How to Make Delicious Venison Wellington

If you are looking for a beautiful and delicious way to serve Venison this holiday season, Venison Wellington is it! This dish is full of rich flavor, with perfectly cooked, juicy venison and is sure to be show stopper!

If you have never heard of Beef Wellington, it is a well known dish that Gordon Ramsey is famous for. Perfectly cooked beef tenderloin with beautiful layers surrounding it, all wrapped in golden pastry. While it is known for how impressive it looks, I am here to show you that anyone can make it! And because we are hunters around here, we are making it with Venison instead of Beef ;).

You are going to want to use either backstrap or tenderloin for this wellington. Any large wild game you have will work! While typically it is made with tenderloin, because venison tenderloin is much smaller than beef, I prefer to use backstrap. The thicker diameter of backstrap allows you to get a perfect cook on the meat while ensuring the pastry is cooked.

It starts with searing the backstrap, then coating it is dijon mustard, wrapping it in a duxelle and prosciutto, then sealing it all with a layer of puff pastry. The rich mushrooms from the duxelle, and the buttery puff pastry complement the venison so well without taking away from it. Venison Wellington is a perfect dish to serve for a date night in, or any special dinner this holiday season!

Tips for Making Venison Wellington

1. Make sure that your meat is at room temperature and is nice and dry before searing. This will ensure you get an even sear that gets nice a crusty.
2. When cooking the mushrooms, you want to do so slowly so you aren’t caramelizing them or burning them at all. You want them to just get soft and tender and hold their flavor.
3. Once you wrap the back strap with the duxelle, and prosciutto, you want to chill the whole thing for at least an hour. This will help it hold its shape, and will also ensure that the meat doesn’t cook too fast in the oven and become over cooked. If the meat is warm when going into the oven, it can easily become overdone before the pastry is cooked.
4. Always allow the wellington to rest for 10 minutes before serving. This helps the meat hold all its juices in. If you slice it too early, it can dry out your meat and make a soggy mess of your wellington.

Venison Wellington Ingredients

Venison Backstrap– As mentioned above you can use any wild game backstrap that you like. The thickness of it will just affect the cooking time slightly. Venison, moose, elk, etc will all be delicious.

Dijon Mustard– This gets brushed over the meat after searing. It helps introduce some more flavor, and also works as a binder to help the mushrooms stick to the meat.

Duxelle– This is a combination of shallots, fresh garlic, herbs and very finely minced mushrooms that get cooked together until nice and aromatic almost into a paste. I also add a splash of balsamic to it in this recipe for extra flavor.

Prosciutto– A thin layer of prosciutto gets wrapped around the duxelle, and helps hold it all together in the desired shaped. It adds delicious salty flavor as well.

Puff Pastry– You can use store bought or homemade puff pastry. Whichever you prefer, but you want it nice and thin.

The Steps

Make the Duxelle

1. Start on your duxelle. Add the olive oil, shallots and garlic to a pan and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
2. Next, add in the finely chopped mushrooms, season with salt and continute to cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Once most of the moisture has evaporated from the mushrooms, add in the chopped rosemary and thyme, and couple tbsp balsamic vinegar. Continue to cook the mixture for just a couple more minutes then remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Sear and Roll the Venison

1. Then, you are going to take the backstrap and pat it dry on all sides. Season it generously with salt and pepper all over.
2. Heat a skillet over high heat with a couple tbsp of ghee or high smoke point oil. You want it nice and HOT.
3. Take the venison backstrap and sear it for 1 minute on all sides to get a nice golden crust.
4. Remove from the pan and immediately brush it all over with the dijon mustard.
5. Now, before you roll the meat, you want to squeeze the excess moisture out of the duxelle. Squeezing the moisture out of the mushrooms with a paper towel or by pressing the mushrooms into a fine sieve can help keep the pastry from going soggy.
6. Once you have done that, lay a big piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Lay the slices of prosciutto over the plastic wrap into a large rectangle, roughly the length of your backstrap.
7. Then, spread the duxelle over the prosciutto into a nice even layer. You want to spread this so that it is roughly the right shape to cover the backstrap when you roll it up.
8. Finally, place the seared backstrap at the bottom of the mushrooms, then roll it up nice and tight so there are no gaps in the prosciutto. Twist both ends of the plastic wrap to ensure that everything can hold its shape nicely.
9. Place this in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.

Wrap and Bake

1. Once the meat is chilled and you are ready to bake it, preheat your oven to 425F or convection 400F.
2. Roll out the sheet of puff pastry to make it slightly thinner than how it comes.
3. Then, whisk together the egg yolks and milk in a small dish and brush this egg wash over the pastry.
4. Unwrap the plastic wrap from the backstrap, then gently place at the bottom of the puff pastry. Roll it up tightly away from you, trimming off the excess puff pastry once the whole backstrap is covered.

1. Gently pinch the edges of the pastry together, and roll it over so that the seam is on the bottom. Fold up the edges nice and tight.
2. Place the wellington onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Take the remaining egg wash and brush it over all sides of the pastry.
3. Cut a few shallow slits on top of the wellington (this is mainly for looks), then sprinkle with flaky salt and a bit of fresh rosemary.
4. Place in the preheated oven and bake until the internal temp reaches 120-130F and the pastry is golden.
5. Once it is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy

If you give this recipe a try, leave a comment or recipe review below!

Looking for more delicious Wild Game recipes to try this Winter?

https://cmbarndominium.com/burrata-maple-bourbon-venison-crostinis/

https://cmbarndominium.com/easy-flavourful-caramelized-onion-venison-sausage-rolls/

https://cmbarndominium.com/easy-delicious-maple-venison-sausage-breakfast-sandwich/