Beer braised venison neck renders a traditionally tough cut of venison into a mouthwateringly tender roast with a rich silky gravy.
Venison neck is not the most popular cut of meat found on a deer. If venison neck was a student-athlete, it would only be put in the game when the team is up by 30 and they just want a heart-warming 'Rudy' moment. If venison meat was an academic problem, it would be so tough that only a feel-good movie featuring Matt Damon could crack it. However, don't despair. When properly prepared a venison neck roast can be an exceptional tender and flavorful meal!
How to Butcher Venison Neck
Most people I know turn venison neck into hamburger meat. Often, I've seen people unknowingly waste much of it because of the sinew and fat laced throughout can make it almost impossible to remove meat cleanly. However, take heart, because the fat found in the venison neck is actually perfect for braising.
As the venison neck cooks this fat will melt out and help fortify your sauce, resulting in an exceptionally flavorful gravy to serve with the braised venison neck. When butchering venison neck you can simply leave it whole to use for a meal like this. Otherwise, you can grind it up into hamburger, even without trimming away most of the fat. As long as the fat is thin enough to see through, it is good enough for the grinder.
How to Roast Venison Neck
I often refer to my beer braised venison neck recipe as roasted venison neck. However, technically it isn't roasted because it is cooking in liquid, rather than dry heat. Because of the tough nature of venison neck, you will typically find braising it will lead to much better results than roasting it. However, most of the roasted venison neck recipes found online are actually braised venison necks.
Beer Braised Venison Neck
Using a large Dutch Oven is ideal for this recipe because its wide opening can accommodate larger venison necks more easily. Before you start cooking check to see if your neck will fit in the pot if it does not, all you need to do is cut it down to fit and you can proceed with the recipe as written.
The beer and beef broth form the base of the sauce. As the neck cooks the liquid will slowly thicken into a gravy fortified with vegetables and herbs. This can be served alongside the venison or over it. Serving a heaping helping of fluffy mashed potatoes alongside is recommended.
Troubleshooting Beer Braised Venison Neck
There are two main problems you could encounter when cooking this beer braised venison neck - the meat is too tough, or too much liquid evaporated. Luckily, they are both simple problems to correct.
If you have reached the end of the cooking time and the meat is still not easily shredded with a fork, it just needs to be cooked longer. The longer the meat cooks, the more tender it will become. If you check on the venison and find almost all of the liquid has evaporated, simply add more water to maintain a saucy consistency. Alternatively, you can use any leftover broth or beer too.
Beer Braised Venison Neck
Ingredients
- 1 Venison Neck
- 2 tablespoons Cooking Oil
- 2 medium Carrots (chopped)
- 1 large Yellow Onion (chopped)
- 2 stalks Celery (chopped)
- 4 cloves Garlic (chopped)
- 3 cups Low Sodium Beef stock
- 18 oz Stout Beer
- 2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 sprigs fresh Thyme
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- 2 Bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground Black Pepper
- Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Ensure your neck roast will fit in your pot or dutch oven, cut it in half or trim it down as needed. The neck of a young deer should fit well, larger mature deer may need to be trimmed.
- Heat oil in the dutch oven over medium-high heat and sear the venison neck on all sides until browned.
- Remove the neck, add additional oil if needed, and saute the carrots until they begin to tenderize, then add onion and celery and cook until all vegetables are tender and beginning to brown. Add garlic and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Return venison neck back to the pot and add remaining liquids, seasonings and herbs.
- Cover dutch oven with a lid and place in the oven, checking on it hourly and rotating the neck to ensure even cooking.
- Neck roast is done when easily shredded with a fork. about 4-5 hours. Add additional liquid to the pot if too much evaporates.
Notes
Nutritional Information
Don't forget to check out the rest of my mouthwatering venison recipes too!
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Bernie
I had never cooked a neck roast before a friend gave me one. I tried it with this recipe and it was really good. I substituted 2tsps dried thyme for 2tbsp fresh and maple syrup for the brown sugar. It turned out great! Thanks!
Fox Valley Foodie
Those are great substitutions!
Mark
We usually just grind the neck meat, but I came across this recipe while researching venison recipes. We saved the necks from our mule deer this year just to try this. Well, we had it tonight and it was amazing! Tender and delicious. I think we will try it without the tomato paste to see if the gravy looks more like the picture. Ours was red and was definitely tomato based. Still delicious, but not what I was picturing. Im sure it will be great both ways.
Stacey Borge
This is sooooo good. Easy to personalize, but no need. It’s beauty just the way it is! I didn’t have any beer so I just subbed broth for the remaining liquid. Served over mashed potatoes and licked the plate clean. This recipe is my go to for a nice neck roast.
Sonny
Thank you for the recipe!
Making this tonight. It looks fantastic!
Just a couple of questions:
1 Don't you put any salt in it?
2 Do you brown the flour, or do you just throw it in with everything the liquids, seasonings and herbs? I'm a bit worried it might get lumpy if I just put it in there with everything else?
Thanks again!
Fox Valley Foodie
I don't add salt because the liquids reduce so much that additional salt isn't needed, but you can certainly add some if you'd like. I have also never had an issue with it becoming lumpy.
Alicia
Has anyone tried this with different cuts? I have tried this with the neck and it was amazing. However, I'm out of neck for now. I'm thinking about using this recipe for a sirloin roast or perhaps a bottom round. Any thoughts on this would be helpful!
Stacey Borge
I think any cut that needs a nice long slow cook would probably be golden. Bottom round would be great! Go for it!
Shannon F.
My husband got a doe two weeks ago and a buck last weekend. He was 100lbs dressed. The butcher suggested the neck roast and he butterflied them so we got two. Came upon this recipe on Pinterest and I knew IMMEDIATELY this was what was going down today. My kitchen is my happy place! So I chopped and sautéed the veggies and seared the roast. It now sits in my crockpot awaiting dinner time. Thanx for the amazing recipe. My mouth is watering thinking about it.
Fox Valley Foodie
Congratulations to your husband! I hope you enjoy the recipe.
David W
Incredible recipe! Made it for the first time tonight with a 3 year old buck's neck roast. The meat was very tender, full of flavor, and the "gravy" made the dish. I added some button cap mushrooms, when all the ingredients were combined. I would 1/2 again the amount of carrots and celery next time, as there just weren't enough of them to with the huge amount of meat. Tip of the cap to you for this recipe! It'll be a Fall Favorite moving forward!
Shannon F.
I’m making this today. Can’t wait!!! You’re comment solidified my making this 🙂
LORETTA J LIEFVELD
In the past, I've had a problem with venison 'roasts'. They seem to end up somewhat dry and not as tender as I would like, even though I put them in the crockpot.
But this recipe was the bomb!!! It was incredibly tender and fell apart. It wasn't dry at all. My husband doesn't usually like sauces or gravy, but when I tried to give the leftover gravy to the dogs, he objected, saying we should use the gravy over rice or other meat. That's an incredible testament to the richness and flavor of this gravy.
I ended up cooking it longer than the recipe calls for, only because we had unexpected company right around the 4 hour mark.
The only modification I made (if you can even call it that) was that I didn't 'chop' the carrots and celery because I was too lazy. I sliced them instead. Oh, and I didn't have any 'stout' beer, so I used what I had, which was a pale ale. I would like to try it with a stout beer next time.
I didn't really pay attention to the last sentence, and I should have: Make sure you check the level of the liquid as it cooks. I guess I just thought that with a cover it wouldn't evaporate... but I almost burned it when the liquid evaporated too far.
Charles C.
My Dear Mr. Fox what a really good recipe. I do all of our road kill to this very same way. But I cook ours in the slow cooker, leave to cool over night, then re-heat. Add a good swig of jimmy red roo. Just a suggestion. Thank you so much.Never been to America,can,t fly. God bless America.
J Carlsen
Please reassure me that thid is to roasted 4 hrs at 375. Seems way too hot!!!
Fox Valley Foodie
375 is correct!
Shannon
Best deer recipe EVER!!!!
Grace
About try this recipe out Sunday, SOOOO EXCITED!!
Leanne
This recipe is amazing. The venison was fork tender and so tasty. Thank you!
Tiffany Scoggins
This is by far my favorite fall meal to make! I had never had deer neck before in my life and a friend had a few necks to get rid of. The idea was to make deer salad as you would like a tuna salad. I looked up recipes for deer neck and came across this AMAZING recipe! I am so excited because I get to make it again this Sunday for my extended friends and family and I know they will love it as much as I and a few others that tried this last fall! Thank you for blessing us with the most tender and flavorful "roast" as it is truly yummy!!!
Tyler
I made this recipe for my deer hunting buddies, and everyone was blown away! Next time I'm going to add additional carrots and onion about an hour before it's done cooking, because after braising for that long, they had almost disintegrated. I also used some bourbon to deglaze the pan after browning and used corn starch to thicken the gravy after the meat was done.
Yvonne
We tried it and it was very good my neck was from an Elk so We only cold half of it and found my biggest pan and covered it with foil. My husband has hunted forever and his Mom would make mincemeat out of the neck. This was so delicious
Alyssa
What kind of beer do you recommend ?
Fox Valley Foodie
The ingredients specify "Stout Beer". Guinness is popular, but your favorite brand is fine.
Emily
Is there any chance this recipe would be adequate for a venison shoulder? Would ingredient proportions and cooking time be virtually the same? This recipe sounds delicious but all I have is a shoulder (bone in)
Fox Valley Foodie
Yes, that should still work very well. You may have to play around with the overall cooking time (just cook until it is tender), and obviously cut down the shoulder to fit into your pot.
Emily
Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I'm so looking forward to warming up the kitchen this Saturday with this recipe. Cheers!
Rachael
What beer would you recommend? Yuengling is more robust than popular beers. Would something like guiness be too much?
Fox Valley Foodie
I love cooking with Guinness. That would be my first choice.
Leslie
I am not familiar with beer so I grabbed a 24 oz can of budweizer.. will that still be okay?
Amber
Holy moly this turned out amazing! So delicious! Thanks for this recipe!
Cece
This recipe sounds delicious! Would it work in a crockpot?
Fox Valley Foodie
Yes, it would, however, the sauce will be thinner because liquid doesn't evaporate out of the slow cooker as easily.
Carl Fritze
I’ve made this 3 times for the guys at work, they can’t get enough of it. Great recipe