Venison Stew

I’ve always loved cooking a batch of some delicious stew on a cool day.

I’ve been making some form of my Hearty Beef Stew for decades, I’m a huge fan of Steak and Kidney Stew and Elk Bourguignon, and I even have a recipe for Keto Beef Stew!

When we started camping a lot, we also started making a lot MORE stews... just tailoring the recipes - like Beef & Root Vegetable Stew and Hearty Campfire Beef Stew.

Today, though, it’s all about my delicious venison stew recipe - which we finally got around to photographing last summer, while visiting Killbear Provincial Park!

This simple recipe makes some of the best venison stew I’ve ever had!

It’s an easy venison stew, featuring a flavorful broth that’s LOADED with chunks of meat and vegetables.

Definitely one of my favorite ways to serve venison, right up there with my Venison Chili and Venison Burgers . Unf... those burgers!

Anyway, stew’s a great way to make a fair amount of food, easily. As with my other camping chili recipe, this one is designed to make relatively small batches, 6-8 servings.

You can easily scale it up, though - just be sure to use a much bigger pot. As-is, this one is the perfect size for a Dutch Oven.

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need to have on hand, to throw on a batch of this stew for yourself!

Ingredients

This deer stew uses simple ingredients. As long as you can get your hands on some venison meat, you won’t have any trouble finding everything else you need in any grocery store.

As always, I have some ingredient notes for you:

Venison Stew Meat

Vension is rich, dark red meat, and a very lean protein. I usually buy it already cubed up as stewing meat, but sometimes I’ll cut up a venison roast for this stew recipe.

This venison recipe cooks for a relatively long time, so no worries if you’re working with pieces of venison that have a lot of connective tissue.

Slow cooking is the best way to deal with tougher cuts of meat, as it slowly breaks down the collagen, yielding tender meat in the finished stew.

Can’t get your hands on any cuts of venison? Beef stew meat will work just fine in this recipe.

Fresh Produce

For my deer stew, I like to use:

Baby Potatoes
Baby Carrots
Crimini Mushrooms
Celery Stalks
Yellow Onion
Fresh Parsley

... But feel free to switch that up, if you like. Add some green beans or halved fresh Brussels Sprouts, if you like - both are great options, they just tend to be more difficult to find, when we’re on the road.

Skip the mushrooms if you don’t like them, maybe add more potato, some parsnip, or other root vegetables if you like.

It’s stew! Most of the time, I just freestyle it, anyway!

Beef Broth

I use basic beef broth or beef stock, as it’s easiest to find when we’re on the road. Veal stock or venison broth are also great options.

And hey, if you’re hunting your own wild game ... making your own venison broth is a fantastic option!

Corn Starch or Xanthan Gum

If you don’t worry about carbs, corn starch makes the best gluten free thickener. I use 2 tablespoon in this recipe, but you can use a bit more if you prefer a thicker stew.

If you can’t use corn starch, or want to cut the carbs to some degree, you can use 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. (1 ½ teaspoon for thicker).

Either way, I mix the thickening powder in with some of the aromatic ingredients, to separate the grains of the thickener. This goes a lot way to preventing clumping, when you mix the thickener into your venison stew.

Red Wine

Use a red wine that you LIKE drinking. I don’t use “cooking wine” - as it’s sold in grocery stores, but I do tend to keep a bottle of “cooking wine” - IE a dry red wine from the liquor store - in the fridge.

If you can get your hands on a dry berry wine, I love the way some of them work with gamey flavors.

I used to use Partridgeberry Wine for making moose stew when I was in Newfoundland. That link goes to my recipe for making it, if you can get your hands on partridgeberries (aka lingonberries) in bulk.

I also have a recipe for Faux Partridgeberry Wine that’s fantastic. That proportion of cranberries and blueberries makes a VERY convincing “partridgeberry” wine!

Cranberry Wine is also fantastic with game meat like deer meat. Cranberry wine is usually easier to find than partidgeberry, especially outside of Newfoundland.

It’s also easy to make, and fantastic with almost any game meat!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Vegetable Oil
Salt & Ground Black Pepper
Bay Leaves
Garlic Powder
Dried Thyme
Dried Rosemary

... I just really don’t have anything to add, as far as this remaining ingredient list goes. Pretty basic stuff!

How to Make Venison Stew

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

Trim venison roast of excess fat, cut into 1" cubes. Allow to come up to room temperature. Pat venison cubes dry with a paper towel, season well with salt and pepper.

Measure about 1 tablespoon oil into a large, heavy-bottomed dutch oven. Heat over a high fire.

Add the venison to the heated pan. Sear in the hot oil, stirring occasionally, until browned all over.

Once browned, add a splash of the red wine to the pan, scraping and stirring any browned bits- this is called deglazing.

Once the venison is all scraped off the bottom of the pan and incorporated, add remaining wine, the beef broth and the bay leaves.

Bring to a boil, then reduce fire to maintain a low simmer. Simmer over a low fire for 1 ½ hours, or until meat is very tender.

Once venison is tender, add all of the vegetables to the pot, stir to combine.

Bring it to a boil again, then turn heat back down to low (we close the vents on the side) and simmer for another 40 minutes or so, or until the vegetables are tender.

In a small bowl, combine the fresh parsley, starch, garlic powder, dried thyme, and dried rosemary. Be sure to stir well - you want the starch (or xanthan gum) well distributed over the other ingredients, to prevent clumping.

Add herb mixture to the pot, stir well to combine. Allow stew to simmer for a few minutes to thicken.

Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves, and serve hot.

Serve hot, with some crusty bread!

Leftover Venison Stew

Leftover stew can be cooled to room temperature before storing in an airtight container.

We’ll usually use a large freezer baggie, but any freezer-safe container will work for longer term storage.

Will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge, or several months in the freezer.

More One-Pot Camping Recipes

Looking for more easy - but satisfying! - one pot meals to cook over your campfire? Here are some of my favourites!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
Beef & Root Vegetable Stew
Cajun Chicken Sloppy Joes
Campfire Chicken Curry
Campfire Chili
Dutch Oven Jambalaya
Easy Chicken Curry
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Hearty Campfire Beef Stew
Indian Sloppy Joes
Mexican Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Giuseppes
Traditional Sloppy Joes
Venison Chili

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!