What better way to celebrate hunting than with a venison recipe? It seemed like a natural choice to feature venison as this issue’s recipe. Kyle MacNall, our lead sales/ops manager and resident hunter, collaborated with me to create a delicious venison stew. There are two versions: one cooked in a skillet over the campfire, or one cooked in a crockpot. The crockpot recipe can be made ahead and reheated for dinner. If you have an electrical outlet at your campsite, you can put the meal together early in the morning and have a tasty meal waiting for you, hot and ready in the crock pot, when you return from a long day of hunting.

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. of venison stew meat cut into one inch cubes

8 oz. (1/2 bag) of a 16 oz. frozen bag of pearl onions (thawed, not chopped) or two small onions, chopped.

2 cloves of garlic, chopped, or use 1 tsp. jarred minced garlic

1 c. chopped carrots

1 c. chopped celery (optional if you do not like it)

8-10 small redskin potatoes

Olive oil, small bottle

1 envelope of dry French onion soup

1 packet of au jus gravy mix

Flour to coat meat, about 1/3 cup

Mrs. Dash ® seasoning or any other seasoning, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Red wine (I usually just pour from the bottle, about 1 cup)

INSTRUCTIONS

Frying pan method

  1. Coat venison stew meat with flour and Mrs. Dash seasoning or other seasoning. Pour a thin layer of olive oil to coat bottom of frying pan, preferably an iron skillet. Heat olive oil over high heat. Sear the meat in the hot olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes or until browned on all sides.
  2. Add chopped onions and sautée for 2 minutes before adding chopped carrots and celery. Sautée for another 2 minutes before adding the garlic. If you are using thawed pearl onions, just add to stew.
  3. Add small raw redskin potatoes to stew mix. Sprinkle the packet of onion soup mix and au jus mix evenly over the stew.
  4. Add water and red wine to cover the meat and vegetables.
  5. Mix the entire stew until blended.
  6. Bring stew to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes or until meat is tender.

Crockpot method

  1. Another option is to place stew mix in a crockpot and simmer on low for 6-8 hours.
  2. Follow steps 1 and 2 of frying pan method.
  3. Boil red skin potatoes until done, but do not overcook. The number of potatoes used depends on the size of the crockpot. If it is bigger, use more, if smaller use less potatoes. Add boiled potatoes to the stew for the last hour.

Venison Stew