Low & Slow Smoked Venison Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 4–6 hours
Rest time: 30–45 minutes
Serves: 6–8
Cooking temperature: 110–120°C
Internal temperature: Approx. 88–92°C for pull-apart venison
Rich, smoky and something a little different for the BBQ. Venison works beautifully with the rosemary, garlic and smoky flavours of our Backyard Smokey Rosemary Rub. The secret is keeping plenty of moisture around the meat during the long cook, giving you tender venison packed with deep, herby BBQ flavour.
Ingredients
1 venison haunch or shoulder, approximately 2–2.5kg
60–80g Backyard Smokey Rosemary Rub
2 tbsp American yellow mustard
100g salted butter
300ml good-quality beef stock
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
For the spritz:
150ml water
150ml apple juice
Method
1. Prepare the venison
Remove the venison from the fridge and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Trim away any silver skin or tough connective tissue from the outside of the meat.
Unlike pork shoulder, venison is extremely lean, so don't remove any useful fat that may already be on the joint.
2. Season
Lightly coat the venison with yellow mustard to help the seasoning stick.
Generously cover the entire joint with Backyard Smokey Rosemary Rub, working it into all the sides and edges.
Leave to stand for around 20–30 minutes while you prepare the BBQ.
3. Prepare the smoker
Set your BBQ or smoker for indirect cooking at approximately 110–120°C.
Once the temperature has settled, add your smoking wood. Cherry is my choice here as the slightly sweeter smoke works beautifully with venison and rosemary without overpowering the meat.
4. Start smoking
Place the venison onto the BBQ over indirect heat and insert a temperature probe into the thickest part of the joint.
Close the lid and allow it to smoke slowly.
After the first 1½–2 hours, check the venison and lightly spritz with the apple juice and water mixture if the surface is beginning to dry.
5. Build the bark
Continue smoking until the venison has developed a good dark bark and reaches approximately 65–70°C internally.
Don't worry if the temperature seems to slow down around this point. We're going to wrap the venison for the second part of the cook.
6. Wrap
Place the venison onto a large sheet of heavy-duty foil/butcher paper.
Add the butter around the meat, then pour in the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce.
Wrap the venison tightly, making sure you keep all that liquid inside the parcel.
This stage is particularly important with venison. Unlike pork shoulder, there isn't a large amount of internal fat to render down and protect the meat, so we're adding that richness and moisture ourselves.
7. Continue cooking
Return the wrapped venison to the BBQ and continue cooking at approximately 110–120°C.
For a pull-apart result, begin checking the meat once it reaches around 88°C internally.
You're looking for the temperature probe to slide into the meat with very little resistance. Depending on the particular joint, this will normally happen somewhere around 88–92°C.
Don't chase a temperature if the meat already feels tender.
8. Rest
Remove the venison from the BBQ and leave it wrapped for approximately 30–45 minutes.
Keep all the cooking juices inside the foil while it rests.
9. Pull the venison
Carefully open the foil and pour the cooking juices into a bowl.
Pull the venison apart using two forks or meat claws, removing any tough pieces of connective tissue as you go.
Pour some of those beautiful buttery, smoky cooking juices back through the meat and gently mix everything together.
10. Serve
Serve piled into warm rolls with homemade slaw, or go for something a little different and serve alongside buttery mash, roasted vegetables and a rich gravy.
It also makes an incredible loaded jacket potato or loaded fries topped with pulled Smokey Rosemary venison.
Backyard Tip
Venison is lean – treat it differently to pork. Don't be tempted to leave it unwrapped for the entire cook. Once you've built that smoky bark, get it wrapped with plenty of butter and stock and let it slowly become tender.
And whatever you do, don't throw those juices away. Pour them back through the meat at the end – that's where some of the best flavour is hiding.