This Smoked Venison Tenderloin is marinated in a fresh, citrus marinade before spending time in the smoker. It’s tender, flavorful, smokey and juicy and totally easy to do.
We all know that tenderloin is like thaaa best cut of any meat. It’s right up there with backstrap/loin on a deer. It’s totally cherished in our household, and you don’t get much of it, so this year I decided I wanted to smoke some of ours this year for something really special. My husband J was blessed enough to harvest an Ohio buck this year, so the recipes have been coming at your guys like crazy! For more of my favorites, go buy my cookbook!
Yes, you heard that right, I wrote a cookbook, and it’s actually called Venison Every Day because I dedicated the entire book to making easy, simple ingredients for home cooks (like me) to make every day, all year round.
If you’re sick of the same old recipes, the unhealthy and dated stuff you find on Pinterest, or you feel like you don’t like venison…you need this book. It’s everything I wish I had 5 years ago!
The marinade here is what makes this so good, it’s a lot like my All-Purpose Marinade. It’s really citrus-forward, which is great for venison because it’s such a rich, gamey meat. I like to let this marinate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. The longer you leave it, obviously, the more flavorful it will be.
Adding plenty of acid to my venison marinades is one of the best tips I can give! Seriously, it will change the way you cook. If you want more cooking tips, check out this post.
What kind of smoker can you use
I use a wood pellet smoker by Traeger Grills and I LOVE it! They were kind enough to send me a grill this fall and we’ve been having so much fun playing around with it. I recently made this Smoked Venison Brisket with a spicy rub and it’s also amazing to make on the Traeger. 
Love smoked venison? Check out my Venison Brisket with Spicy Coffee Rub!
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Smoked Venison Tenderloin
This Smoked Venison Tenderloin is marinated in a fresh, citrus marinade before spending time in the smoker. It’s tender, flavorful, smokey and juicy and totally easy to do. I make this in my Traeger Wood Pellet Smoker, but you could do this in any smoker.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes + 4 hours- overnight
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 53 minute
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb. venison tenderloin or backstrap
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground black pepper, plus more for serving
Instructions
- Put the venison tenderloin, whole, into a zip-style bag or large bowl.
- Add the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper into a blender or small food processor. Process until it’s all incorporated and the garlic is broken to small pieces.
- Pour the marinade over the venison and massage it in. Refrigerate and marinate for at least 4 hours, or up to overnight.
- When you’re ready to cook, remove the venison from the marinade, and rinse it off. Pat dry and let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking while you preheat the smoker.
- Set and preheat your smoker to about 225 F degrees.
- Smoke the tenderloin for 1+1/2-2 hours, depending on the thickness of your meat. The internal temperature should be at 130 F for rare, and 140 F for medium rare. Don’t cook it to medium, you want it nice and juicy!
- Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing and topping with extra cracked black pepper.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 oz.
- Calories: 300
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 646 mg
- Fat: 17 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 11 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 33 g
- Cholesterol: 75 mg
This recipe was originally published in 2018 and updated in 2022.
Great recipe, thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Judith!
Thank you for sharing. Great recipe!
★★★★★
Absolutely! Hope you enjoy!
I don’t have olive oil, can I use normal oil?
★★★★★
Hi there! I highly recommend olive oil for flavor and this recipe has only been tested with olive oil. I’m not sure what oil you’re referencing to, but avocado oil would work well from a cooking standpoint, but the flavor will be different. Thanks for checking the recipe out!
Yes you can…use canola oil
Would this marinade for a venison roast about 2 lb? All other recipes for a roast said to brine it
Hi Jacob! This would make enough for 2 lbs of venison. The marinade does have salt in it, which will help break down the tissue like a brine would and it adds additional flavor. Thanks for stopping by!
Great recipe! I just finished it today, the taste is great. Thanks for your recipe
★★★★★
SO glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment!
This recipe produced one of the best smoked venison tenderloin I’ve had in memory. So quickly and still be tender and tasty! Thank You
I am SO glad, Clara. This made my day!
Thank you, Miss Allie.
This is a very simple recipe, I am in the process of doing 5¼lbs of moose tenderloins, I doubled the ingredients and vacuum sealed the loins, my mouth is already watering and can’t wait for dinner. We are going to cook this on our Cabela’s Pro Series 24″ pellet smoker/grill and using Bourbon BBQ Brown Sugar wood pellets. Bon appetit…..
★★★★★
That’s wonderful! I hope you enjoy!
Sorry I can only give 5 stars absolutely mouth watering!!!!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed!
I pulled out a bag of venison hind-quarter by mistake. Wanted my venison burger for chili, but anyway. Got is soaking in your marinade for the afternoon. I will be following your tips and then putting it on my Traeger later today. I had already cut the meat into smaller pieces so I’m going to smoke it at a lower temp then bring it up a bit to finish it off. I’ll let you know how it turns out! Thanks
Looking forward to hearing how it came out!
Hi, what favor smoke would go with this recipe.
I love Adler, Cherry, Maple, Pecan or some brands (like Traeger) have a wild game blend.
This meat dish looks delicious, the most important step is to find enough spices and marinate meat properly, otherwise the meat will not be able to be perfect.
I will make my family a party this weekend.
thank you
★★★★★
Excited for you to try it, Peter!
Could you wrap this in bacon also?
I have not tried this but you certainly could. Would love to hear how this goes for you!
Do you place directly on smoker or wrap in tinfoil
Directly on the smoker.
What flavor pellets did you use for this?
I have used Cherry, Big Game Blend from Traeger, and Adler.
It’s look delicious. Are you using any grill or smoker? I want some recommendation to buy the best electric smoker.
We love our Traeger pro 575!
Surprised my husband by smoking this in our pellet grill. Served with sweet potatoes and salad – It was DELICIOUS. Very simple and something we’ll keep coming back to. Thank you!
★★★★★
Great! I am hungry after reading your blog. Everything is looking very tasty. Your topics are very helpful for this community. Thank you so much for sharing a good article with us.
thank you!
Which is the best product among those listed in this site?
Thank you so much for such amazing recipe. I tried it in this weekend.
Just followed your recipe and it came out really good. Only thing I would change for next time is take the temp to 150-155, 140 was a little too raw for some of the people.
Also I did not wash it off just patted it, what does the washing off provide after you take it out of the marinade?
Glad you enjoyed it! And it is a very powerful marinade so this helps tone down the lemon flavor. We don’t actually recommend cooking venison tenderloin above 140F but glad you were able to adjust it
made this yesterday Brined for 8 hrs .
smoked at 180 for an hr then up to 250 for approx 20 minutes to get 138 internal temp
young buck shot last week. and ice water aged for 5 days
It was delicious. Wife is not a huge deer meat fan but just raved over it
Love it Love it Love it! This looks like such a pretty and yummy dish! I’m totally into grilling this year, so this might just make my list! I would love to make these sometime. Thanks for sharing.
After grilling this recipe it is very good in taste and taste is all over the mouth. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
thanks for giving it a try!
Thanks Allie for sharing that! This is very clear and easy to read and apply! Mouth-watering pics! Keep up thee good work!
Thanks so much!!
Didn’t have lemon juice, I substituted apple juice, I have 3 packs of backstrap and been marinating overnight…I have a traeger pellet grill. About to fire it up with Whisky Tennessee pellets
Oh, I haven’t tried those pellets! Excited to see how it turns out!
After seeing the fantastic flavor imparted on venison by a DIY smokehouse, it only made sense to devise a recipe using smoked tenderloin. A smokehouse is something I’ve never tried, but have been wanting to since I started processing my own wild game. This recipe for Smoked Venison Tenderloin combines the full-bodied taste of the wild game with the flavors and textures of dry brining and smoking.
★★★★★
This was just the best thing ever. I had a 14 ounce tenderloin that I marinated for 4 hours. My husband smoked it using hickory chunks on his horizontal smoker, took right at one hour to reach 130. The result was a delicious, not gamey or strong tasting, tender piece of meat. It was inhaled so fast by everyone. I am new to cooking with venison and have now tried two of your recipes with great results plus they were so easy. I ordered your cookbook yesterday and am excited to try some of your other recipes as there is still quite a bit of venison left in my freezer.
★★★★★