Love French Food

  • Home
  • All Recipes
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • All Recipes
  • Subscribe
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • All Recipes
  • Subscribe
×
Home > All Recipes > French Meat Recipes

Best Venison Stew Recipe

Published: Sep 18, 2021 · Modified: Jan 26, 2025 by Judith Coates · This post may contain affiliate links · 1 Comment

This is a fabulous one pot Venison Stew for entertaining as well as a good hearty family meal, with lots of vegetables and easy tasty dumplings!
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe Pin Recipe
A black pot of reddy-brown venison meat chunks covered in reddish gravy with white dumplings spotted with green thyme.

Venison Daube

This is a fabulous one-pot dish for entertaining and a good, hearty family meal. A homemade meal and for anyone needing to cut down on their fat intake deer meat is the one for you. There are lots of delicious vegetables and a recipe for complimentary forcemeat dumplings to go with your meat stew, they are so tasty and comforting! Try these one-pot meal recipes that are easily prepared in a slow cooker and easily substituted with venison Pot Au Feu (2 meals in one) and delicious Beef Curry.

A black pot of reddy-brown venison meat chunks covered in reddish gravy with white dumplings spotted with green thyme.

❤️About This Recipe

It is a game meat of course and deer meat has a slightly stronger taste than beef although in my opinion, very like beef.

This is the best warming venison stew which is called venison daube in France.

It is a tasty and healthy dish due to venison being lower in fat than beef.

🔢Instruction Notes

Depending on what cut of meat you buy, if for instance, you choose a venison steak, you will need to add a little butter or oil to the pan as the meat is very low in fat and will stick to the pan.

For this recipe, you will need a casserole or stewing venison cut into thick meaty chunks.

🤔What To Serve With This Dish

Serve with mashed potatoes: Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Aligot (mashed potatoes with cheese)

Vegetables of your choice: Parsnips or Easy & Quick Vegetable Bake.

❔FAQ

How long should venison meat be cooked?

Venison meat comes in two types. The muscles that are worked little during the animal's life like the muscle from the back of the animal which has less connective tissue and therefore will be tender when not overcooked. It needs to be cooked at a low heat to medium-rare to keep it moist. On the other hand, the well used muscle tissue like most of the leg muscles will require a long cooking time and the removal of as much connective tissue as possible. For more information see Broken Arrow Ranch.

What does venison meat taste like?

Venison is a red meat like beef and is often described as similar in taste but with a "gamie" or earthier flavor. Steaks And Game has a very good, clear description of the flavor and is quite accurate in my opinion.

✨Try These Delicious Recipes

  • Roast Venison Recipe
  • Crockpot Beef Stew With Gravy
  • Garlic Mashed Potatoes
  • Beef Bourguignon Slow Cooker
  • So Good Mussel Soup Recipe

📖 Recipe

A black pot of reddy-brown venison meat chunks covered in reddish gravy with white dumplings spotted with green thyme.

Best Venison Stew

Judith Coates
This is a fabulous one pot Venison Stew for entertaining as well as a good hearty family meal, with lots of vegetables and easy tasty dumplings!
Print Recipe Pin
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 3 hours hrs
Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Course one pot meals
Cuisine French
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 2 lb venison cubed
  • 2 tablespoons oil vegetable or olive oil
  • 4 celery sticks roughly sliced
  • 2 medium onions thickly sliced
  • 3 medium carrots roughly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1 cup cup/½ pint chicken or vegetable stock
  • ½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper
  • Optional: add 2 potatoes roughly chopped and add ½ cup more stock

Additional Forcemeat Dumplings, optional, but so tasty!

  • 2 tablespoon butter
  • ½ cup lardons chopped small
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 4 oz small fresh white breadcrumbs
  • ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 egg slightly beaten

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed casserole pan and fry the venison until browned. Do this in small batches otherwise, it will not brown easily. Remove from the pan.
  • Add the sliced celery, carrots, and onions and fry until lightly browned.
  • Stir in the flour and mix well.
  • Add the red wine, stock, salt and black pepper.
  • Bring the contents to a boil.
  • Place the venison back into the pan and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
  • Place in a preheated oven for about 2–3 hours or until the meat is tender.

How To Make The Dumplings

  • Grill or fry the lardons (bacon chunks) until crisp, remove the rinds if there are any, and chop lardons into small pieces.
  • Melt 1oz butter in a pan and fry the chopped onion until soft.
  • Stir in the breadcrumbs along with the bacon, thyme, salt, and black pepper.
  • Add the beaten egg and mix until it forms a ball.
  • Divide into 4–6 balls.
  • Place these in the casserole for the last 30 minutes of cooking time and cover with the lid.

Notes

What To Serve With This Dish
Serve with mashed potatoes: Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Aligot (mashed potatoes with cheese)
Vegetables of your choice: Parsnips or Easy & Quick Vegetable Bake
Keyword easy dinner recipes, French food, one pot dinner, Venison Daube, venison stew
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Recommended Recipes To Select

  • Pork loin with figs covered in a dark balsamic sauce sprinkled with pine nuts.
    Pork Loin With Figs, Pomegranate and Nuts
  • Red meat sauce sprinkled with sliced nuts with rice on the side with parsley.
    Lamb Rogan Josh
  • A cooking pot with red meat sauce.
    Tasty Meat Sauce Recipe
  • KEEMAMATAR
    Keema Matar Recipe

Comments

    Did you make this & like it or not, let us know?! Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




  1. Judith says

    March 25, 2025 at 10:13 am

    5 stars
    Venison is a nice change from the usual red meat, beef, and pork commonly found on our tables. The key is to cook it long and slow. Relax and enjoy the flavor of this new, delicious meat if you have never tried it before. The forcemeat dumplings go well with this stew, so be sure to make them! 😊

    Reply

Enchanté, je suis Judith

Owner, home chef, food writer, & creator of this website where I share my collection of appetizing French cuisine recipes. My goal is to remove all your misconceptions about French food being too finicky or too saucy, it's simply wonderful everyday eating! So, let us get cooking!

More Introduction →

Have A Fav French Recipe?

Share With Us!

Are You A Brand?
Please connect here!

🌟Popular Favorites

  • A yellow, and brown dish of potatoes and melted cheese.
    Truffade Recipe, Tasty & Easy
  • A white plate witha cream colored puff pastry drizzled with dark chocolate.
    Exquisite Choux Pastry Recipe
  • how-to-cook-chestnuts
    How To Cook Chestnuts With 3 Easy Methods
  • A light fluffy rich dark brown chocolate dessert with bubbles in a white baking dish.
    French Chocolate Soufflé Recipe

Footer

Impress yourself & everyone you know, learn to cook epic French food. Easily! Deliciously!

Let's Cook French

🗂️Recipes Index

🥖Traditional

👩‍🍳How To Cook

🥬Vegetable Recipes

🦐Fish & Seafood

🍰Desserts

LoveFrenchFood logo in red, pink, salmon accents with black French chef.

Information

🤝Work With Me

💌Contact

🎶About

Terms

Privacy

Disclaimer

Here at Love French Food, we love the diversity of individual people, religions, and cultures of the world. We celebrate the kindness of so many, something that is easy to miss. We try to step softly on our earth as it supports an amazing array of creatures and landscapes that we want future people to enjoy. We financially support WCK (World Central Kitchen), Toronto Humane Society, Birds Canada, Nature Canada, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and our local Hospitals.

Let us live, Love, & Eat together!

Signature of author in red.

As an Amazon Associate, I profit from qualifying purchases, but this does not change your price.

Copyright © 2025 Love French Food - All Rights Reserved Regardless of Links or Attributions