Venison Burgers

I’ve posted a few venison jerky recipes - Jalapeno Ground Venison Jerky, Sweet & Spicy Ground Venison Jerky, Peppered Ground Venison Jerky, Traditional Venison Jerky - and I’ve yet to post my venison stew recipe (the fire ban stopped us from shooting it, on our last camping trip!).

I’ll say it now, though - this venison burgers recipe eclipses them all.

Unf. These are easily the best venison burgers I’ve ever had in my life - I’m talking, the stuff dreams are made of.

Literally, even. I woke up one morning, having dreamed about adding whiskey to caramelized onions. I’d never heard of such a thing before, and thought that my sleeping brain was an absolute genius.

Unfortunately, it’s a thing that already exists. Boo!

These delicious venison burgers are infused with smoky bacon fat. That added fat helps ensure that they’re juicy venison burgers.

It makes for nicely flavorful burgers - I don’t go wild with the seasonings, allowing the flavour of the venison and bacon to really shine.

Those flavours are perfectly complemented by topping the deer burgers with smoky cheddar, bacon, and the whiskey caramelized onions.

It’s an easy venison burger recipe, overall... but it feels super high end and bougie. This deer burger recipe may just be my favourite thing to ever grill over a campfire.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what you’ll need - and need to know - to make these venison burgers!

Ingredients

This recipe uses simple ingredients, most of which should be easy to find in most larger grocery stores. As always, I have a few ingredient notes for you:

Lean Ground Venison

Like most of the best game meats, venison is a great tasting red meat - I definitely prefer it to ground beef.

If you don’t happen to be - or know - an avid hunter, you can always buy your ground deer meat in certain stores.

I tend to find the best prices on ground venison meat at Wild Fork here in Canada. Bonus - they have a store local to me, AND they deliver!

When I was still living in the USA, I'd usually end up buying ground venison meat from the farmers market. If you can’t find ground venison, you can use ground elk.

Either way, it’s a really lean game meat. If you were to make burgers out of straight ground venison, the resulting burgers would be pretty dry!

If you’re wanting nice, juicy burgers ... you’re going to need a bit of added fat.

Which brings me to:

Fat

When it comes to upping the fat ratio on wild game meat, there are multiple ways people will do it.

Some will cut the ground venison with some ground pork, others will use coarse grind beef tallow/beef fat, or pork fat to juice up extra lean meat. (Any of these can be purchased from a local butcher, if you like!)

Grating up cold butter is another common option.

My secret ingredient? Rendered bacon fat.

The main reason for this is that I just find it works so much nicer with the flavor of the venison than some of the other options. Besides, bacon and game meat is such an amazing combination.

Also, you’ll already be cooking up some bacon for use in assembling these burgers, so it’s efficient!

I’ll usually cook the bacon ahead of time, chill the bacon slices and bacon fat separately, then reheat the bacon when assembling the burgers.

The bacon fat isn’t just used in the venison burgers themselves, by the way. It’s also what the whiskey onions are caramelized in - SO good!

Whiskey

We tend to use Jameson Irish Whiskey, as it’s a nice, neutral-tasting whisky that’s easy to find when on the road. Even the smallest LCBO convenience outlets tend to carry it.

That said, you can really use whatever whiskey you like the flavour of.

My husband’s an aficionado, he suggests using something with a bit of bite, like a sour mash. One of these days, I’ll have to try making this with one of his drinking whiskies - peaty Scotch!

I bet it would work well with the smoky bacon, onions, and venison!

Not into whiskey? Just skip it. Add the honey at the last minute, and you’re good to go!

Dijonnaise

I haven’t seen prepared Dijonnaise in stores in YEARS, so I just make my own:

Start with about ½ cup of Mayonnaise, whisk in about ¼ cup of your favourite Dijon mustard. (I love Kozlik's Canadian Mustard!)

Taste, and adjust your mayo/mustard ratio to your preference.

Add a bit of salt and pepper, to taste.

If you’re feeling fancy, peel and press a clove or two of garlic, or use garlic aioli in place of the mayonnaise.

Super simple... but it really elevates the flavour of the wild meat.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Large Onions (Yellow or White)
Hamburger Buns*
Smoked Cheddar Cheese Slices
Lettuce or Arugula
Bacon
Honey
Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Salt

*This burger goes really nicely on a pretzel bun. As it happens, I have a fantastic recipe for Homemade Pretzel Buns! (I just didn’t have the time to make a batch, before the camping trip we shot this post on!

How to Make Venison Burgers

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Venison Burgers

Place ground venison in a large bowl, along with the bacon fat, pepper, garlic, onion and salt.

Gently use hands to get a really good mix going, making sure that everything is evenly distributed and well incorporated in the ground meat mixture. Don’t over handle it or squeeze!

Divide the chilled venison mixture into 3 or 4 equal balls. Gently flatten each ball into a patty that is roughly the size of your burger buns – maybe a little larger - with a slight indent in the center of each patty.

Cover and chill the venison burger patties for 20 minutes - you want the patties cold when they go on the grill!

Whisky Onions

In a large pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter or bacon fat.

Add the onion slices and a little salt and cook - stirring often - until the onions are golden brown. This usually takes about 20 minutes or so.

Season with a little salt and pepper, to taste, set aside.

Venison Burger Assembly

Place venison burgers on the heat source, grill over medium heat until the internal temperature reaches 160 F on a meat thermometer / instant-read thermometer.

Note: 160 F is the temperature generally accepted as being the safest minimum internal temperature.

If you prefer a medium or medium rare burger, it’s usually more like 2-3 minutes on each side, and aiming for 130 -145 F.

Top each of the venison patties with a slice of cheese, allow to melt.

Top with a burger patty, bacon, whisky onions, lettuce, and argula. Serve immediately, with a side salad, french fries, potato salad, or chips.

I have a few great potato salad recipes on my other blogs, BTW! Gramma's Potato Salad, Roasted Corn and Potato Salad, Cold Smoked Potato Salad... and even a Cauliflower Potato Salad, as a low carb alternative!

Leftovers

Leftover venison burgers can be cooled to room temperature and kept in an airtight container the fridge for up to 3 days. I’ll usually reheat the cold patties in the microwave for about 45 seconds, before assembling my burger.

Note: You can cook these on the stove top, if you prefer. I like to use a large nonstick pan to cook the venison patties over medium heat, but a large cast-iron skillet / cast iron pan over medium-high heat is also a good option.

More Grilling Recipes for Camping

Looking for some great meals to cook on a campfire or grill? Here's a few of my favourites!

Bison Burgers with Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Campfire Pizza
Elk Burgers with Bacon & Sauteed Mushrooms
Fajita Chicken Kebabs
Greek Chicken Souvlaki
Grilled Chicken Fajitas
Lemon-Dill Fresh Salmon Burgers
Easy Grilled Shrimp Tacos
Grilled Tuna Tacos
Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!