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Best Marinated Venison Steak Recipe | Easy Deer Steak

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Make the perfect venison steak that’s tender and juicy inside with the perfect seared crust on the outside in just a few easy steps!

Venison steak cooked to rare and sliced in a cast iron pan.

We love venison and I love having some quick ways to cook it up. Among my favorite venison recipes are this delicious deer steak, juicy venison burgers, and venison tacos. They’re all easy recipes with quick cook time.

Venison steak is one of my favorites on that list, though. It’s very easy, and as long as you know how to cook venison, it tastes amazing.

Unlike beef steaks, you can’t underseason and overcook deer meat and expect it to still be even remotely edible. It has to be perfectly seasoned and cooked to rare to really get the best flavors and not wind up with a hockey puck for a steak.

Once your deer steak is cooked to perfection, serve it alongside your favorite sides. I really love serving ours with southern style green beans, grilled potatoes, smoked corn on the cob, or smoked mac and cheese.

Tips to Cook the Best Venison Steak

Venison steak cooked to rare topped with kosher salt and rosemary.

Cooking venison steaks is pretty easy, but there are some great tips to make sure you have the best tasting, tender venison steaks you can.

  • Marinate it (or season it well)
  • Allow it to come to room temperature before cooking. This will help prevent overcooking, and allow the heat to be conducted more evenly throughout the meat.
  • Only cook it to medium-rare at most, rare is better (around 117°F is the sweet spot to pull it off the grill)
  • Be sure the meat rests. Once you remove the steaks, rest them on a plate with a little bit of butter. They’ll continue cooking just a little bit, and give them time to reabsorb and redistribute the juices.
  • Use thick steak. While you can grill thinner steaks, the best steak is going to come from a one inch thick cut.

Marinated Venison Steak Recipe Ingredients

Raw venison steak on a cutting board ready to be put in a marinade before grilling.

Just a few simple ingredients are needed to make juicy venison steaks right at home.

Venison Steak – Hindquarter cuts make good venison steak. However, venison backstrap medallions, venison tenderloin, and flank steak will work as well. Again, making sure they’re one inch thick will result in the best flavor.

Olive Oil – I find olive oil to work the best, but any neutral oil will work in this recipe.

Lemon juice– this helps tenderize the meat and brighten the flavors.

Sauces You’ll need both soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce for this recipe.

Steak seasonings – freshly minced garlic, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, and parsley.

Red wine vinegar – another acid to help tenderize the meat and pull away from any gamey flavors.

Butter – the best thing to top your steak with you can use plain, salted butter or a compound butter like this garlic herb compound butter.

The Best Deer Steak Recipe

It’s pretty easy to make the perfect venison steak, a few ingredients and some simple steps are all that is required. You can find exact measurements and instructions in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.

Make the marinade. In a shallow bowl or zip top bag combine olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, paprika, and parsley.

Marinade. Place the steaks in the marinade and marinate for at least 3 hours, but up to overnight.

The longer you marinate, the less gamey flavor you’ll have, so keep that in mind if you aren’t fond of the wild flavors of deer meat.

Venison steaks marinating in a homemade acidic marinade

Bring to room temp. Remove the steaks from the marinade about 30 minutes before time to cook them and dry steak by patting it with some paper towels. Don’t completely dry them, just remove some of that excess moisture so that they sear to a nice golden brown crust.

Preheat the grill or cast iron pan. Once the venison steaks come to room temperature, preheat the grill to medium-high heat, around 450°F to 500°F.

If you’re pan searing, preheat a cast iron skillet on the stove top over medium heat until it is very hot.

Grill. Place the steaks on the grill or in the pan and cook each side for approximately 5 minutes. For the best results cook until the internal temperature of the steaks on an instant read meat thermometer reaches 117°F. Do not overcook the steaks, it will make them chewy.

Rest. Remove the steaks from the grill or pan once cooked to a plate and place some butter on the top of each steak. Allow steaks to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Top with a little salt for a pop of flavor.

More Venison Recipes You’ll Love:

If you try this delicious venison steak recipe, share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below! I’d love if you would give me a five star review on the card below! Also, feel free to tag me with your own perfectly juicy venison steaks on Instagram @therusticelk.

Venison steak cooked to rare and sliced in a cast iron pan.
Yield: Serves 4

Best Marinated Venison Steak Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes

Marinated and simple, this venison steak will rival any beef you've ever tasted. Grilled to a perfect brown crust on the outside with a tender and juicy middle, this is the best deer steak you'll ever try.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 Lbs Venison Steaks (1 inch thick)
  • 1/2 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
  • 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1/4 Cup Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
  • 2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
  • 2 Tbsp Butter

Instructions

  1. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt, and smoked paprika in a large bowl.
  2. Place steaks in a bowl with a lid or a ziplock bag. Pour marinade over steaks, cover the bowl, and place in the refrigerator.
  3. Marinate venison steaks in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to 24.
  4. Remove the steaks from the marinade, discard the marinade, and pat the steaks dry. Allow them to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat the grill or cast iron pan to medium-high heat.
  6. Grill steaks over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes per side until they reach approximately 117°F and the outside is brown and crispy.
  7. Remove the steaks from the grill, top with butter, and allow the steaks to sit for 10 minutes until serving and slicing.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

6 Oz Steak

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 589Total Fat: 36gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 25gCholesterol: 160mgSodium: 2034mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 2gSugar: 2gProtein: 56g

Nutrition information may not be accurate.

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Cheryl

Monday 16th of October 2023

I wasn’t too fond of eating venison until I tried this recipe. The marinade gives the steak a wonderful flavor. This is definitely my go to recipe with venison.

Danielle McCoy

Monday 16th of October 2023

So glad you like it Cheryl!

Rosslyn

Saturday 4th of March 2023

When you say venison 'steak' which part of the animal are you referring to please?

Danielle McCoy

Saturday 4th of March 2023

You can cut steaks from various places on a deer, just like a cow. Backstraps, which are the loins that run on either side of the spine, can be cut into steaks or medallions, the hind quarter has plenty of places to cut off round steaks as well. That's where most of our "steak" comes from... the backstraps and hind quarters.

Ryan Wagner

Thursday 16th of February 2023

Step 5…I’m not going to discard the steaks after removing them from the marinade. I’m sure that was a typo.

Danielle McCoy

Monday 20th of February 2023

LOL thank you for catching that, Ryan! I've had this recipe published for years, updated and reviewed, etc and no one has ever noticed it. I fixed it ;).

Claire

Wednesday 2nd of November 2022

May I pan fry, bake or broil these? Not able to grill now. I was given a few frozen Venison sirloin steaks, that's how they were described. I've never had Venison before, so I thought marinating would be best choice. I'm sorta lost. Any suggestions as to how to prepare w/o grilling?

Danielle McCoy

Thursday 3rd of November 2022

You can pan-fry them! Just be sure you don't overcook them, venison is incredibly tough when overcooked so only cook them to rare-medium rare about 120°F to 135°F.

NickB

Monday 22nd of August 2022

Nice simple recipe. I assume in Step 5, you mean to say “discard the marinade” not the actual venison steaks “them”.

Danielle McCoy

Saturday 27th of August 2022

Glad you enjoyed them. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm going to fix that LOL.

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