Try the elegant and flavorful supper I made to impress my hunter. This goes well with spaetzle, merlot, and salad, in my opinion.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
- 1 ½ pounds venison, cut into 2 inch cubes
- 2 cups fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons cognac or brandy (Optional)
- 2 cups dry red wine
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 ¼ teaspoons dried rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 (8 ounce) package baby carrots (Optional)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (Optional)
- 2 tablespoons water (Optional)
Instructions
- Melt the bacon drippings in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the venison in two batches until nicely browned and remove. Stir in the shiitake, onions, and garlic; cook until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in the cognac, wine, and bouillon cube, simmer for 30 seconds to remove the alcohol flavor and dissolve the bouillon.
- Stir in the venison, pepper, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer gently until the venison is tender, about two hours or more; adding water as needed.
- If using baby carrots, add them during the last half hour of cooking. When the venison is tender, you may wish to thicken the sauce by dissolving the cornstarch in 2 tablespoons of water and stirring it into the sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 412 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 20 g |
| Cholesterol | 145 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 42 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 371 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very easy and tasty, next time I will use normally brown mushrooms though.
I received a leg roast, i.e. tough pice of muscle. This recipe did the trick. The only thing I did different was to do the braising in the oven , not on the stovetop, at 250-F, for 3.5 hours. I cook a lot using enameled cast iron Dutch/French “ovens” for slow cooking, and the set-the-temperature-and-forget it oven-braising method reduces bottom burning and cleanup effort, compared to stovetop braising, in my experience.
Very Decent. But it lacked any sort of distinguishing characteristic to set it apart from any other ‘beef stew’ circo 1975. It’s missing something.
This was a great recipe. A friend gave me 1.5 pounds of venison backstrap. I’d never cooked venison before, but others told me that backstrap is the best cut there is. Still, I was leery about how this would cook up – would it be greasy, or tough, or taste really gamey? I made this exactly as written, adding the optional cognac and baby carrots. The red wine I used was a Beaujolais, and I did thicken the sauce with the optional cornstarch and water. I served the results over egg noodles, and it lasted me for three fairly big dinners. It tasted great. The meat was a tad dry, but maybe that’s the nature of venison; not a complaint at all, just noting that. The texture was very nice – I can see why someone I read online compared backstrap to filet mignon. I hardly know French cooking, but this just looked like something from that cuisine. If I’m ever lucky enough to get more venison, I’ll make this recipe again for sure.
If you choose to slow cook, cook down the liquids 70% after removing vegetables and venison. The results were wonderful.
This was the best venison recipe i’ve used yet. great flavor
My entire family enjoyed this! I even enjoyed putting this together after lunch, and it was ready by 6pm. I first cooked some bacon in a cast iron skillet to get some of the drippings, then later chopped up 3 slices to add to the mix. Once I browned the vension I added that to my slowcooker. Poured off the skillet before sauting the onion, mushrooms & garlic. I put the entire 16 oz. of baby carrots in the cooker while I brought the wine a cognac to a simmer. I added everyting to the slow cooker and cooked on low for 4 hours. Turned out great! I did not use the cornstarch, as we like a more broth-like stew, so we can sop it up with bread!
Superb! This is a fantastic venison recipe. Our meat came out so tender. I thought of using our slow cooker, but wanted to try the recipe as stated. I think for other reviewers who said their meat came out dry, using the wrong cut of meat could have been to blame, maybe? The only change I made was using 2 beef bouillon cubes instead of one because I felt it needed a little salt…don’t ask me why, I don’t like salty, but it needed a little more. I also thickened my sauce at the end. My kids and hubby all loved it. They thought it was beef instead of venison. This will be a staple venison recipe in our house. Thanks, Ruth, for creating and sharing!
My husband is from Germany, so he is all about sauces. He also does not like “Wild.” I made this dish, when I was lucky enough to get some venison from my step-son-in-law. My husband raved…”Now, this is a German meal!” I have made this dish with pork. I have added Chanterelles and Morels. This recipe is a keeper. The more woodsy you can make it only enhances the flavors. Ruth Ward, bless her, came up with a real winner! I make home made spaetzle with this and I cook down 3 big onions in Ganse Schmaltz. They are the garnish for the spaetzle. I also buy a jar of Lingonberry preserves to set on the plate, for a touch of sweet and sour. A really great meal!
This is a fantastic recipe for venison! I made this exactley as written with excellent results. I am thinking it would be wonderful with any type of red meat. My only caution would be to those who do not care for rosemary. It can easily be omitted and I am sure it would still taste great! I see a review that said they did not like the vinegar taste. I don’t see that there is any vinegar in the recipe.
I’m not a huge fan of venison but the hubby is. This recipe made me a believer! One of the best I’ve tried. I served it with homemade spaetzle and it delightful.Will defintely make this again.
This was the first venison recipe I’ve tried that really did come out tender! I enjoyed the leftovers as much as I enjoyed it the first night.
Awesome recipe!!! I had to use butter in stead of bacon drippings as my wife doesn’t eat pork, but it was still excellent! The meat was very tender and the venison tasted distinct without being gamey. Thanks a lot, i will be making again!
Not sure what happened, the meat came out tough, dry, and tasting of vinegar. 0_o Probably my issue and not one with the recipe though, I’m still learning how to cook.
quite good…i used beef cubes instead of venison..i floured and browned meat cubes after frying the bacon and then added rest of the ingredients
I thought this was pretty good. I followed the recipe until I realized I only had one teaspoon of fresh rosemary on hand. Oops! Maybe that is why mine was a little less flavorful than I had expected. I ended up adding the bacon I used to come up with the grease (about 4 strips). It was still very good. The meat was very tender. Everyone else really seemed to like it. I would make it again with the full amount of herbs.
I made it with beef steak instead of venison, and used Merlot for wine, but all the same, it turned out soooo good! Excellent dish, nice sophisticated flavor, great for a romantic dinner!
Excellent recipe! I cooked this exactly as described and my whole family enjoyed this (I have and 11, 7 and 3 year old). Thanks for the great recipe!
This was fantastic! The only reasons I did not give it five stars were that I thought 2 cups of wine was too much and the cooking time was not sufficient. Next time I will use the slow cooker after browning the meat and sauteeing the onions, garlic and mushrooms. It also took longer than 30 minutes to fully cook the carrots, I would put them in the last 45 minutes to an hour of cooking. I will definitely make this again. We like venison and I’m always looking for different ways to make it since we have a freezer full after hunting season! This one definitely made the cut.
Wow – the venison was so tender and the rich full flavor of the sauce complimented the white rice bed I laid it on nicely. The venison iyou sometimes get with these type of dishes.
Tried this with bison (buffalo) instead of venison. Fantastic. Any game meat would do and I’m going to try it with fowl