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Mustard Barbecue Sauce

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So this recipe for Mustard Barbecue Sauce really came about because of the supplies we had available to us the first time we went to our seasonal cabin in the Adirondacks this spring.  We took a few condiments and some venison steaks for grilling.  However, I didn’t really think through how we were going to marinate the steaks.  Venison is a super lean meat, so it needs an added fat.  There were probably a couple routes that my husband could have gone, but he decided on mayonnaise and yellow mustard.  It turned out amazing.


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3 Ingredients

We ended up just using mayonnaise and mustard the first time, but in our second go, I added Montreal Steak Seasoning.  The results we super!

Mustard Barbecue Sauce
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Like most dressings that I make, I measured the mayonnaise and mustard directly into a two-cup glass measuring cup and then threw the Montreal Steak Seasoning mix right on top.  I used my favorite flat whisk to mix it up and then poured it over the meat.  It sat for about 4 hours before we actually grilled the meat.  We used yellow mustard.  (I am originally from French’s Country, after all.  I used to pass Mustard Street on the bus when I was in high school.)  You could easily use a spicier mustard or more steak seasoning if you want something with a little more zing.

We used it on venison steaks the first two times we made it, but I am going to try it out on chicken later this week.  Should be yum.

PS.  This post contains affiliate links.  When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going.  Thank you for your support.

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Print Recipe
 Mustard Barbecue Sauce
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 5 minutes
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
cup
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 5 minutes
Passive Time 4 hours
Servings
cup
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Mix the first three ingredients. Pour over meat and allow the meat to rest in it for several hours.
  2. Grill the meat to your liking.
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Venison Michigan Hotdogs

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In the Adirondaks, Michigan Hotdogs are a thing.  They are sweet chili dog made with ground beef chili, served over a boiled hotdog with or without onions on a New England Style bun.  At our house, we are constantly thinking about how we can make meals with venison.  So, now in our kitchen, Venison Michigan Hotdogs are a thing.

Venison Michigan Hotdogs
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Michigan Sauce

Michigan Sauce is pretty easy to make.  The trick is to boil the meat rather than brown it.  Start with a pound of ground venison and a cup of warm tap water in which you squish the meat.  Yuck, but it is what makes them Michigans.  To this meat mixture, you add ketchup and chili powder and simmer until the liquid cooks down.  That’s it.

Venison Michigan Hotdog Sauce Ingredients

 

My husband swears that the other trick to a perfect Venison Michigan Hotdog, or any Michigan Hotdog really, is that it is a “dirty water dog.”  Apparently, hotdog carts in New York City make them this way.  While our water is not “dirty” (meaning it’s been used all day), we usually boil the hotdogs rather than grill them.  We love to make them using hotdogs from Wilson’s Beef Farms.  If your local to the Finger Lakes/Western New York area, we highly recommend their hotdogs and other meat products. (This is not an affiliate link, just good locavore living).

Serving Michigan Hotdogs

When you order a Michigan at a roadside stand, it’s with or without.  Chopped onions are the “with.”  We prefer ours with.   At home, we served our venison version with a side of Summer’s Best Coleslaw.

The Michigan Sauce is a great weekend make ahead for a quick weeknight meal.  Hotdogs are perfect for sandwich night and easily fit into our meal planning for the week.  It’s super easy to double the recipe for a crowd or to freeze meal-sized portions for a quick meal at a later date.  Happy days, we have some in the freezer right now!

PS.  This post contains affiliate links.  When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going.  Thank you for your support.

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Print Recipe
 Venison Michigan Hotdogs
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Servings
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a large sauce pan with a lid, squish the ground meat up into the warm water.
  2. Add the ketchup and chili powder. Simmer on medium heat with the top on until most of the liquid has cooked out.
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Chicken Fried Venison Steak

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Chicken Fried Venison Steak with Mushroom Gravy is just one of the many ways my husband has really perfected preparing venison.  This is not a quick weeknight meal, but when you have the time on a weekend, this is an awesome choice.  I especially love the mushroom gravy.

Chicken Fried Venison Steak with Mushroom Gravy
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Jim has been making this for years. So, he doesn’t remember where the original recipe came from.  He has played with it too, so it is just right.

The secret is marinating it in milk and breading it three times in quick succession.

Chicken Fried Venison Steaks:  The Meat Steps

Begin by pounding the steaks flat (about 1/4 inch thick) with a meat tenderizer.  We love this one from Oxo (which we got on Amazon). Remove any silver skin or fat and then cut into medallion sized pieces. The pieces should be about three inches, but they doesn’t have to be perfect. You can use the “natural” divide that most pieces have.

Marinate the meat in egg and milk for about 45 minutes to an hour.  (Venison tip:  Venison is a lean meat, so it’s good to add a fat at the marinating stage of cooking it.)

Making Chicken Fried Venison Steaks with Mushroom Gravy
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Next, you will dredge all the steaks in flour and put them aside on a plate to rest for a few minutes.

Melt butter in a small skillet and begin mushrooms cooking over low heat.  Let these cook along until the last step.  Mushrooms get more flavorful the longer they cook, so don’t worry about starting them too early.

Dredge all the steaks in flour a second time and again, put them on a plate to sit for a few minutes.  Between the second and final dredge, prepare your cooking pan with about half an inch of canola oil to get hot over medium heat.  Finally, dredge them third time.  (Save the flour for the gravy steps!)  This time, you will put the steaks directly into the hot oil to cook.

Cook each steak in the hot oil, add oil as necessary.  It’s time to flip the steaks when you see blood.  As each steak finishes, set it aside on a plate layered with paper towels.  Remember, venison is best served rare, so don’t over cook the steaks.

Chicken Fried Venison Steaks:  The Mushroom Gravy Steps

Mushroom Gravy
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Once you have cooked all the steaks, you will make the gravy.

Add what’s left of the flour mixture to the oil and meat bits left in the pan.  Whisk (We love this one from Oxo for making gravy and big jobs.) in a cup of chicken or beef stock, add it slowly so that you don’t get lumps. Bring to a boil.

 

The last step is to add the condensed mushroom soup and mushrooms, reduce the heat to simmer and cook until hot.  Spoon over your steaks.

This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for your support!

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Print Recipe
 Chicken Fried Venison Steak with Mushroom Gravy
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 30-45 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Marinade
Breading
Gravy
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 30-45 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Marinade
Breading
Gravy
Instructions
Marinade
  1. Pound the steaks to 1/4 inch thick. Trim silver skin and fat, then cut into medallions (about 3 inches, along the natural divides)
  2. Mix eggs and milk, add a little salt and pepper (maybe 1/2 tsp each). Soak the meat for 45 minutes to an hour.
Breading
  1. Mix your dry ingredients in a shallow bowl.
  2. Coat all the steaks in the flour mixture and set them aside on a plate to rest (and soak in).
  3. Melt butter in a small skillet and begin mushrooms cooking over low heat. Let these cook along until the last step. Mushrooms get more flavorful the longer they cook.
  4. Coat all the steaks a second time. Repeat the rest step.
  5. Prepare your cooking pan with about half an inch of canola oil to get hot over medium heat. We like to use a cast iron skillet for cooking all of our meat.
  6. Coat the steaks a third time. This time, you will put the steaks directly into the hot oil to cook. Save the flour for the gravy steps,
  7. Cook each steak in hot oil. Flip when you start to see blood on the top side of each steak. Remember that venison is best served rare, so don't over cook.
Gravy
  1. Add what's left of the flour mixture to the oil and meat bits left in the pan. Whisk in a cup of chicken or beef stock, add it slowly so that you don't get lumps. Bring to a boil.
  2. Add the condensed mushroom soup and mushrooms, reduce the heat to simmer and cook until hot.
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Venison Sausage Gravy Breakfast Bowl

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Venison Sausage Gravy, yes please.


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When I was a kid, the idea of gravy made from sausage was foreign. It was something we never did, but now, I love it.  And sausage gravy from vension breakfast sausage is yummy, has less fat than a traditional pork sausage gravy and is pretty easy to make.  Because it has less fat, you need to add a little butter, but the result is just right.

Start with some butter and venison breakfast sausage in a cast iron or heavy bottom skillet.  Cook over medium-high until the meat is browned.

Stir 3 tablespoons of flour into the meat, one tablespoon at a time so that the flour mixes into the meat and fat without lumps. We like the gravy a little thinner than traditional sausage gravy.  You may want to add another tablespoon of flour to get thicker gravy.

Add beef broth slowly, stirring so that it mixes into the meat and flour.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer until gravy thickens.

venison sausage gravy

Heat potato tots in the oven while making scrambled eggs.

Prepare the breakfast bowl by layering potato tots, scrambled eggs, sausage gravy and some grated cheddar cheese.

My husband’s “bachelor trick” for the potatoes is to put the tots in the oven as soon as your turn it on.  Leave them in until the oven is “preheated” and they should be done.  If you like them a little crispier, leave them a few minutes longer.

Print Recipe
 Venison Sausage Gravy Breakfast Bowl
Course Breakfast, breakfast bowl
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Breakfast, breakfast bowl
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
Sausage Gravy
  1. Melt the butter in a cast iron or heavy bottom skillet then brown the meat over medium-high heat.
  2. Once the meat has cooked through, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time to the meat and butter, stirring it in so that it does not have any lumps.
  3. Slowly add the broth, stirring into the flour-meat mixture. Add a little at a time so that it is smooth.
  4. Once all of the broth has been added, bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer to let the gravy thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Breakfast Bowl
  1. Prepare potato tots according to manufacturer's instructions.
  2. Prepare scrambled eggs (or eggs to your liking).
  3. Assemble Breakfast Bowls by layering cooked potatoes, scrambled eggs, venison sausage and gravy. Top with grated cheese.
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Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steaks

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Everything Bagel Mix makes lots of things taste good. So making Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steak just seems like the right way to add a little magic to a lean venison steak.

Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steaks
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My husband is from Long Island. This means he’s a bit of a bagel snob, but if he is going to have a bagel (from Long Island or elsewhere), it’s going to be an everything bagel.  For some reason, I thought I didn’t like everything bagels. At some point  in our early days, I took a bite of one of his bagels, and I was hooked.

Fast forward a few years and we were in a our local (well truthfully nothing is really local for us) club store where we found a commercial produced “everything bagel mix.”  We added it to everything (it’s particularly good in egg salad) and discovered we really liked it mixed with a few bread crumbs and coated on venison steaks.  Unfortunately, when we emptied that container, it seemed the store no longer carried the mix.  What’s a Semiconservative Granola Girl to do?  Obviously she needs to come up with a mix of her own.

Everything Bagel Mix

It’s just a few quick steps to the final product.  Mix the bread crumbs with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced garlic, minced onion and salt.

Everything Bagel Mix

Preparing the Meat

Create a breading station:  three plates or shallow bowls–flour with salt and pepper, buttermilk and the everything bagel mix.  Dredge steaks in flour, then butter milk and press into the everything breading.

Breaded Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steaks

Pan fry in a hot cast iron skillet until golden brown.  Don’t over cook–venison is best served rare!

Cooked Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steak

Print Recipe
 Everything Bagel Encrusted Venison Steak
Venison steaks coated in an everything bagel breading and then pan fried.
Everything Bagel Venison Steak
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
Everything Bagel Coating
Steaks
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
Everything Bagel Coating
Steaks
Everything Bagel Venison Steak
Instructions
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients (except flour) to create the Everything Coating.
  2. Create a breading set up: Plate or bowl 1: put about a half cup or so of flour with a little salt and pepper. Plate or bowl 2: buttermilk. Plate or bowl 3: Everything Coating.
  3. Dredge each steak in flour. Then dunk in the buttermilk; press the steaks into the everything breading until coated.
  4. Heat a cast iron skillet with oil on medium--make sure that the skillet it hot so that you will get a nice crispy searing (if the pan is not hot enough, your breading will be soggy). Cook on both sides (3-5 minutes each side). Venison is best served rare, so don’t overcook it.
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