Venison Chops Marinade

One of the greatest venison dishes you can have is marinated venison chops.

Venison chops go by many names, but regardless of what you call them, we can all agree they are one of the best cuts.

Why Marinade Venison Chops

Before we get into the marinade, let’s look at what we are trying to achieve.

Typically marinades do two things, flavor and tenderize.

A venison chop is essentially a backstrap with the rib bone left attached, also known as a rack or tomahawk steak.

You may already know that venison backstrap is one of the most tender cuts of deer meat, which means all we need to do with a marinade is flavor the meat.

This means that you will not need to use any acidic ingredients, that’s not to say you can’t but just that there will be little benefit.

Instead, use ingredients that can intensely flavor the meat as venison chops are typically mild, almost bland in some cases.

Ingredients

These ingredients are selected to marinade venison chops in a very short period of time.

For this reason, there is very little liquid used, and only oil is used as a carrier.

• Rosemary 
• Thyme 
• Garlic minced
• Oil
• Wild garlic
• Peppercorns
• Kosher salt
• Onion powder

On the face of it, this looks like a very simple marinade, but I’ve tried and tested this recipe many times, and I can guarantee it’s one of the best.

As I mentioned above the venison backstrap or the chops made from it is a very mild meat for venison.

This means that it will readily accept flavors easily. I’ve tried marinating for different lengths of time, and at even 2 hours the chops were flavorful.

Four hours was an ideal amount of time.

Process

One great thing about this venison chops marinade is that you can make it in 10 minutes.

It’s a simple matter of combining all of the ingredients in a mortar and crushing with a pestle.

Work the ingredients until you get a paste-like consistency. You can adjust the amount of oil until you find a good consistency that easily spreads on your chops.

Once the marinade is made, rub it into the chops.

Wrap the chops in film and place them in the refrigerator.

Cooking Marinated Venison Chops

While you can cook the marinated venison chops in various ways, such as on a pan, in the oven, etc

My preferred method is on the grill.

However, the best method of cooking using this marinade is to reverse sear.

This method prevents the ingredients in the marinade from burning.

With that being said I have cooked it on a hot grill without any impact on the quality of flavor.