Venison Marsala
Our friend Tim is an adventurous cook and loves to serve really special meals for his friends. He lives in Missouri and during one of our visits he tried out this recipe for venison marsala.
He isn't a hunter but one of his friends brought him the venison. I helped him look up recipes and this one caught his eye. He adjusted it to use with his smoker with the final part of the cooking completed on his outdoor grill.
What a special meal that was. With the venison we had garlic mashed potatoes, a medley of yellow squash, zuchinni and broccoli, and a fresh garden salad.
Ingredients for Venison Marsala
- 7 to 9 pound venison roast
- 3/4 pound of bacon
- cup and a half of marsala wine
- chopped onions
- fresh chopped garlic
- 2 or 3 pinches of rosemary leaf
- mesquite chips for the smoker
Instructions
- Pierce the meat with the special tool and let it marinate in wine throughout the day. Keep it refrigerated while it is marinating.
- Wrap the meat in the bacon strips. You can use metal or bamboo skewers to hold the bacon in place.
- Smoke the meat using mesquite chips. He added celery and rosemary to the water with the wood chips for additional flavoring. Smoke it for 8 hours.
- Finish cooking it on the grill to brown the meat. Baste it with marsala cooking wine during this time. During the browning, top it with the chopped garlic and onions.
- Serve it with your favorite side dishes.
Does It Sound Like a Recipe You'll Love?
Follow the Process in Pictures
Use a Meat Tenderizing Tool on the Venison
Stab the venison with this tenderizer before marinating it in wine.
My husband uses this meat tenderizer for steak and pork as well, not just for venison. The multiple blades pierce the meat and breaks down the sinews. It allows the marinade to penetrate deeper into the meat as well.
I find it easy to clean. Rinse it immediately, then wash it later with sudsy water, rinse, and let it air dry overnight before storing it.
Some Advice on Safely Using Marinades
Marinades can be one of the worst sources of contamination as they can provide conditions for breeding bacteria and pathogens. Don't let the meat in the marinade sit out on the counter at room temperature. See more tips for avoiding problems with marinades and meat, Safety Tips When Marinating Meat and Using Marinades.
Choose Your Smoker
Smoke the meat following the directions for your particular smoker. Our friend Tim had one of the round models and it worked fine.
My husband uses this Masterbuilt model. We haven't yet tried venison in our smoker, as we don't have any friends who are hunters.
Tips on Using a Smoker
- How to Use a Smoker - Adventures in Outdoor Cooking!
Do you envy your neighbor that always has awesome smelling grill smoke curling up from his backyard? Let's chat about how to use a smoker ... BBQ smokers, meat smokers, smoker recipes and everything in between. There are several ways to smoke your...
Stock in a Variety of Smoking Chips
Tim used mesquite but you might want to try other flavors. After trying the venison, my husband stocked up on all sorts of flavors including bourbon, cherry, pecan, and maple. We haven't tried all of them yet, but as we use the smoker more and more, it's great to have the different wood chips on hand to fit whatever's on the menu for that day.
Serve It with Your Favorite Side Dishes
It was a memorable meal!
— Virginia AllainEnjoy Your Favorite Wine with the Venison Marsala
© 2013 Virginia Allain
Tell me about your experiences cooking venison. Have you tried it with bacon? Do you marinate it? Smoke it? Grill it?
I have a venison roast in the freezer. I will have to try this recipe. It looks delicious!
- AUTHOR
@tonyleather: I sort of thought it would be too gamey, but the marinating and smoking seemed to balance that out.
Not actually a big fan of venison. I think it is too gamey and very much an aqquired taste!
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