It's hunting season, and if your family is anything like ours, you love wild game meat. From venison steaks to venison roast and venison backstrap, these 21 best venison dinner ideas cover all sorts of delicious recipes the whole family will love.
Tips for Cooking with Venison
So something I hear quite often is that venison tastes "gamey." If you don't like the taste, I've found that marinating the meat makes a big difference.
Good marinades for venison dinner ideas include
- Worcestershire sauce
- Soya sauce
- balsamic vinegar
- red wine vinegar OR red wine
- apple cider vinegar
- Jack Daniels
For more venison marinade ideas, check out this post at Petersen's Hunting.
Substitute Ground Venison for Ground Beef
Here's another quick tip for cooking with venison. Simply substitute ground venison for ground beef in any of your own favorite recipes.
This can work especially well with any dishes that are slow-cooked. Or, in our case, cooked on our woodstove. Simmering in a flavorful sauce or marinade helps reduce the gamey flavor that some people don't like.
I've also found that grilled venison recipes, especially for venison steaks and venison backstrap, have a really nice flavor.
Wherever possible, try using cast iron cookware. Try a cast iron skillet, pot, or dutch oven. There's something about the cast iron that gives venison a really unique smoky flavor.
Related: Are Moose Dangerous? My Own Near-Death Experience
21 Best Venison Dinner Ideas
If you or anyone in your family is an avid hunter, you know the thrill of getting in your meat for the winter. However, when it comes to dinner ideas using something like venison, it helps to get creative. Otherwise, your diners could get heartily tired of eating this one kind of meat.
Use these ideas to create delicious and nutritious venison dinner ideas to last the season.
Northern Hearty Venison Stew Recipe
Here's my son Blake's favorite, fabulous, Northern Hearty Venison Stew Recipe. It uses juniper and sage and is one of our bestest recipes ever!
Easy Grilled Venison Backstrap
Garlic, soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar combine to create a tasty marinade for this grilled venison backstrap. Serve with green veg and pasta or noodles.
Barbacoa Style Shredded Venison
Are you a big fan of that lime and chili flavor? If so, you'll love this recipe for Barbacoa Shredded venison. Fill a burrito or top a brown rice bowl with this delicious, slow-cooked venison dinner recipe.
Venison Fajitas - Easy Wild Game Recipe
Lots of delicious bell peppers, onions, Mexican seasoning and strips of venison make this easy fajitas recipe another great venison dinner idea. Stir fry in a cast-iron skillet for an even better flavor, and serve these up with homemade tortillas.
Venison Burgers
This simple venison burger recipe is one for the family recipe file. Nothing exotic or unusual here - just some good old-fashioned yummy oven-baked burgers!
Venison Pot Stickers
Now here' s a really unique venison dinner idea! Shelby over at Grumpy's Honeybunch has created this Asian-style pot sticker recipe using venison in place of beef. Cabbage, seasonings, and a delicious sauce make this a must-try.
Ground Beef Jerky Recipe with Hamburger or Venison
If you're looking for a really basic venison jerky recipe, this is it. Adapts to beef, deer, elk or moose meat. Give it a try.
Venison Stew Recipe (pressure cooker or stove-top)
This tried-and-true venison stew recipe is a good choice if your family includes a few people who prefer old-fashioned comfort food. Carrots, potatoes, salt, pepper, and venison - make it in a pressure cooker or on your cooktop.
Venison Chili - Stovetop or Slow Cooker Recipe
If you're sticking to a Keto diet, give this low carb venison chili recipe a try. Bone broth, lots of veggies (including zucchini) and red wine vinegar give it a distinctive flavor.
Cast-Iron Venison Burger Recipe
Now I'm just loving this venison burger recipe. Firstly, because cooking burgers on a cast iron griddle always gives them a great flavor. But these ones use dried cherries and sage too. I'm going to try them with dried cranberries - and chili powder instead of the paprika and I'll report back!
Spicy 5-Alarm Venison Chili Recipe
Looking for a venison chili recipe but you're ready to kick it up a notch? This 5-alarm venison chili recipe from bowhunter.com is HOT. Proceed with caution - but it's a good choice if you want to heat up on a cold winter night!
Stuffed Venison Backstrap Recipe
Venison backstrap can be an absolute show-stopper for a special dinner. This recipe for stuffed venison backstrap includes bacon, cream cheese, onions, parsley, mushrooms and onions. Seriously. What could go wrong?
Ground Venison Tacos Recipe
At first, I wasn't sure about the idea of venison tacos...but these look so good. Pineapple and chipotle added to ground venison meat for a sweet and spicy venison dinner recipe.
Smoked Beef Jerky - A Simple Smoked Jerky Recipe
Looking for a good smoked venison jerky recipe? This is it. Pay attention to the ingredients in the marinade as that is what gives the wild game jerky its distinct flavor. A good prepper pantry item or something to add to your prepper gift list.
Hearty Venison Chili (Plus Instant Pot + Slow Cooker Version)
Ground venison, red and yellow bell peppers, onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers - this venison chili recipe is so good. Updated to include instapot and slow cooker directions too.
Grilled Elk Venison Steaks Recipe : A Guide on How To Grill Venison
Another venison steak recipe - this one is particularly good for elk meat. Button mushrooms, and a Jack Daniels marinade. Delicious!
Grilled Venison Steak Recipe {Juicy & Delicious}
We grill all year round here, even when it's -40F below. And there's nothing quite like grilled venison steak. Sometimes we create a marinade (a simple one with garlic and Worcestershire Sauce.) When I saw this recipe though, with rosemary and chili flakes, I had to include it in my "to-try" list!
Easy Slow Cooker Venison Stew Recipe
Our family LOVES stew. And while we prefer to use our large cast-iron dutch oven on our wood stove to simmer our favorite recipes, this slow cooker venison stew recipe sounded so good I have to include it. I think it would be an easy recipe to alter. Either for an instapot venison stew recipe or a dutch oven version.
Juicy Oven-Baked Venison Burgers Recipe
Want a mouth-watering burger that's low fat? Grab this oven-baked venison burger recipe from babaganosh right now!
Venison Snack Sticks {Hickory Smoked}
These hickory-smoked venison snack sticks are a tasty alternative to ground venison sausage. Salt, pepper, onion flakes, and dry mustard add flavor. Combine and grill them up on the barbecue!
Shortcut Michigan Venison Pasties
If you're looking for a great freezer meal to use up your ground venison, these venison pasties are perfect. Add your favorite veggies and homemade pastry (or storebought) and you'll have a handheld pie ready for backcountry camping trips or busy weeknight meals.
More Wild Game Recipes
Looking beyond venison dinner ideas for other wild game recipes? We've got you covered. Here are some of our most popular.
Like this post? Save it for later!
I will save the link so I can go through the recipes when I get a chance. One thing I learned from my husband when I was a young bride (we have been married 50 years this year) to get the gamey taste of the Game meat place meat in a mixture of water and vinegar and let stand overnight if it is a large piece or for about 5-6 hours for something like a steak. The meat always come out so tender and sweet.