Venison Jerky Recipes (Deer)

Two great venison jerky recipes right here and you've picked the perfect meat for making jerky! It's tasty in its own right and a superb ingredient to add flavor to any stew.

Venison (or deer) is ideal for jerky because it is so lean. When you cook with venison in the smoker or on the grill you need to add pork fat to keep things moist but this is the one time when you're looking for the leanest meat that you can find and venison does the job nicely.

There are two parts to the process that vary in any jerky recipes and they are the seasoning and the drying and after that the process is the same. It's these two steps in the process that add the flavor, the seasoning is I guess obvious and the drying is all down to whether you do it with smoke or not.

The seasoning mixes that I use in these venison jerky recipes are good enough for about 2.2lbs or 1kg of meat so you want to start with a hunk of meat this size with any fat trimmed off.

It's important to start with a hunk of meat because you have to make thin slices cut with the grain of the meat otherwise they won't have any strength when dried and the slices will crumble.

To test that you are cutting with the grain, make one slice and then gently pull it apart lengthways. If you've cut it with the grain it will stretch, if you've got it wrong it will tear.

You are also looking to make slices that are about 2 inches (50mm) wide and about ¼ inch (6mm) thick. This can be quite a challenge if you don't own a meat slicer but there are a couple of things that you can do to make the process easier. Firstly, pop the meat into the freezer for a quarter of an hour to super chill the meat and secondly use a long sharp slicing knife.

Once prepared you can add your venison or deer slices to your marinade. I've got two for you to choose from:-

California Jerky Seasoning Recipe

Wild West Beef Jerky Marinade Recipe - Just because I did this one with beef doesn't mean you can't use it in venison jerky recipes.

Stir the beef every hour for the first couple of hours and then cover, refrigerate and leave it overnight. When you're ready to dry it, strain the venison using a sieve or colander and then hang your venison in your smoker (you can lay it in smoker baskets if you haven't any facility to hang).

The drying takes place at three different temperature settings, just remember to have your chimney damper wide open to facilitate the drying process.

1. Start at 140°F (60°C) and dry for one hour. If your jerky is in baskets than turn the baskets over half way through the drying.
2. Crank it up to 160°F (71°C) for 2 or 3 hours – it's at this point that you can add smoke if you want to.
3. Finish off without smoke for a further 3 hours at 175°F (80°C)

You should find now that you have dry jerky that's flexible but not brittle. If take it to the brittle stage it will keep longer but it's not a flavorful. What you've made can be refrigerated or frozen once cool.

See Also:-

The Best Beef Jerky Recipes
Homemade Beef Jerky Recipes For The Oven
Rotisserie Grilled Venison Recipe
Grilled Venison Burgers
Smoked Game Recipes

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