you prefer, you can cook the venison in a slow cooker with eight cups of water and bay leaves for four hours instead.

2. Prepare the sauce by melting the butter and allowing the onion to sauté in it. Once it’s reached your desired level of caramelization, stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients and let it simmer while the meat finishes cooking.

3.Drain the meat and put it in a roasting pan. Cover the meat with the barbecue sauce, and let it cook at 250 degrees for two hours.

Venison Burgers

Ingredients 

• 1 lb ground venison
• 1 lb fatty ground beef
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 whole egg
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped red onion
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped green pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Combine Ingredients, mixing well.
2. Form into patties.
3. Grill over medium high heat for 4 to 6 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature of the venison burgers reaches 160 degrees F.

Chipotle Venison Jerky

Ingredients

• 5 to 7 pounds venison roast
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 head garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 7- ounce can of chipotles in adobo
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon of Instacure No. 1
• 2 tablespoons salt

Directions

1. Put the soy, sugar, onion, garlic, chipotles and the adobo sauce, lime juice, curing salt and enough water to fill the can of chipotles into the blender and blend until smooth. Taste it (it will be a bit zippy), and add salt if you need it — the marinade should taste pretty salty.
2. Cut the venison roast against the grain into roughly 1/4 inch slices.
3. Mix the marinade into the meat really well. The slices are going to want to stick to each other, so you need to use your hands (wear gloves if you are very sensitive to chiles) to make sure each side of every slice gets well coated with this marinade. It’s enough for a full 7 pounds of meat. Pack the mixture into a non-reactive (plastic, ceramic, stainless steel) container, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, and up to 48 hours. How long you take it depends on your personal salt tolerance and on whether you plan on storing the finished jerky for months or not. If not, go less salty.
4. When you are ready, lay the meat on dehydrator trays in one layer. Don’t let the slices of meat touch. Set the dehydrator to 160°F for 2 hours, then drop the temperature down to 145°F until the jerky is ready. You know this because the jerky is still sorta pliable, but when you bend it, the meat starts to fracture and crack a little — this is how I like my jerky. All told, the jerky should be ready in about 6 hours. You can, if you are planning to store this at room temperature for a long time, dry it until the meat is brittle.
5. If you are using an oven, set the oven as low as it will go and use something to prop open the door, which lets air circulate inside the oven. If you have a convection oven, use it.
6. Store it in the fridge, or vacuumbseal and freeze.