Recipes For Venison Stew In A Slow Cooker

This scratch-made venison stew recipe is easy to make and the deer meat is fall-apart tender. It’s packed with veggies and simple ingredients.

If you missed it, my husband and I welcomed our baby girl, Madi Jo, in July 2020. While my pregnancy was full of many blessings, I also experienced some pretty serious food aversions in my first trimester. The biggest one really being meat, which was weird for me! Once my aversions calmed down, I finally made this venison stew. I tried it, and it is still my favorite meal I ate while pregnant. That and this venison chili. Go figure!

It was really odd in the beginning to be totally turned off by the sight or smell of venison since we eat some much of it in our home.

Easy Slow Cooker Venison Stew Recipe

(PSA: My cookbook Venison Every Day is now available for purchase!) When I was finally ready to try my hand at eating red meat again, I knew this would be the perfect dish.

The meat gets fall-apart tender and the stew is PACKED with nourishing veggies and a rich and flavorful broth. The recipe is identical to the insanely popular recipe I wrote a few years ago for Instant Pot Venison Stew. It’s just adapted for making on the stovetop, which sometimes I prefer. There’s something about stew simmering on the stove, you know? But, if you’re an Instant Pot lover and you’re short on time, make sure you check out that method, too.

Sinew is the silvery connective tissue that you see running through your venison. When it isn’t removed, it causes venison to curl up like a rubber band and get really tough.

Slow Cooker Venison Roast With Red Wine

I love stew because you can cut venison into small, bite-sized pieces and remove the sinew as you go. This helps each bite of venison to be ultra-tender.

After you cut the venison into bite-sized pieces and remove the sinew, you’re going to want to sear it in a pan to add flavor. I also happen to think that searing the meat first and then cooking it low and slow helps to tenderize things.

Once you sear the venison, it gets removed from the pot until all of the veggies have been sauteed and the liquid has been added. When that happens, you add the seared venison back to the pan and it braises (cooks low and slow in liquid) in the broth with the veggies.

Rich Venison Stew Recipe

I promise you this results in the most tender stew you’ve ever had in your life. Now, the longer you can let this simmer the better. I like at least an hour, but two hours is better.

Seriously, if you love this recipe, go order my book for over 50 more like it. Or grab my FREE cooking tips & tricks.

This scratch-made venison stew recipe is easy to make and the deer meat is fall-apart tender. It’s packed with veggies and simple ingredients. Gluten free, dairy free, paleo, Whole30 friendly. This thick, hearty and healthy slow cooker venison stew is made in the crockpot with tender hunks of deer meat, veggies, and a rich & flavorful broth.

Venison Stew With Suet Dumplings

In this house, we LOVE venison stew. It’s a classic. I tend to shy away from overdone recipes, but you just can’t beat a cozy bowl of this thick and hearty slow cooker venison stew.

If you prefer to watch recipe videos for inspiration, check out my slow cooker venison stew video below. Like and subscribe for more on YouTube.

This venison stew recipe is one of the most popular recipes on my website. People also love this Instant Pot version! But, some have commented that they love the flavor but wish it was a bit thicker. So, I decided to give you a super easy version of deer meat stew that you can make in the crockpot that’s nice and thick. Just what you all asked for!

Venison Stew With Red Wine And Fresh Herbs

Venison stew meat is chunks cut up from tougher cuts of meat where there is a lot of connective tissue. You’re usually getting this from the shoulder, rump, leg, flank, sometimes shank and sometimes neck (however, I like to use my neck roasts in this recipe if I can). Check out this diagram if you want more help.

These cuts usually aren’t great for something like steaks because the connective tissue can be rubbery if not cooked long enough. However, if these tissue heavy cuts are allowed to braise for a long time, the tissue melts into the meat making it fall-apart tender and very juicy.

The reason I like making venison stew in the slow cooker is because the crockpot allows you to cook your deer meat low and slow (or braise gently in liquid) for hours at a time with little to no effort. And you’re not messing up or crowing the oven/stovetop.

Slow Cooked Port & Venison Casserole With Dumplings

This is the BEST slow cooker venison stew because it combines a rich, flavorful broth (that really works WITH and is designed for your wild game), tender meat, perfectly cooked veggies. And, you’re basically only working on it for about 15 minutes before you let the slow cooker do all of the work for you! How easy is that? (where are my Ina fans at?)

As I mentioned previously, if you’re working with a tough cut of meat or one with a lot of connective tissue, it’s best to cook it low and slow. AKA, cooking it at a low temperature for a long time to ensure that the meat falls apart. If it isn’t falling apart, turn the heat down and cook it longer.

I recommend cooking this stew recipe for 8-9 hours on low in the slow cooker. You can do 4-5 hours but your meat won’t be as tender and the flavor won’t be as developed. So, you’ve been warned!

Instant Pot Venison Stew (easy!)

The use of red wine (or red wine vinegar), plenty of aromatics, herbs de Provence, and Worchestershire sauce are all tweaked to perfection. They’re designed to enhance the beautifully bold flavor of venison while mitigating that “tinny” flavor some people don’t love.

There are a lot of differing opinions about what gamey flavor is. Ultimately, when people tell me they think venison is gamey it’s probably because they’re used to beef. Venison is different because it’s a wild animal. However, if your meat is downright offensive, it’s probably due to the nature of the kill, field dressing, and potentially improper processing.

This ingredient list is simple and basically just a few pantry essentials, deer meat you have in your freezer and produce. Here’s what you need:

The Best Venison Stew Recipe (stovetop Or Slow Cooker)

What other meats can you use – this recipe will work well with elk, antelope, moose, beef, bear – really any red meat. When I use the term venison here or in my book, you can assume I’m also including elk, antelope, and moose.

To make this slow cooker venison stew gluten-free – This recipe has not been tested with gluten-free flour, however, I imagine it will work just fine. You can also choose to omit steps 1-2 in the recipe card below and add the starch suggested in step 6.

If you don’t have Herbs de Provence – I suggest finding Herbs de Provence and not substituting because it’s so lovely. I call for it in a lot of my recipes so you’ll use it up. I get mine at Wal Mart or Thrive Market. If you must sub or want to make it yourself, check out this post.

Slow Cooked Venison Recipe

On selecting/substituting wine – When using a wine you really just want something palatable. This doesn’t call for much so just use something you already have open from the night before or that you’d like to serve with the meal. Don’t feel the need to spend big, I usually stay in the $12-$17 range with something I cook with. Of course, it can be omitted completely if you wish, but be sure to add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar instead.

Since this recipe takes 8 hours to make, you can always do all of the chopping the night before and sear your venison and add it to the slow cooker. When you wake up, add the liquid, set it, and forget it while you go about your day.

Alternatively, you can make it overnight while you sleep and just heat it on low or warm in the slow cooker or a saucepan before you want to eat. Or heat individual portions in the microwave.

The Best Venison Roast Recipe » Homemade Heather

If we have leftovers (because this makes 6-8 servings) I like to freeze them in a freezer-safe dish or a vacuum-sealed bag for busy nights or a cozy lunch. This is the MVP of meal prep – it keeps fantastically for about 6 months.Venison stew is the ultimate cold weather comfort food that is both full of flavor and easy to make! Venison, potatoes and carrots are slow cooked in a rich red wine sauce until the venison is fork tender and the vegetables are perfectly cooked.

Venison stew is one of my favorite ways to enjoy venison! The venison is literally fall apart tender with zero gamey flavor, the potatoes and carrots are cooked perfectly, and the sauce is incredibly flavorful!

A mix of

Ingredient Slow Cooker Venison Stew + Stove Top Version (gluten Free)