Bacon-Wrapped Grilled Elk Backstrap

  4.8 – 31 reviews  • Elk

With mashed potatoes, corn or green beans, and a salad, you may serve this beautiful lemon chicken. When paired with a salad, the tart sauce is excellent.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 25 mins
Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. 2 pounds elk loin (backstrap), cut into 2 ounce pieces
  2. 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
  3. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  4. ½ teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
  5. ½ teaspoon onion powder, or to taste
  6. ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
  7. 16 slices thick cut bacon

Instructions

  1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat.
  2. Season backstrap pieces with liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Wrap each piece of meat with a strip of bacon, and place on a metal skewer.
  3. Cook the elk on the preheated grill until the bacon becomes slightly burnt, and the meat has cooked to medium-rare, 15 to 20 minutes.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 443 kcal
Carbohydrate 2 g
Cholesterol 144 mg
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Protein 57 g
Saturated Fat 7 g
Sodium 982 mg
Sugars 1 g
Fat 22 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

James Berry
The recipe was good, end result tasted good. I would recommend adding some small hint of sweetness or spicy.
Melissa Krause
Replaced the liquid smoke with Dale’s Saice Added Sage and put Pieces of yellow bell pepper on the skewers between the meat, I added more Worcestershire sauce as I grilled them on the Blackstone griddle. Absolutely delicious! Even my wife who sometimes doesn’t like Wild Game (I keep the freezer full of deer and elk) loved it. Next time I’ll add small tomatoes
George Torres
I used this recipe with fresh elk tenderloin and it was amazing. I’ve been eating elk meat for about 20 years and this is by far the best I’ve ever had elk meat. I used thin cut bacon and wrapped 2 pieces around each piece, weaving them around each other. After done grilling (I did 3-4 minutes per side for 4 different sides) I pulled the toothpicks out to make them easier to eat.
Jerome Drake
I used red wine but no coffee. A little game flavor but very good. I’ll try coffee next time.
Jeremy Massey
I only had worchestire sauce and black pepper available and used toothpicks as I had no skewers. First time cooking or eating elk and it was delicious
Michael Barry
Slight variation. I used Dales seasoning and marinated it. Was still a big hit
Dennis Hamilton
This was so tasty! It is 30 degrees, and blowing and snowing though, so I fried them in an electric skillet. Still very, very good!
John Mckinney
Good recipe when taking advice from other reviewers: marinate the meat in coffee first and Cook the bacon a little in the microwave before wrapping to ensure it gets cooked enough on the grill.
Paul Rice
Delicious, crispy on outside, tender inside! I marinated a couple hours in coffee, Worcestershire, and smoked paprika. I wrapped the elk in bacon and put them on skewers with onion, green pepper and cherry tomatoes and then grilled them about 4-5 mins. each side. Served with wild rice.
Sandra Weaver
We used this recipe for Deer meat ( Venison), it was excellent. I have used mesquite flavored liquid smoke for a different twist, both are great. Highly recommend.
Randy Spencer
This is a nice simple marinade that makes elk easy to make. I’ve never had luck wrapping meat in bacon without first par cooking (a few minutes in microwave), though. And I use thin-cut bacon which gets crispier in bbq. We prefer our elk more rare, so I cut the cooking time. Otherwise good, easy recipe!
Jason Perkins
Great! I made this recipe with some elk that a friend gave my husband. So easy and delicious.
Andrea Lawrence
Very Good and easy I want more!!!!!
Jessica Lamb
I am so grateful to have found this recipe: it’s great for everyone from beginners to experts. My co-chef and I used venison. We let the meat marinate in cold coffee overnight (thanks for the tip!). Even though I only quickly marinated the backstrap in the Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke mixture for a few minutes before grilling it, it still absorbed an amazing amount of flavor. No gamey taste whatsoever. I suggest wrapping the bacon around the seasoned meat before skewering the whole piece so that there’s no chance of the bacon falling off during grilling. Next time I will adhere to the original recipe completely. We incorporated a spice rub into the seasoning that contained salt because we had it on hand, and it was too much; you don’t need any more salt than what is called for (the bacon + sauce combo is enough). Timing them is tricky because some pieces will cook faster than others. We would not recommend doing the full 5 minutes per side because the morsels ended up being a little too crispy, maybe just 5 minutes for the first side and 2-3 after they’re turned, but they were still delicious. Despite the slight errors above, and the fact that this was only the second time I made a dish with venison, you would never know it! Here are some reactions I got from my boyfriend/co-chef (the hunter), his housemate (also a hunter), and two never-had-venison-before girlfriends: “WOW- tastes just like good steak.” “No gamey taste!” “Not tough or chewy at all.”
Lucas Wright
Changed liquid smoke to low sodium soy and used venison. Awesome!
Joshua Duncan
WOW! I doubled the marinade, used Montreal Steak seasoning in place of just pepper, and put an onion on top of each piece of bacon wrapped venison–used a toothpick to keep it all together! By far, the best grilled venison I have ever tasted!
Lori Parker
This recipe was really good! It had delicious flavor and was fairly easy to prepare. My only complaint with it is that you have to be pretty good about cutting every piece of meat the same size. Our pieces were all similar in size but not exactly the same and the smaller pieces ended up being too tough because we had to cook it long enough for the bacon to fully cook. I’ll try it again but next time I’ll try to be very careful about making everything the same size.
Alison Smith
Ridiculously good! I am a bit squeamish about eating game like elk and venison, and I have to say I was shocked at how good this was. I did add coffee and marinaded the meat for a few hours before grilling. It was fantastic! I won’t afraid of cooking and eating elk any more.
Amy Jensen
I have done these cut as medallions also and if you can’t use a grill you can pan sear them for 3-4 minutes (depending on preferred how done you like them) a side and finish them right in the same pan in a 450 oven for 4 more minutes. I like to make them even a little more gourmet by topping them with bleu cheese crumbles while finishing in the oven…nice recipe enjoy!
Patricia Booker
We made this with venison backstrap and it was delicious! I took the advice of other reviewers and marinated the medallions in coffee for a few hours which I’ve never tried before. I skipped the liquid smoke and onion powder since I didn’t have either on hand. We used an indoor grill and had a little trouble getting the bacon to cook through while still keeping the meat medium-rare, but overall, a fantastic recipe with wonderful flavor!
Kevin Ortiz
Excellent! Incredibly easy recipe, and every ingredient complements each other. I made this for my Dad with his elk and we used the tenderloin and followed the directions exactly. The only thing we did differently is cook on medium high for less time and it all came out medium to medium well. In hindsight, for a good medium rare I would cook on medium for about five minutes or less each side, just until the bacon is nice and crispy. We both loved it and will make this again and again!

 

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