Venison French Dip Recipe & Cooking Instructions

By: Dylan Hayward

One of the greatest things about hunting is the way that you get to connect with how you feed yourself and your family. I truly believe that engrained somewhere in all of our DNA, we have some level of primal instinct to hunt for our own food. In fact, it’s a relatively new concept that we would consume things that weren’t from our own individual harvests. While our early ancestors probably didn’t have tons of recipes that they experimented with, I find it fun to adopt my own wild game take on common recipes that you will see at most restaurants. Which led me to try a whitetail version of the beloved french dip sandwich, which I can guarantee all of your friends and family will love, regardless of how squeamish they are on the idea of wild meat.

Venison French Dip Ingredients

3 lbs of Venison Roast (I like to use the ham or leg but a backstrap works great as well)

1 Tbsp. of black pepper

1 Tbsp. of kosher salt

2 Tsp. of rosemary

2 Tsp. of dried oregano

2 Cloves of Garlic

¼ Yellow Onion

2 Cups of Beef Broth (or homemade venison broth)

¼ Cup of Worcestershire

¼ Cup of Soy Sauce

Provolone Cheese (Mozzarella will work as well)

Sub Rolls (I use french bread)

Venison French Dip Cooking Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°. Place venison roast into a roasting pan and rub all over with olive oil. Apply your salt pepper, salt, rosemary and oregano to the roast. Place in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. I like to use a wireless meat thermometer (regular meat thermometer will do) and take it out of the oven once the internal temperature reaches 125°. Place the roast on a cutting board for it to rest, and drop the oven temperature to 350°.

When people hear that they have to make “Au Jus” sauce for this recipe, they tend to get intimidated, but do not. Au Jus literally translates from french to “with sauce”, meaning you’re essentially just adding that sauce from your roast to a small bowl to dip your sandwiches in. Take the pan that you had your roast in, add onions in for a few minutes until they turn translucent. Add your minced garlic, Worcestershire and soy sauce, and bring it to a nice simmer, which will make it slightly thicker, this usually takes about 10 minutes.

Thinly slice your venison roast and pile that onto your sub roll and top that with your cheese. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Serve with your Au Jus sauce on the side in a small bowl.

This is a simple recipe that will take less than an hour to make, and will leave your guests coming back for seconds, as well as the secret to making it so damn good.