These venison enchiladas are easy to make and perfect for a quick weeknight meal. Ground venison is paired with a delicious, homemade red enchilada sauce, and topped with tons of cheese. They’re sure to become a family favorite.

We are counting down the weeks to opening day around here and in the meantime, I’ve been busy using up some of the venison in our freezer to make some great recipes.

And in true Tuesday fashion, I had to make some Mexican food. I mean, it’s not exactly taco Tuesday, I’ve got venison tacos for that. But, I had a hankering for some enchiladas, I didn’t want to use beef, and I wanted some tasty enchiladas.

One of my favorite ways to use venison is to substitute it in just about any recipe that calls for beef. It doesn’t have to be complicated or have a bunch added to it. With all of us being hunters in our house, save the youngest who’s just getting started, we have a lot of deer meat in our freezer to use in new ways.

Typically a lot of that meat winds up being ground venison. While I love making to-die-for venison burgers and chili, and whatever other venison recipes I come up with, these yummy deer enchiladas are the absolute best enchiladas ever.

How to Make Enchiladas With Deer Meat

This venison enchilada recipe is super easy to make. You just need some venison, beans, peppers, onions, garlic, tortillas, tomato sauce, broth, and lots of seasoning.

Venison Enchiladas Recipe Ingredients

• Red enchilada sauce – homemade is best, but if you want to use canned to save five minutes, you can.
• Ground venison – deer, elk, antelope, or any wild game will work here. You can even use ground beef, turkey, or whatever ground meat you have on hand.
• Green pepper, jalapeño pepper, onion, and garlic – for a little flavor
• Seasonings – cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, pepper, salt and oregano are all used at one point or another here so don’t let the list of ingredients scare you, most of it is seasoning!
• Tortillas – corn, flour, whatever you choose.

Make the Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce

The trick to really good enchiladas starts with really good enchilada sauce and tortillas. Some folks swear by store-bought red enchilada sauce. I swear it’s worth the 5 minutes, yes just 5 minutes, to make your own.

In a saucepan make a roux with flour, seasonings, and olive oil over low heat. Slowly add in some chicken stock, whisk in some tomato sauce, and viola in less than 5 minutes you have the best enchilada sauce you’ve ever tasted. I promise.

Make the Venison Enchilada Filling

Heat some olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Sauté bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, onion, and garlic for a couple of minutes. Add in the ground venison.

Cook meat with peppers, onion, and garlic over medium heat until it’s almost done. Then, pour in the seasoning and stir it to incorporate it into the deer meat mixture. Add in black beans and refried beans, stirring to incorporate. Lastly, add 1 cup of the homemade enchilada sauce to the meat mixture.

Assemble the Deer Enchiladas

Another trick to make really good enchiladas is the tortillas. Corn tortillas are the traditional type for making enchiladas. While I prefer them, my kids are finicky about them so I typically use flour tortillas.

Regardless of which type of tortilla you use, warm them first in a skillet before filling them to prevent cracking.

Next, spoon a little bit of the red sauce onto the bottom of a baking dish to help prevent sliding and sticking.

Place a scoop of meat mixture on a tortilla. Gently roll the tortilla up tightly, leaving the ends open. Place the tortilla in the red sauce lined pan.

Once you’ve assembled all of the tortillas, ladle the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Cover with cheese.

Bake the enchiladas covered with aluminum foil for 10 minutes in a 350°F oven. Uncover them and bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly.

Serve the enchiladas hot with preferred toppings. I love some sour cream, guacamole if I have it, and pickled jalapeños, but whatever you prefer is perfect!

Storing & Freezing Enchiladas

This recipe can be made in advance, baked, and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat, covered, in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through uncovering for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

You can also freeze this recipe. It’s a fantastic recipe to double so you’ve got a freezer meal for later. Simply make the recipe, bake, and freeze for 3 to 6 months in an airtight container. Reheat, covered, in a 375°F oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.