It’s easy to cook a venison steak so that it’s juicy, you just need to follow a few rules. A good marinade, a hot grill or pan and not overcooking is key.
I remember the first time I had venison steak. Jared and I had just started dating and I invited him on a camping trip with my friends and I.
To be honest, the venison steak was probably the highlight of the trip seeing that I got the campground directions wrong, a raccoon ran off with our bananas when we arrived after midnight due to my directional challenges, and it poured rain our second day there. I’m sometimes not sure why J stuck around…
Anyway, after the rain cleared Jared took a venison steak he defrosted out of the cooler and cooked it up over the open fire. Up until that point, I had only had deer jerky a time of two, and I was really excited to try venison.
We’re still not sure exactly what he did to that steak, but it was absolutely PHENOMENAL. I think our entire group salivated over the perfectly medium rare cut of meat and it was gone in a flash.
When J and I moved in together some time later and he harvested another buck, I was excited to make some steak! I’ll never forget unwrapping defrosted venison directly out of butcher paper and putting it right on the grill pan in our apartment. I overcooked and probably underseasoned the meat…needless to say it was probably a pizza night, for sure.
The meat I cooked was dry, tough, and way too gamey. So, why was the deer steak he cooked on that trip so much better than what I made?
Fast forward about 6 years and I’m sitting here releasing my very first cookbook that’s all about cooking venison. I’ve come a long way over the past few years and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned.
Venison isn’t like beef. You can’t overcook and under-season it and expect it to still be OK. That really alters the flavor, as well as the texture.
Cooking really good venison steaks isn’t really hard, you just need to keep a few things in mind:
- marinate the meat
- don’t overcook it
- rest before serving
Those 3 steps seem really simple, but they make a world of difference.
Marinate your venison steak
It’s important to choose an acidic marinade with plenty of bright flavors from vinegar or citrus. My all-purpose marinade has plenty of red wine vinegar, lemon, and salt.
These 3 ingredients not only work with the “gamey” flavor and tone it down, but they also tenderize the meat and help break down some of the tissue so that it’s buttery soft after you cook it.
With venison steaks, I marinate for at least 3 hours, but up to overnight. I know that seems long, but it works great for me!
Don’t overcook it
Venison steak should be cooked to medium-rare or even rare plus if you like a rare steak. I pull my steaks from the grill or pan as soon as they reach 125-130F – I prefer 125F. They still cook a bit after you remove them and I always use a digital read thermometer to make sure I’m really precise.
You honestly can’t overlook this step. I’m all about making things easy on you and laid back recipes, but if you overcook your meat…you’re going to be sorry. This is a HARD and fast rule in my book.
Rest before serving
Also…don’t cut into your meat right after it comes off the heat. As much as it does look amazing, allow it to rest so the juices have a chance to creep back into the meat for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Get together your side dishes, set the table, etc. Just give that meat time to rest!
Make sure you put my Juicy Venison Burgers on your next grill night menu!
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Venison Steak
- Prep Time: 10 minutes + 4+ hour marinade
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 24 minutes + 3+ hour marinade
- Yield: about 4 servings 1x
Description
It’s easy to cook a venison steak so that it’s juicy, you just need to follow a few rules. A good marinade, a hot grill or pan and not overcooking is key.
Ingredients
- about 1 and 1/2 lbs of venison steaks, at least 1 inch thick – here I’m using 4, 6oz. venison tenderloin medallions, you could also use medallions from the backstrap/loin (sometimes called chops)
- 1 batch All-Purpose Venison Marinade or acidic marinade of choice (you’ll need about 1/2 cup marinade)
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Add your venison steaks to a zip-top bag or a bowl with a lid. Again, this recipe works best with a steaks that are at least an inch thick, but you can use this method for a flank steak or a thinner cut, just alter the cooking time.
- Pour your marinade all over the steaks and make sure everything is coated. Marinate for at least 3 hours, but up to overnight for really tender/flavorful steaks. If you aren’t fond of the natural taste of venison, opt for a longer marinade time, the acid will develop the flavor so that it’s more pleasing to you.
- When you’re ready to cook, remove the steaks from the marinade and let them come to room temperature for 20-30 minutes before you cook (this is safe to do, it ensures even cooking).
- Pat the steaks dry, wiping off some of the marinade, but DO NOT rinse them off. If you used my marinade recipe, there’s no need to add more oil for the grill. I like to pierce my steaks with a fork all over to further tenderize them (see the photo in the post), but this is optional.
- If you’re using a grill to cook, preheat it to medium-high, about 450-500F. If you’re cooking in a pan, preheat a well seasoned cast iron pan over medium-high heat until it’s very very hot.
- Place the steaks on the grill or in the pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes per side (this will depend on steak thickness), but keep an eye on the internal temperature. You want to pull the steaks at 125-130F for a medium-rare steak, it’s very important not to overcook venison.
- Once the steaks are cooked, remove them from the heat source at once and let them rest for at least 10 minutes before serving or slicing.
- Season with a bit more salt and pepper if desired. Enjoy!
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Grill/Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6oz. serving w/ marinade
- Calories: 288
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 1247 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 1 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 51 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: venison, steak, deer, wild game, grill
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I was never a great cook. So I came here to this site to get some tips to work with my electric salt pepper shaker. Life is always easy with smart gadgets to add in the cooking world. WQhat do you think ?
Uh, kinda unhelpful by leaving out your marinade recipe ingredients and proportions. That makes this a guide…and not a recipe.
Mark – you’ll see that this is a “how to” post, so it is more of a guide. You can also click on my marinade recipe (which takes less time than leaving a rude comment!) or use a family favorite!
Except that you didn’t provide the link anywhere on this page (I’ve looked 4 times). That told me as a reader you weren’t planning to give it to us. It’s also why you probably don’t have more positive comments on the guide – because you don’t make it obvious for where the reader should get the recipe. Obvious => easy => higher likelihood of trying => positive results => more positive comments. I’m sure you’re a nice person, but this is a growth opportunity for you as a blogger and designer: don’t make things difficult for your reader, you have to make it as easy as possible. I found this page on Google because I was searching for a recipe, not a how-to guide, so not seeing any link to the recipe was frustrating and it wasted my time. I’ve since found it, but hopefully you understand now how we got here. Good luck.
Hi Mark – the recipe is actually linked twice in the post. Once in the card and once in the body text. While I certainly don’t appreciate the degrading comments and the assumptions you have made about myself and my business, I’m disappointed to hear that you had such a hard time locating the link and will make some changes to make this post more user friendly. Contrary to your assumptions, my readers are the driving force behind our small business. They’re why I continue to publish free content, answer questions, provide resources, reply to comments, messages and emails at all hours of the day – I absolutely adore them. I usually let negative comments go, but the reason “we got here” is because you decided it was OK to rip apart someone’s professional work (that actually has helped others) without having any context. MAK has continued to fight to survive this year like many small businesses and projects like expensive redesign have been put on the back burner so that we can provide for our team members. How would you feel if a stranger walked into your place of work and criticized you without knowing anything about you or the evolution of your business? This is not some kind of scheme. It’s a privilege for me to create this type of content and I don’t take that lightly. This is a simple how-to post that was published to help people create special meals and moments with loved ones. Unfortunately, your negativity will affect my business and if it will be impactful for others going forward. Before you leave your next negative comment online, I would challenge you to think about what you could be wrongfully assuming.
My daughter (9) and I both shot big bucks over the holidays. I’ve been looking for a great way to cook the butterfly steaks. Thanks for taking the time to try and help.
★★★★★
Wow! Thank you so much for this guide!
This is our first year hunting and my son got an 8 point buck. I had no idea how to prepare it.
I’m glad you posted this. The marinade is awesome. So tasty and your tips were great.
I didn’t know what Italian seasoning is so I used parsley instead in the marinade and it was awesome.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’m so so glad it was helpful, Sandra! Congrats to you both!
Always like to find new ways for preparing venison. We enjoyed the guide and the marinade recipe. The citrus was a nice change from our normal soy sauce base. The leftover even paired well with eggs for breakfast.
★★★★★
AH!! Breakfast leftover is my favorite. Glad you enjoyed it!
This was lovely, was a hit, Great marinade, subbed lime juice as I had no lemons. Happy from Switzerland 🇨🇭
★★★★★
I’m so glad you liked it!!
I have more of a question than a comment. I find that if I let my steaks rest it’s usually cold when we eat. I like my steak hot. Is there something I can do that will keep it hot but not over cook?
My steaks are usually still warm when I eat if they rest for 10 minutes! Unfortunately, keeping them in a heat source will overcook them.