Venison Roast Slow Cooker Red Wine

Slow cooking in red wine, French style, brings incredible flavor and tenderness this Red Wine Braised Venison Roast recipe.

red wine braised venison roast with gravy and carrots

What Is Braising?

Braising is a French cooking technique that combines both dry and wet cooking methods. Meat is seared before being simmered, low and slow, until it is fall-apart tender.

The searing locks in the flavor and gives the meat a bit of a caramelized crust.

That seared meat goes into a covered pot with lots of aromatic vegetables and a little liquid.

Then it cooks low and slow, working all that flavorful moisture into the meat as it becomes fall-apart tender.

Braising is the perfect cooking technique for tougher cuts of meat. So, we like to turn to it when we have a venison roast that might need a bit of TLC.

(If you don't have venison, grab a beef chuck roast. Any tougher cut of beef is perfect for braising, since the slow cooking method will tenderize it too perfection!)

red wine braised venison roast on a white plate

Slow Cooked Venison in Red Wine

This recipe has become a deer season favorite in our house.

Low and slow cooking is the perfect method for venison, because it gives the meat plenty of time to tenderize. And, the red wine in this recipe not only gives great flavor to the meat, but it acts as an additional tenderizer as well.

That means SUPER tender and flavorful venison roast!

How To Make Braised Venison

The initial prep work isn't too difficult: just a quick sear of the meat and a saute of some veggies.

Then, into the oven it goes. We've cooked roasts from younger deer as short as 1 1/2 hours. But, older deer can benefit from 3-4 hours of braising.

It can be hard to wait that long, because the smell is incredible!

When it's time to eat, get ready for tender meat and caramelized onions in a wine sauce that had mellowed to a robust reduction.

Serving Red Wine Braised Venison

We like to serve our braised venison with potatoes. Good old mashed potatoes or baked potatoes are always a hit. But really, any potato will do.

They give a nice balance to the flavorful roast and are great to soak up the juice!

red wine braised venison roast overhead with potatoes and carrots

If you like this recipe, you need to try our Beer Braised Venison Roast recipe too!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

1 ½ c red wine, (any will do, we like Merlot)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp thyme
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb venison roast, cut into serving sized pieces (or beef chuck roast)
1 onion, quartered and sliced thin
4 celery stalks, chopped
5 carrots, sliced
1 c beef stock (we prefer low sodium)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium saucepan, mix the red wine with the garlic and thyme. Simmer, uncovered, over high heat until the wine has reduced by about half.
While your wine is reducing, sear your meat in a large cast-iron skillet, or Dutch oven. Heat 1 tsp of oil over high heat. Salt and pepper the venison and sear on all sides until deep brown. Remove the meat from pan.
Add another teaspoon of oil to the pan and add the veggies. Saute over high heat until the onions are golden, 3-5 min.
Add the beef broth into the pan, stirring to loosen all of the stuck bits in the bottom of the pan.
Return your meat to the pan with the beef broth and vegetables. Add the hot, reduced wine mixture. Cover the skillet or Dutch oven and place it in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until the meat tender.
When the meat is tender, remove your pan from the oven. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Notes

This recipe from 2012 was updated in October 2017. We made the roast even more flavorful!

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1/3 of recipe
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 479

This is one of the recipes from the early days of Curious Cuisiniere. We've made this many times and updated our pictures a few times since we first made it, but we've left some previous version here, in case you've found us in the past and are looking for that old, familiar image.

Red wine braised venison with carrots.

Red Wine Braised Venison | Curious Cuisiniere

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Sarah is one of Curious Cuisiniere's founding duo. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.