I’m showing you how to cook venison steak! This recipe is the best because of how little work it is but also how tender and juicy the venison steak tastes!
The Best Way to Cook Venison Steak
The Instant Pot has officially become part of our family with this venison steak recipe. Yes, there is a cultural trend associated with it, but unlike most trends, I cannot foresee this one going away! The Instant Pot makes so much sense. I’ve always known that pressure cookers create the most tender meat, but to have one that plugs into the wall where the user can walk away is quite genius. When I finally got my hands on a 6 qt Instant Pot, venison steak was first on the menu. My husband harvested a deer during the 2017 season and it provided us with 60 pounds of meat for our freezer.
What I love about preparing venison steak in the Instant Pot is that you can go from rock solid frozen to fall off the bone tender in about two hours. Amazing. For years I spent slow roasting or slow cooking venison at medium temperatures. Although I enjoyed the aroma wafting through the house, it took hours, sometimes all day to get really tender meat …and that didn’t include the time it took to defrost the meat in my refrigerator! With four young children and an endless parade of meals, pressure cooking is now my favorite way to prepare venison.
Are you ready to make delicious venison in the Instant Pot with me? Come on in to my kitchen!
How to Cook Venison Steak
Step 1 – Add Frozen Venison Steak to Instant Pot
Before you start, make sure your cut of meat will actually fit into the Instant Pot. Since we are starting with frozen, you won’t be able to cut the meat into chunks. Shown here is a 2.78 lb package of bone-in venison steak. You can always ask your butcher ahead of time to cut the steaks into pieces that will fit into an Instant Pot.
**After hearing from many of you, I suggest reserving this recipe for bone-in venison steaks only. The time may vary for other cuts of meat such as boneless cuts, roasts or tenderloins with little intramuscular fat**
Step 2 – Add the Venison Steak Seasoning
Remove the butcher paper and any plastic wrapping from the meat. Set the meat inside the inner pot (make sure the lid closes!) and sprinkle some good onion soup mix on top. I like to make my own onion soup mix with dried onion and a handful of spices I have on hand like garlic powder, celery salt and turmeric. For each pound of meat, use one Tablespoon of seasoning. Since my steak is nearly three pounds, I am using 3 Tablespoons.
Step 3 – Add Quality Beef Broth
Next, pour one 14.5 oz. can of quality beef broth into the inner pot and lock the lid. That’s it! This recipe is so simple that it’s almost silly! There is no need to cut onions or sear the meat first.
Step 4 – Pressure Cook the Steak in the Instant Pot
Press the “Manual” button using high pressure and set the time for 90 minutes. When there is 20 minutes remaining, I cut up some carrots and potatoes and roast them in the oven while the venison finishes up. A lot of recipes call for you to pressure cook your side vegetables after removing the meat, but I found that my meat would get cool before the vegetables were done. By utilizing my oven, everything is done at the same time.
Step 5 – Let The Instant Pot Pressure Release Naturally
When the 90 minutes are up, allow the instant pot to come to natural pressure release. This means that you don’t touch the lid until the little float valve drops (about 20 minutes). Unlock and open the lid and be prepared to have the socks knocked off your feet! To show you how tender the meat is, I removed it from the pot and heard the bones drop onto the plate because it was so tender. I could also hear the sound of our hungry kids waiting at the table. This is one of their favorite meals 🙂
You can make some gravy with the broth or just keep things as-is. The roasted vegetables and slices of baby swiss pair well with venison, but we also gobble it up alongside crusty bread and salad. A satisfying wholesome meal ready to welcome Easter weekend. Enjoy!
Another Venison Recipe
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Instant Pot Venison Steak Recipe
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Prep Time: 5 minutes -
Cook Time: 90 minutes
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Total Time: 95 minutes
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Yield: 8
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This recipe makes the most juicy and fall off the bone tender venison steak in only two hours!
Ingredients
- 2-5 pounds of frozen bone-in venison steaks
- 2-5 Tablespoons of onion soup mix or favorite seasoning (1 Tablespoon per pound)
- 1 – 14.5 oz. can of beef broth
Instructions
- Remove butcher paper or plastic wrapping from frozen venison and place inside the pot.
- Sprinkle over one Tablespoon of onion soup mix per pound of meat.
- Pour one 14.5 oz. can of quality beef broth into the inner pot and lock the lid.
- Press the “Manual” button using high pressure and set the time for 90 minutes.
- When the 90 minutes are up, allow the instant pot to come to natural pressure release.
- When the float valve drops, open the lid and remove the meat.
- Serve alongside roasted vegetables or your favorite sides.
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Hi! I would love to make this recipe, but I only have unfrozen meat right now. Is there a way to cook it like that?
Hi Kylie!
You probably already cooked your meat by now, but I wanted you to know that if you reduce the time by 10 minutes or so, that might do the trick! I have never used anything but frozen meat with this recipe. If it worked out for you, let us know. Thanks!
This was so good! My husband is a hunter and even after 11 years of marriage, I am still hesitant on trying the venison I cook. But this tasted just like a beef roast! The roasts and chops are usually the last cuts left in our freezer because I just don’t have enough good recipes for them. I will be making this again! Thank you!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback Amy!
My hunter husband and I have been married 11 years too 😉
Thanks! The meat tasted great. Husband ate half of his before he, “said is this beef?” I used a whole rear portion (ham?/ was not cut into steaks; we processed ourselves so it had hip joint & bone.) It was probably more than 5lbs and fit into my 8qt GoWise. I used recipe & directions. Except for using one packet of onion soup mix and because of large size, also added several teaspoons of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and a packet of Italian Dressing Seasoning. After cook time and natural release, I checked meat and did add 12 minutes and a second natural release for it to be as tender as I wanted. Our 10 yr old daughter was thrilled with her providing for our family with a successful hunt; she especially loved the gravy along with the meat.
★★★★★
Glad your family enjoyed it Cindy! I appreciate the feedback that this recipe can work even for larger bone-in portions by just increasing the time. Good to know! Thanks 🙂
I’m so sorry, I followed this recipe exactly and our venison tenderloin turned out tough and dry. I got the impression from this post that this would work for most cuts…did I miss something?
★★
Hi Linden!
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you! I’m wondering if it’s because the cut was a tenderloin and not a steak? The recipe here is for a venison steak and although I know you could use any cut of meat with the instant pot, the cook time may differ when using boneless cuts or cuts with little intramuscular fat like tenderloin. I changed the wording in my post to reflect that bone-in steaks are the preferred meat choice for this recipe. Again, so sorry that your meat was dry.
Not sure what went wrong. Last years boneless venison steaks came out awful dry even the ones on the bottom layer. Followed all directions…
Used Power Pro XL pressure cooker,
Very similar to instapot. Cause?
Hi Paul!
I wonder if it’s because you used boneless steaks? I have only used frozen venison steaks with bone in them. I would suggest trying it again, but at less time with steaks that are boneless. Maybe 60 minutes? Did you put them in frozen? I know that can make a difference too. I am going to add a caveat onto the recipe card that specifies bone-in steaks in case that is the issue. Thank you for your feedback! So sorry that it didn’t work out for you.
Thank you!
I do want it to turn out right I was a little bit disappointed. And then I was concerned whether or not it was because I didn’t use an instapot brand cooker.
I seen in some of the other comments that people used boneless steaks. The steaks were frozen when I put them in the pot
I am not familiar with Power Pro XL cooker. Perhaps you could try other Instant Pot recipes with it and see how they turn out for comparison. I really hope it works out for you next time 🙂
I cooked this today using frozen Elk steaks from last years season…..oh.my.word! So stinking good. I was afraid that 90 min would be too long and everything would be dry but it wasn’t and the meat didn’t even need a knife. Thanks for giving me yet another great recipe to use in my Instant Pot!
★★★★★
yay!
So glad it worked out for you guys… Love that you used Elk! You must live out west 🙂
I cooked Elk steaks as well. They were very tender, but not very moist. We compensated for this by breaking the meat up with a fork, then ladling a bit of the cooker liquids over it, and it was quite tasty. In fairness, the steaks were probably rather dry to begin with – I have no idea how long they were in the freezer, I found them buried in the back after a cleaning, and I had neglected to label them.
Thanks for your feedback Teresa! 🙂
FOr a boneless cut, would you decrease the cooking time?
I have never tried boneless cuts, but you could decrease the time by 15 minutes and see how it turns out. Let me know the results!
My steaks came out pretty dry. Followed directions to the T
★★
How long do I cook a thawed 2lb roast?
Hi Mary!
You could decrease the time by 10 minutes if you want, but even with a thawed roast, you could follow the same recipe as a frozen roast. Pressure cookers are so hot inside that frozen food thaws really fast and doesn’t affect the time like a slow cooker or oven. Enjoy! 😉
Sounds great I’m going to try , but I already have my steaks thawed so wondering how long I should set the IP at… ? Thanks!
Hi Samantha!
You probably already cooked your steaks by now 😉 but I would suggest decreasing the pressure time by 10 minutes. Honestly, it’s not going to matter too much. The steam is so hot that frozen meat thaws very quickly in the cooker. Let me know how it turned out for you!