This technique for grilled venison loin couldn’t be simpler. Or more straightforward. Here, the loin—easily the most tender cut of easy-to-overcook venison—is cooked rare to medium-rare over a grill and accompanied by tart crème fraîche or sour cream to tone down the meat’s richness of the venison.–Renee Schettler Rossi
Grilled Venison Loin with Horseradish Cream Sauce
Ingredients
For the venison loin
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds venison loin, trimmed of all silver skin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped herbs, such as thyme, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, and/or flat-leaf parsley leaves
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
For the horseradish cream sauce
- 1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated or prepared horseradish, or more to taste
- 2 teaspoons chopped chives or flat-leaf parsley leaves
- Juice and grated zest from 1 lemon, preferably organic
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Grill the venison loin
- Season the venison with the salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix the herbs with the oil and spread all over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Make a hot fire in a charcoal grill or set a gas grill on high heat.
- Grill the meat, without moving it, until nicely browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Then rotate the venison 90° and leave it for just a minute to make grill marks.
- Flip the venison and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more, again rotating the venison if grill marks are desired. You want to aim for a good, deeply charred outside but a nice and rare or medium-rare inside. Transfer to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 10 minutes while you make the sauce.
Make the horseradish cream sauce
- Mix the crème fraîche, horseradish, chives, lemon juice, and zest together in a small bowl and season with salt.
Serve the grilled venison loin
- Thinly slice the loin against the grain, pile it onto plates or a platter, and serve with the horseradish cream sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
I’ve never been much of a fan of venison, but this recipe won me over. I appreciate the pure taste of venison and the cooking technique; the meat was so mild that I really wanted seconds—okay, thirds.
With or without the horseradish cream, this can be served to family or guests to rave reviews.
We eat a lot of venison so I’m always looking for a good recipe. This one was easy and tasty. The timing was perfect, as the venison was just past rare (if you overcook venison it quickly becomes tough).
After marinating for 6 hours, the flavor of the rub was still very mild, so next time I’ll let it sit overnight to have a little more flavor from the herbs.
The sauce was lovely and not overpowering—a nice complement to the meat. So many venison marinades use Worcestershire, garlic, or bacon, so this was a nice change.
We discovered the leftover sauce was delicious on fish! Our anniversary (#41) was graced by this meal and we made it with our own garden herbs, wild rice with forage mushrooms (morel and hen of the woods) and roadkill venison (sad but delicious, and the truck survived albeit with injuries).
What a wonderful meal you put together under less-than-ideal circumstances, Susan. Wishing you both a lovely anniversary and many more years together.
I really appreciate this recipe. From cutting the silver off to the marinade right down to the cooking. However, we only cooked ours 4 minutes on each side because we like ours more on the rare side. We don’t care about the crisscross marks because, after all, it is going to be eaten. Sure, it looks prettier but when you turn it you can sort of get that crisscross look. I did find out in all of my cooking endeavors that it is great to let your meat sit at least 5 minutes before slicing into it. The horseradish cream sauce was to die for. I thank you for this recipe my husband and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Again, happy hunting and happy eating.
Tammie, love that you adapted this recipe to suit your own personal preference! Loooove that. So happy you like the results as much as we do. Appreciate you taking the time to let us know and, yes, happy hunting and happy eating! Looking forward to hearing which recipe on the site, game or otherwise, that you try next! And actually, we just published a venison Bolognese recipe that you may wish to try…
Can you cook this in an oven? Don’t have a grill but this recipe looks yummy and I really want to try!
Amber, I think you could have great success on the stovetop. Searing the venison in a very hot pan should keep you good stead.