Smoked Venison With Bacon

As the summer temperatures heat up, it's hard for us diehard hunters to stay motivated for the upcoming deer season. Don't get me wrong, hunting is never far from my mind. I have practiced shooting my bow and hanging game cameras, in conjunction with other scouting regimes.

One thing that gets me pumped about the upcoming hunting seasons is getting out and preparing some delicious wild game recipes. With the recent Fourth of July holiday I found my wife and I gathered around the smoker and barbeque grill cooking some mouth-watering venison. Let me be the first to warn you, this recipe is not good for your deer management practices. This is due to the fact that once you have tasted smoked venison, you will start seeing every deer that comes past your stand with bacon wrapped around it and a toothpick sticking through it.

I'm from the country, so for many years I didn't know you could eat venison any other way besides rolled in flour and pan-fried. I continue to enjoy it cooked that way with a platter of biscuits and gravy to eat along with it. To me, this is stepping out of the box and enjoying this wild game another way. Since then I have tried many other recipes for cooking venison, but the below recipe continues to be my favorite. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

What you will need:

•1 package of bacon
•venison steaks, cut in 2" squares
•onion, cut into 1" squares
•your favorite seasoning
•toothpicks
•charcoal or electric smoker and barbeque grill

First, set your smoker to 220 degrees.

Take a slice of bacon, lay out flat. Place one steak at the edge of one end of the bacon. Sprinkle your favorite kind of seasoning onto the venison steak. Place a piece of onion on top of the steak. Fold bacon over the steak, followed by placing another steak on top of the bacon, repeat same seasoning. Fold the bacon back over so that bacon is on top of the stack (see photo). Place one or two toothpicks through the stack of meat.

Once all of your meat is prepared, place on smoker rack for approximately 2 hours. Once meat is on smoker, add your favorite wood chips. I personally prefer apple wood.

After the meat has smoked for a couple of hours, move all the meat from the smoker to a hot barbeque grill. Grill just long enough to crisp up the bacon. Pull off of grill and serve.