Recipe Venison Stew

This scratch-made venison stew recipe is easy to make and the deer meat is fall-apart tender. It’s packed with veggies and simple ingredients.

If you missed it, my husband and I welcomed our baby girl, Madi Jo, in July 2020. While my pregnancy was full of many blessings, I also experienced some pretty serious food aversions in my first trimester. The biggest one really being meat, which was weird for me! Once my aversions calmed down, I finally made this venison stew. I tried it, and it is still my favorite meal I ate while pregnant. That and this venison chili. Go figure!

It was really odd in the beginning to be totally turned off by the sight, smell and even taste of venison since we eat some much of it in our home.

Ground Venison Recipe: Easy Venison Stew

(PSA: My cookbook Venison Every Day is now available for purchase!) When I was finally ready to try my hand at eating red meat again, I knew this would be the perfect dish.

The meat gets fall-apart tender and the stew is PACKED with nourishing veggies and a rich and flavorful broth. The recipe is identical to the insanely popular recipe I wrote a few years ago for Instant Pot Venison Stew. It’s just adapted for making on the stovetop, which sometimes I prefer. There’s something about stew simmering on the stove, you know? But, if you’re an Instant Pot lover and you’re short on time, make sure you check out that method, too.

Sinew is the silvery connective tissue that you see running through your venison. When it isn’t removed, it causes venison to curl up like a rubber band and get really tough.

Best Venison Stew Recipe

I love stew because you can cut venison into small, bite-sized pieces and remove the sinew as you go. This helps each bite of venison to be ultra-tender.

After you cut the venison into bite-sized pieces and remove the sinew, you’re going to want to sear it in a pan to add flavor. I also happen to think that searing the meat first and then cooking it low and slow helps to tenderize things.

Once you sear the venison, it gets removed from the pot until all of the veggies have been sauteed and the liquid has been added. When that happens, you add the seared venison back to the pan and it braises (cooks low and slow in liquid) in the broth with the veggies.

Venison And Chestnut Casserole Recipe

I promise you this results in the most tender stew you’ve ever had in your life. Now, the longer you can let this simmer the better. I like at least an hour, but two hours is better.

Seriously, if you love this recipe, go order my book for over 50 more like it. Or grab my FREE cooking tips & tricks.

This scratch-made venison stew recipe is easy to make and the deer meat is fall-apart tender. It’s packed with veggies and simple ingredients. Gluten free, dairy free, paleo, Whole30 friendly. Cozy up to a bowl of Venison Stew, made with lean protein, red wine, and lots of winter vegetables. If you’re lucky enough to have venison on hand, add this recipe to your menu immediately.

The Best Venison Stew

This Venison Stew recipe is rich, hearty, and the perfect way to enjoy venison. Whether you hunted recently or have a freezer full of it, it’s great to build up a repertoire of recipe favorites that you can turn to.

I grew up in a family of hunters, so most of the meat of my childhood was venison. I enjoy the gamey taste, but I know not everyone does. I’ve included my tips below for reducing that wild flavor (a soak in a milk bath!), while the recipe itself showcases plenty of strong flavors like lots of fresh vegetables, garlic, and red wine.

Whether venison is an old favorite or a new flavor, this stew recipe is a great way to showcase, and enjoy, your venison.

Italian Venison Stew With Polenta

To reduce the gamey taste of venison, soak it in milk in your refrigerator for about 2 days. This tenderizes the meat, too.

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Serving: 1.5 cups Calories: 193 kcal Carbohydrates: 27 g Protein: 4 g Fat: 6 g Saturated Fat: 1 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g Monounsaturated Fat: 4 g Cholesterol: 1 mg Sodium: 263 mg Potassium: 584 mg Fiber: 5 g Sugar: 5 g Vitamin A: 5304 IU Vitamin C: 30 mg Calcium: 39 mg Iron: 1 mg

Venison Stew (a Southern Recipe)

Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.Venison stew is the ultimate cold weather comfort food that is both full of flavor and easy to make! Venison, potatoes and carrots are slow cooked in a rich red wine sauce until the venison is fork tender and the vegetables are perfectly cooked.

Venison stew is one of my favorite ways to enjoy venison! The venison is literally fall apart tender with zero gamey flavor, the potatoes and carrots are cooked perfectly, and the sauce is incredibly flavorful!

A mix of red wine, beef broth and simple seasonings come together to create the perfect, thick sauce to accompany the venison and vegetables, resulting in a hearty, flavorful stew!

Venison And Guinness Stew

If you love cooking with venison, then you also have to try my venison chili, marinated backstrap, venison roast and venison burgers!

What's also great about this creamy venison stew recipe is that it only requires about 20 minutes of hands-on cooking time, then it gets transferred to the oven to slow cook for a few hours. Your house will smell amazing and your stomachs will be full!

Although slow cooking in the oven is my favorite way to make stew, I also provided directions for the stovetop, slow cooker and instant pot. Use whatever method works best for you!

Crockpot Venison Stew

Venison stew is made of small chunks of venison roast and root vegetables, such as onion, carrots and potatoes, that are slow cooked in a red wine and broth sauce that is similar in consistency to gravy. Venison stew is similar to soup, but thicker, creamier and more hearty.

Traditionally venison stew is made with beef roast, but I love to make it with venison, as well! If you don't have access to venison, you can certainly turn this recipe into beef stew instead! Just simply swap the venison for beef chuck roast.

Making venison stew is actually super easy, yet full of flavor! My favorite way to cook stew is by starting on the stove and finishing in the oven. Sear the venison and make the sauce all in a dutch oven, then cover the pot and transfer to slow cook.

Hearty Venison Stew

Making venison stew in the slow cooker is very similar to the process of cooking venison on the stove or in the oven.

What's great about the Instant pot is the sauté function - this way you can sear the venison right in the instant pot, and you don't have to dirty an extra pot!

There are a few cuts of deer meat that work well for stew! Since stew cooks low and slow, pretty much any cut of meat will tenderize nicely.

The Best Venison Stew Recipe

Deer are wild, grass-fed animals, resulting in deer meat that is often higher in protein and lower in fat compared to beef.

Even if you don't like the gamey taste of venison, you will still love this stew! Slow cooking venison roast in a mix of red wine and beef broth pulls the gamey taste of the venison, all while absorbing all the delicious flavors of the sauce.

Slowly cooking venison in broth over low heat for an extended period of time breaks down the connective tissues, while keeping the venison moist. This results in delicious fork tender venison.

Venison Stew On The Campfire

Venison stew can be stored in an air-tight container in frozen up to 3 months. To serve, defrost the stew in the fridge overnight. Reheat on the stove over medium heat, stirring frequently, until heated through.

Whether you're reheating a single serving or multiple servings, I recommend reheating the stew in a pot on the stove over medium heat, stirring frequently, until heated through.

I think meat tastes better when reheated on the stove or in the oven versus the microwave. But, that's not to say that I haven't reheated stew in the microwave when I'm in a hurry. So, it can also be done that way.

Dutch Oven Venison Stew Recipe

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