Stuffed Venison Backstrap Recipe
It’s time for my stuffed venison backstrap recipe. I’m a big fan of wild game and in Mississippi we deer hunt. I typically harvest a couple deer for my family every season, and one of my favorite preparations for white tail deer is stuffed backstrap. The Backstrap is the loin of the animal; it’s the tender meat sitting right along the backbone on each side.
For this recipe I make a slit down the length of the backstrap to butterfly it.
Then it gets stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, bacon, mushrooms, onion, and parsley. The whole thing gets wrapped in bacon to hold it together and to add a little fat because deer is incredibly lean meat.
It takes about 30 minutes on the smoker to fully cook and you want to run the pit at 350⁰ to brown the bacon.
It’s best served medium rare so get it off the pit when you see the temperature around 125-130 internal. I’m using a Thermoworks Thermapen instant read thermometer to check the internal temps. You can check out the Thermapens here>>
Just like any other cut of meat let it rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. Slice the backstrap into steak size portions about 1” in width and enjoy.
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Stuffed Venison Backstrap Recipe
Ingredients
- 1–2 Whole Venison Backstraps (loin)
- 8oz Cream Cheese
- 8oz Baby Portabella Mushrooms chopped
- ¼ cup Crumbled Bacon (about 6 slices)
- 1 small Yellow Onion diced
- 2 Tablespoons Bacon Drippings
- ½ cup Flat leaf Parsley chopped
- 2lbs Bacon
- 2 Tablespoons Killer Hogs AP Rub
- 2 Tablespoons Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub
Instructions
- Prepare Pellet Smoker or any other bbq grill for indirect cooking at 350⁰. Add your favorite wood to the hot coals for smoke flavor. In the pellet grill I use a combination of Pecan, Oak, and Cherry cooking pellets.
- To prepare the stuffing sauté onions and mushrooms in bacon drippings over medium heat. Add to room temperature cream cheese. Fold in crumbled bacon and parsley.
- Trim excess silver skin from venison backstraps and cut a slit down the length to butterfly it open. Be careful not to cut through the entire piece.
- Season with AP rub and stuff with cream cheese mixture.
- Wrap the outside with strips of bacon and season with Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub.
- Place each backstrap on a wire cooling rack and set on the smoker.
- Cook until internal temperature reaches 130 degrees or your desired doneness. The bacon should be brown on the outside.
- Allow the backstrap to rest for 10 minutes and cut into individual pieces for serving.
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Great recipe Very tasty way to cook backstrap
Is the thick cut back bacon nice and crisp in thirty minutes or cooked 135°? Great idea!
You can always pre-cook it in the oven for 10 minutes (just pull it out when it’s still flexible).
what would you use instand of mushrooms ?
Jalapenos
So glad I found this recipe on your site…not sure how I missed it cuz I’m always reading your recipes! We have a lot of back strap to cook and was looking for a tried and true method. Thanks!
My smoker only goes to 275… what should I do?
You can cook it at 275
Hey Malcom. I just tried this recipe. Absolutely my new favorite. Between my dad and girlfriend I barely got two pieces. I will be cooking this often. Thanks
That was amazing! Can’t go wrong with any recipe on this site
This recipe turned out perfect. You will enjoy this!
Love your recipes! Never disappointed! Thank you from MN.
Can I bake this in the oven?
Can I cook this in the oven? And do you marinate at all?
Can I just cook this in oven. I do not have smoker. If so, at what temp? Looks delicious!
I don’t cook these recipes in the oven, so I’m not sure about the conversion
We cooked in oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. It was great. Next time I will probably precook the bacon a bit so that it is a little more crunchy.
Thank you for adding your oven experience…I don’t want to grill outside as it’s super cold out and really wanted to try this recipe….. So will do tomorrow… appreciate your time in adding.
WOW, made this tonight and it was some of the best venison I ever had. The only change was I added some sauteed spinach to the mix.
Can you use a tender loin for the recipe?
Oh yeah – make this recipe your own!
Have you tried this with a pork loin??
No, but it would work the same. Take it to 140 internal.
Trying this tonight! I can’t wait! Going to start prepping it shortly.
Made this yesterday with elk backstrap. Turned out amazing. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all! Thanks for sharing the recipe Malcom!
Unfortunately I had to do it in the oven. With wire rack, 23 min at 350 then about 4 minutes on broil to crisp the bacon, came out right at medium. If I were to do it again via oven I’d do probably 20 + 4 minutes. Wanted to share since there have been a few questions about doing this in the oven.
Thanks
I’m about to do this right now with this year’s elk backstrap for our christmas dinner . I’m going to add half a jalapeno in the stuffing! I’m excited!
This recipe rawks! ?
Definitely a keeper!
What can you use instead of cream cheese if you are lactose intolerant.
you can use whatever you want – take the recipe and make it your own!
We had our friends over for dinner and made this after a hunting trip.
Everyone loved it and continue to ask when we will be making it again!
Will have to make it a tradition!
cant wait to try this at home just shot the buck of my life and im 13 love to cook meat
Could you prep this a day before cooking it? Or do you recommend stuffing, wrapping with bacon, and cooking immediately?
You can prep it the night before, refrigerate, and cook the next day no problem.
We do this with pork loin. We take the extra stuffing mix and pack it into mushroom caps wrapped in bacon. Little edible mushroom and bacon cups stuffed with the mix! Bake with the loin 20-25 minutes! Family favorite!
★★★★★
First time I tried it and it turned out amazing, wife says it’s the best dish I’ve ever made.
Outstanding! Used your Webber grill smoker technique. Turned out great!
How would you do this on the grill? (don’t have a smoker)
you would need to set your grill up for a two-zone fire
I would put a metal pan of some sort on the bottom grate of the grill where the charcoal goes. Preferably add some water to the pan (or beer, apple juice, cider, whatever liquid concoction you want) Then put your lit charcoal down on the grate next to the water pan, and throw a chunk or two of hard wood on the charcoal for little smoke flavor. Then on the upper grate (where the food cooks) put your meat right over the water pan. This makes it so the meat is being heated indirectly (instead of heat coming straight up off the charcoal it has to bounce off the lid and around the inside of your grill a bit). Put you cover/lid on the grill, and set your top vent to about half open, and then use the bottom vent to adjust airflow to the coals which will control the temperature of your cooker. This is how I BBQ in my basic old Weber Kettle Grill. I’ve done jerky, pork shoulders, beef chuck roasts, prime rib, brisket, corned beef brisket (for pastrami), and venison rump roasts on my Weber grill this way. Now I need to try this recipe!
Going to try this with moose back strap . Looks delicious!
We don’t have a smoker and in the winter months in Denver, the grill isn’t always an option. Do you have a way to modify for oven/cast iron skillet that would still do the trick?
This is the best blackstrap I have ever had period! Thank you for the great recipe.
★★★★★
Malcolm, this is the third time I have made this recipe in the past year. Yes we are lucky hunters her in Pennsylvania. This recipe is absolutely awesome. This recipe will be a long term keeper. I’m doing it on the Pit Boss Austin XL.
★★★★★
Delicious!!! I too made it in the oven because it is too cold out to grill. But because the blackstrap was so thick it took almost 40 minutes at 350 and 4 minutes under the broiler to get to 140 temp. It came out in the middle medium and the ends medium well.
This is make again recipe for sure!!!
Tried this with a mule deer blackstrap. Holy shit it was good
★★★★★
Great recipe, keep them coming you are the best.
I made this recipe pretty much exactly how it says, I just didn’t measure any of the ingredients. It was for a New Years Day bowl game party. I also smoked a brisket, pork butt, and ribs (also using Malcom’s recipes). Everything turned out great, but This back strap recipe was definitely the show stopper. I had 2 people that swore they would never eat venison come back for seconds. Great recipe. I really don’t think I’ll ever cook back strap another way. Thanks Malcom!
Let me tell u I’m a rookie at the smoker but this was awesome! I did the whole loin and the only thing I do was make it too early! 350 on the smoker and in 30 minutes was to 130. I pulled it off at 140. Tender! Not over cooked! Taste wonderful! I did not read how long to cook until after i started smoking. So it was a unexpected breakfast! Plenty left for the game today!
★★★★★
We don’t have elk in our country – is there another meat we could use? Many Thx
★★★★★