Venison Loin with Herb Butter and Gravy
This venison backstrap recipe is one of the best comfort meals ever. The gravy and the herb butter add such richness to the lean, flavorful venison that you will never want to eat deer meat any different way — unless it’s one of these other delicious venison recipes, that is!
How to Make This Venison Backstrap Recipe
Here are the ingredients and steps to make this recipe.
To Cook the Venison
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
- One backstrap loin of venison, halved: See below for the difference between backstrap and tenderloin.
- 4 strips of bacon: Pork is one of the secrets to cooking flavorful wild game. The pork adds fat to the extra-lean deer meat and also helps mellow any gamey flavor. For burgers I like to use a mixture of venison, beef, and pork or lamb.
- Butter and olive oil: For browning the meat in a skillet before placing it in the oven.
- Salt and pepper
Wrap bacon around the two backstrap halves and secure with toothpicks. Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper over the venison.
Heat the olive oil over high heat in a cast iron skillet. Then add and melt the butter. Add the loin to the skillet and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Place the skillet in the preheated oven and cook until the internal temperature reaches 125°F as measured with a meat thermometer. Avoid overcooking the meat.
While the venison is cooking, make the herb butter. When the venison is done, remove it to a cutting board to free up the skillet for cooking the gravy.
To Make the Herb Butter
- Salted butter: 1/2 cup at room temperature
- Fresh herbs: ¼ cup roughly chopped parsley, thyme, or rosemary
- Garlic: 4 cloves, minced
- Parmesan cheese: grated, 2 Tablespoons
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until creamy and fluffy. Then use plastic wrap or parchment paper to roll the herb butter into a log. Set aside.
To Make the Gravy
After you’ve removed the venison from the skillet, use it to make the gravy with the juices from the cooked meat.
- Flour: ½ cup all-purpose flour
- Chicken stock: ½ cup
Add flour to the skillet and continually stir over medium-high heat for about one minute until the flour has cooked and soaked up the drippings. Add a little more oil if needed to cook the floor. Finally, add the broth and continue to stir, breaking up all the clumps of flour. Simmer the gravy until it reaches the desired thickness, or until it coats the back of a spoon.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To Portion and Serve
Slice the venison into about 1-inch slices.
To plate, add about 2 tablespoons of gravy to the bottom of a plate, then add 3 pieces of sliced venison and top each with a thin slice of herb butter. Enjoy the dish as is, or serve with mashed potatoes, a big Italian salad, and yeast rolls.
Venison tenderloin and backstrap loin: what’s the difference?
Sometimes people ask about the difference between these cuts of deer meat. Deer backstrap is a large, long strip along the outside of the deer’s spine, equivalent to beef strip loin. This tender cut of meat has the rich, classic venison flavor that most people associate with deer meat. Cooked well, it is not gamey tasting. As a larger muscle, it is excellent for grilling as steaks or serving in chunks or strips with gravy as in this backstrap recipe.
For a creamy-rich venison sauce with mushrooms and onion, try Venison Medallions with Wild Mushroom Cabernet sauce.
Deer tenderloin, on the other hand, is a small cut of meat beneath the spine and inside the body cavity. As the name suggests, this is an extra tender cut of venison. It has a melt-in-your-mouth texture like filet mignon, and it is fantastic for high-heat grilling or pan searing to medium-rare doneness.
To learn how to make any cut of venison tender and delicious, check out How to Cook Venison: Ten Tips from a Wild Game Chef.
Venison Loin with Herb Butter and Gravy
Ingredients
For the Venison
- 1 whole backstrap loin cut in half (beef loin works beautifully as a substitute)
- 4 pieces of bacon
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil for browning
- 1 Tablespoon butter
For the Herb Butter
- ½ cup butter salted and room temperature
- ¼ cup parsley roughly chopped (you can substitute with thyme, rosemary, or any other herb you have on hand)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese grated
For the Gravy
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup chicken stock
Instructions
- Loosely wrap bacon around the loin and secure with toothpicks. Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper over the bacon wrapped loin.
- In a cast iron skillet, heat olive oil over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter. When the butter is melted, add the halved loin to the skillet and brown on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Place the skillet in the preheated oven until a thermometer inserted into the middle of the loin reads 125°F.
- Meanwhile, make the herb butter. In a small bowl, mix the butter, parsley, garlic, and parmesan until creamy and light. Place the butter on a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper and roll it into a log. Remove the herb butter log from the plastic wrap and set to the side while you make the gravy.
- Remove the venison to a cutting board. In the same skillet, add flour and continually stir over medium-high heat for about one minute until the flour has cooked and soaked up the drippings left in the skillet. Add a little more oil if there isn’t enough. Add the broth and continue to stir until the clumps of flour have broken up. Allow to simmer until the gravy is the thickness you like. It’s ready when it coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Slice the venison into about 1-inch slices.
- To plate, add about 2 tablespoons of gravy to the bottom of a plate, then add 3 pieces of sliced venison and top each with a thin slice of herb butter. Enjoy it as is, or serve with mashed potatoes, a big Italian salad, and yeast rolls.
Click for all my Venison Recipes, grouped by cut of meat.
