Braised Venison Shanks
Braising is a combination cooking method that creates a tender and flavorful meat. First, the shanks are browned at a high temperature. Then they are slow cooked in a wine mixture. This combination was easy to do, created a delicious meal, and helped warm the house on a cold winter afternoon. We cooked this meal bone-in because we are not in a chronic wasting disease area. If your venison is harvested from a chronic wasting disease area, I would recommend you follow local guidance for deboning the deer and not cutting through bone. We served our braised venison shanks over polenta, which is a cornmeal based side dish. To complete the meal, we had home-grown cauliflower which was harvested, blanched and frozen last month.
Ingredients:
- 3-4 pounds of bone-in venison shanks
- Olive oil
- Sea salt too taste
- 2 cups of water
- 3 teaspoons beef bouillon
- 2 cups red wine
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 1 ½ tablespoons garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven 425 degrees (using convection roast if you have that setting)
- Rub olive oil on shanks. Then, rub liberally with sea salt. Place on a baking sheet (lined with foil). Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until browned, turning half way through. OR: if your shanks are small enough to fit in a pan, sear them in a pan on medium-high heat for a few minutes per side.
- Drop oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Transfer shanks to a roasting pan.
- In a small saucepan (or pan used to sear the shanks), mix together water, beef bouillon, red wine, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, and pepper and heat to gentle boil
- Pour wine mixture over shanks. Cover pan with foil.
- Cook shanks in oven for 3 hours, turning once mid-way through.
Looking for other venison recipes? Try Hunter’s Pie or Keema Aloo. If you want to try canning your venison to make it shelf stable, you can read how to do it here.