What To Do With Leftover Venison

What to do with leftover venison . . . I don’t know about you, but I love a good elk or venison steak; I just don’t always love trying to eat it the same way the following day and expecting it to taste fresh off the grill. So these days, instead of reheating and making more sides to go with it, I make a whole new meal out of it. Same goes for other meaty leftovers, such as ground venison and roast. The fam doesn’t complain about eating venison leftovers, and I don’t have to put as much effort into diversifying the weekly menu.

Some of these ideas are fairly obvious; but here they are, all in one place, for those days when you have a brain fart (or when the ol’ mom brain flares up):

Leftover Steak or Kebab meat

• Cut into small pieces and eat for breakfast (breakfast burritos or steak and eggs)
• Chop and throw it into rice with veggies, scrambled egg pieces, and soy sauce for easy steak fried rice.
• Cut into strips, toss them into a bowl of greens, and top with croutons and dressing for a hearty lunch.
• Make a fajita wrap by cutting the meat into thin strips, tossing with some fajita seasoning, and rolling it up into a flour tortilla with sautéed peppers and onions.

Leftover Cooked Ground Venison/Burger or Venison Sausage

• Again, breakfast: use leftover cooked sausage for omelet, quiche, or biscuits and sausage gravy.
• Make it into a sausage, potato, and zucchini casserole. (Quick tip: Roast cubed potatoes in the oven with olive oil and seasonings until they are almost soft, then add the sausage, zucchini, and grated cheese if desired and cook until sausage is heated through and zucchini is tender. This prevents the zucchini from getting overcooked and the sausage from becoming too dry.)
• Throw it in spaghetti sauce (venison Italian sausage is especially good for this!). Simply heat and serve with pasta for a quick meat.
• Add to homemade mac n’ cheese.
• Make wild sausage mcmuffin breakfast kebabs.

Leftover Roast

• Rinse off the roast juices or gravy from the meat and shred. Heat with barbecue sauce over low heat and serve on Kaiser rolls.
  

  For Leftover Uncooked Ground Venison

When I thaw out a large package (2 or more pounds ) of ground venison, I like to divide it and use for two meals. For example:

• 1) Burgers, 2) Meatballs for spaghetti
• 1) Sloppy joes*, 2) Shepherd’s pie
• 1)Tacos, 2) Goulash
• 1) Chili, 2) Meatloaf
• 1) Lasagna, 2) Venison pasties*

Hopefully these ideas and recipe suggestions for leftover venison get your creative juices flowing. Keep in mind that they’ll work for elk, sheep, moose, or antelope too, of course.

Harvesting game is no easy feat. Don’t let it go to waste!

*Can also use leftover cooked burger. For the pasties, just add a bit of water or gravy to the filling recipe to prevent meat from drying out.

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