Easy Venison Stew (Slow Cooker)
There are few dishes as hearty as stew and even fewer as hearty as venison stew.
I love making new dishes from my venison, but without fail, there will always be stew from any deer I get.
For this stew, I decided to do a little different and used a slow cooker instead of the stove stop, and the results were surprising.
Ingredients
Venison stews are versatile and can have many ingredients or few; I prefer the latter and like to keep things simple.
Most cuts of venison can work for a stew; I like to use the boneless cuts, such as top or bottom round, and leave the bone in cuts like the neck for roasts.
Once you have the meat sorted, it’s time to think about the stock, and I highly recommend you make your own venison stock for this recipe.
Making your own stock is easy, and it really elevates this recipe. If you can’t make your own stock this time, you can use commercial beef stock, but I would reduce the amount of salt you add.
For making stews or roast, I like to use a nice deep red wine; it gives the dish a richness you can’t get from stock.
You don’t need the best red wine in the store, but get one that works well with venison. If you can’t use wine, you can add more stock, but keep in mind the salt content if using store-bought stock.
I use the basic veg for this recipe, carrots, celery, and potato. If you want to get more creative, there is no harm in adding extras, such as pearl onions or parsnip.
The only thing to keep in mind is this is going in the slow cooker for 6 hours, so choose your veg wisely.
Potatoes, for example, should be a firm variant; I like to use something like Yukon gold. Some potatoes are likely to come out as mush after 6 hours in the slow cooker.
If you don’t have firm potatoes, you can use any type, but add them in towards the end of the cooking. Two hours will be fine for most potatoes.
My secret ingredient in this recipe is soy sauce. As you may know, I’m a big fan of Asian cuisine, and I’ve started adopting some of its ingredients for other cuisines.
The soy sauce brings an incredible amount of umami to this dish.
Many recipes call for Worcestershire sauce, which I use in many dishes, but if I had to choose between soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce for this recipe, soy is the better choice.
If you are altering the recipe to use stock instead of wine or using store-bought stock, you may want to use a low-sodium soy sauce.
Cooking
What I love about this dish is how simple it is to make.
Start by browning the meat in a pan. Use a cast iron or stainless steel pan so that you can get extremely hot.
Use a high temp oil like avocado or grapeseed.
You want to achieve a nice brown sear to start a Maillard reaction and not for the meat to start stewing.
Once the meat is browned, it can be transferred to the slow cooker to rest.
Reduce the heat and add your aromatics to the pan; start with the onions, then the garlic. Gently cook this for approximately 2 minutes.
Once the onions are translucent, add the wine. Now you can start scraping up the brown bits stuck to the pan.
Let the wine reduce by half.
Add the flour to the meat resting in the slow cooker and toss to ensure even coverage.
Lastly, add all the other ingredients to the slow cooker, stir, and that’s it.
In 6-8 hours, you will have the best stew of your life. If you can’t wait that long, set the slow cooker to high, and it will be ready in 4 hours.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds of stewing venison see note 1
- 4 cups venison stock beef stock can be substituted
- 2 cups red wine see note 2
- 1 medium onion yellow or white
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3-4 carrots peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch discs
- 3 celery stalks chopped into 3/4 inch pieces
- 1 pound potatoes peeled and quartered
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/3 cup of flour
Instructions
- Heat a large stainless steel or cast iron skillet over high heat
- season the meat with salt and pepper
- Add some of the oil to the pan and begin browning the meat in batches (see note 3)
- When all the meat is browned and transferred to the slow cooker reduce the heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Pour over the wine scrape the brown bits and reduce by half
- Pour the flour over the meat in the crock pot. I like to sieves but this isn't necessary.
- Add the veg and other ingredients to to slow cooker. Pour over the wine garlic and onions mixture. Stir and cover
- Cook on low for 8 hours
Hey, I’ve been following some of your recipes and have had much better luck with them than others available online
Just a question tho, how would I marinate meat for this particular stew? And if I do marinate it, should I later use the marinating liquid or discard it? (Previously I had luck using your simple marinate recipe, the one with kiwi, but it was mentioned that was for glazing grilled meat, I can’t imagine I could use it here)
Thanks
Hi, I don’t marinate the meat for this recipe because the cooking time is so long. The meat will essentially marinade in the stock as it slowly cooks. If you really want you could use a marinade, but I find it’s unnecessary.