Photo by Capt. Nate Skinner

Try searing instead of frying venison for a melt-in-your-mouth dish

There’s not much better than a tender, juicy piece of wild game meat, seared to perfection.

This recipe will help you achieve a melt-in-your-mouth result, with the backstraps from a white-tailed deer. Most folks typically fry backstrap in small chunks, which is without a doubt tasty. But it’s always fun to try new things in the kitchen, and this method is worth it.

When searing backstrap, I prefer to have the meat butterflied into medallions that are 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Simply season the wild game and marinate it in some Worcestershire sauce for a few hours, and you’ll be ready to rock and roll.

The searing step of this dish is probably the easiest, because it takes only a few minutes. Backstrap is best when it’s cooked to a tender medium, rather than well done.

Once you’ve seared both sides of the tasty morsels, top them with some herb butter, and let the juices melt right over the meat. This will produce a restaurant quality look and taste that’s out of this world. It won’t be long before you and your guests are going back for seconds.

Seared Backstrap Topped With Herb Butter

For the backstrap:

2 whole backstraps from a white-tailed deer butterflied into ¼- to ½-inch thick medallions

Worcestershire sauce

Salt

Coarse ground black pepper

For the herb butter:

1 cup softened butter

1 clove minced garlic

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon oregano, chopped

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Season both sides of each piece of backstrap with salt and coarse ground black pepper, and marinate them in Worcestershire sauce for 2-3 hours in the fridge.

While the backstrap is marinating, mix all of the ingredients for the herb butter in a large bowl. Stir them up thoroughly. Place the butter mixture on a sheet of parchment paper and form/roll it into a cylinder. Roll/wrap the parchment paper around the butter and tightly twist the ends of the paper. Put the butter in the fridge.

After the backstrap has marinated for 2-3 hours, sear both sides of each piece for about 2 minutes each in a skillet on high heat. Once each backstrap medallion has been seared, place them on a pan and top them with a thin slice of herb butter. Let them rest in an oven set to 170 F for about 5 minutes, or until the butter melts.

Serve with red wine and green veggies.