# Braised Venison Shanks



## tallbm (Jan 31, 2017)

I've made this dish many times and it is crazy good! This is the only way, in my opinion, to deal with wild game shanks and has made the venison shank (including the heel) basically my favorite piece of the deer! Here it is, enjoy.

*Braised Venison Shanks*
This recipe is pretty simple but takes a few steps and dirties more dishes than I like but is totally worth it. I took a braised short rib recipe and tweaked it until I came up with this recipe and man it's one of my favorite and everyone who tries it, loves it.

Cook Time: 4hr 15min
Serves 3 people with second servings, or 5 - 6 people but everyone wants seconds so not realistic lol 

Ingredients:

4 lbs of venison shanks (heels left on rear shanks makes for more meat)
Cooking oil (Canola preferred but any will work)
Salt and black pepper
1 large white or yellow onion, sliced or diced (not a red onion)
3 Roma tomatoes cut into eights
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped (or crushed well if easier)
1 cup of Merlot wine (you can use Chardonnay if you have no Merlot) [Update: been using Carlos Rossi Burgandy in the giant jug, it's thin and cheap and makes a great sauce] 
2 cups of beef broth (can use beef bouillon to make broth)
3 Tablespoons of Dijon Mustard (optional if you do not have, no big deal)
1 pound of pasta or 2 cups of long grain dry rice (i prefer rice with this dish)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder or Dehydrated Onion
Large oven roasting pan or turkey roasting pan (I use disposable turkey roasting pan)
Foil
Blender
Directions:

Place an oven rack at the half way/middle notch in the oven
Lightly oil the roasting pan and one side of foil that will cover the pan
Place shanks in pan
Season shanks all around with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder
Add to the pan the wine, onion, garlic, tomato, Dijon mustard, and the beef broth
Cover the pan with the foil (oil side down)
Place pan on middle rack in oven
*Cook at 350 degrees for 4 hours*, meat should be fork tender
At the 3 hour and 30 minute point check meat and then begin cooking the pasta/rice, it should finish before the shanks finish braising
After shanks have completed cooking time remove pan from oven
Uncover and debone meat from shanks, be sure not to burn yourself, dispose of the bones once cleaned of meat and tender tissue
Pour sauce with the veggies into blender without adding meat to the blender
Before blending, let the sauce set in the blender until fat pools at the top
Scoop away fat from the broth in the blender
Blend the sauce with veggies in the blender, taste and add salt/pepper to taste if needed and reblend
Add blended sauce back to the meat in the pan and cover the pan with foil again
Place back in the oven for 15 minutes to rewarm the sauce as it cools down quickly
Remove from oven and serve meat and sauce/gravy over rice or pasta
Enjoy!

Cooked meat removed from bones, sauce blended into gravy, and all put back together in the original cooking pan to place in the oven and keep warm.  The picture does no justice to the greatness of this meal.  Prepare to be amazed at the flavor!







UPDATE: Better/more images added!







Notes:

I clean the major outside skin of the shank but do not spend more then 2 minutes or so on it.  The silver skin, tendon, and cartlage will cook down and melt into amazing flavors and will be soft enough to easily eat.  That stuff has a buttery flavorful texture and taste after this dish is done cooking.
I use both front and back shanks but the back shanks have more meat
I leave the heel on the back shanks when I process my deer and pigs, just so there is more meat for this dish.  The heal muscle is a tough one as well and full of silver skin and stuff so it is great for this dish
Most braised dishes have you sear the meat first before cooking in the oven.  If you have a dish big enough to do so feel free but I often vacuum seal my venison shanks whole bone and they are quite long.  Pork shanks would probably be short enough.
For 2 years now I take my Fiskar geared tree limb loppers and I cut the shank at the top knuckle and right below where the meat stops. This makes a more manageable shanks to vacuum seal and cook but the cut is not a very clean.  If you go this tree limb lopper route be sure and get rid of bone chips or chunks from the cut/break and you will be golden.  This cutting process is super quick, easy, and clean.  When cut down this way the shanks may be able to be seared in a pan but again 4 shanks in 1 pan is not an easy fit even when cut down.
If the sauce ever gets thick and crusty like it was cooking too long or in too wide of a pan simply add a cup of water or more and it will come right back.  I've had to do this a number of times where I lost track of time.  The dish was salvaged and you would never know the difference.


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## SmokinAl (Feb 1, 2017)

It sounds & looks delicious!

Nice job!

Al


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## crazymoon (Feb 1, 2017)

TBM, Looks tasty!


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## tallbm (Feb 1, 2017)

Thanks guys!

Next time I make it I will take better pictures and post them.  That picture does not do the meal any justice at all.  That just looks like meat in gravy.  I can tell you thought it is out of this world good and is the best "meat in gravy" dish you may ever have


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## ab canuck (Feb 2, 2017)

Wow that looks and sounds great. I will show this recipe to the wife. We always end up doing our legs into burger meat after we take out tendon and silverskin.


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## tallbm (Feb 2, 2017)

AB Canuck said:


> Wow that looks and sounds great. I will show this recipe to the wife. We always end up doing our legs into burger meat after we take out tendon and silverskin.


Oh man you two are in for a treat.  You will cut your shank cleaning down by like 90% and will get one of the best tasting dishes you never knew existed.  It's crazy how for me and many others the shank went from a pain the ass to one of the best pieces hahaha!


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## dwaytkus (Aug 11, 2017)

Looks great!  Screenshot the recipe! 

Dan


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## myownidaho (Aug 11, 2017)

Yum! I bet that's a rich dish. Put that on a bed of wild mushroom risotto and pop a bottle of Cabernet! Points!


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## tallbm (Aug 12, 2017)

MyOwnIdaho said:


> Yum! I bet that's a rich dish. Put that on a bed of wild mushroom risotto and pop a bottle of Cabernet! Points!


Oh yeah you definitely have the right mindset for how to eat it :)

I gotta get a better picture of it.  Maybe later this month :)


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## tallbm (Jun 23, 2018)

Well a few months ago I finally took the time to take some additional and better pics of my Braised Venison Shanks (life changing)!

I slapped it all into one image with some annotations so you will get the idea.  With this particular cook I went ahead and remove the meat from the bones, it makes it less rich without the bone marrow adding amazing flavor but I didn't want to deal with grabbing piping hot bones to scrape the meat off (though it comes off quite easily).  

Here is what was had, and it was outstanding as usual!  






BTW, this dish has basically made the Venison Shank my favorite part of the entire animal... yes even over backstap!!! o_O:confused::eek::)


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## tx smoker (Feb 5, 2022)

WOW!! That looks and sounds absolutely amazing. Very sorry to have missed this and thank you for posting the link in a different thread. I kinda like your approach over mine. The sauciness of yours just looks so much more like the quintessential comfort food. Extremely well done and kudos for taking time to dial the recipe in. 

Robert


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## tallbm (Feb 5, 2022)

tx smoker said:


> WOW!! That looks and sounds absolutely amazing. Very sorry to have missed this and thank you for posting the link in a different thread. I kinda like your approach over mine. The sauciness of yours just looks so much more like the quintessential comfort food. Extremely well done and kudos for taking time to dial the recipe in.
> 
> Robert


Hey Robert!  I'm glad you like the post and find it interesting :D

Yeah, I'm the king of trying to get as simple as possible while getting the same great outcomes with things hahaha.
With venison shanks it's hard to sear them and I have no saw to cut the bones into cross sections so I just skip the step and it hurts nothing at all.  Still amazing.
THese days I just cut the shank and heal meat from the bone and skip fooling with the bone since they are so long and again I have no way to easily cut them.  I use tree limb loppers to cut the bone and they produce a bunch of bone chips and jagged edges so I stopped vac sealing the bone and just but the meat away.  It's better overall.

The sauce is heaven and is full of collagen from all the silverskin and thicker tissue melting away to amazing flavor!  It is nothing like the flavor from venison fat so don't be scared at all of it.

Feel free to give my approach a shot and save yourself some time in the overall process and mess.  IF you want to test it out but don't want to use your good meat to try, you can get your hands on some marked down beef rib, oxtails, or anything boney or containing a lot of connective tissue (trimmed away brisket flat meat).

This will allow you to test and dial it in to your liking.
But the main thing is to save those venison shanks or tell all your hunting buddies to save them for you and you will have plenty of meat to make this amazing dish or variations of it like your osso buco :D
  Enjoy!


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