by Ronald Sellers

Created on: June 12, 2010

Smoked Venison Chops

This recipe can be applied to any species of deer, antelope, sheep, goat or if you have a really big smoker-beef. Like so many of my deer hunting colleagues, I always boned out the tenderloin and back strap whole. Even if I was cold, tired or lazy and took my game harvest to a commercial meat processor I would have them saw out the back strap so that I could take it home and bone it out myself, because everybody knows that venison processor'sdon't have a lot of time to hunt but they always have venison to eat. Well, they can scavenge off the roast's and ham's...the back strap is all mine. During the 2008 season, while I sat freezing and starving in a ground blind, I imagined sitting down to a tender smoky rack of venison chops, so I determined that the next deer that I harvested would have its back bone split down the middle and the ribs sawed off at about three inches from the back strap. This experiment was postponed because the only thing I left the woods with that day was numb extremities and a ravenous appetite. Since this is a culinary article and not a hunting article, suffice it to say that I took a deer before the season closed in the dead of winter. I cut the chops as described above and have continued to do so over the last couple of seasons. In doing so, I believe that I have perfected the smoked Venison chop and it goes like this:

Principal Ingredients:

4 chops of 4 rib sections each-serves four.

Ingredients- The Rub

2 Tbsp. ground red pepper

Garlic salt-to taste

1 Tbsp. Dried ground cilantro

1 Tbsp. rosemary

1 Tbsp brown suger

1Tbsp Thyme

Ingredients-The Marinate

12 oz white vinegar

8 oz apple juice

6 oz of Dr. Pepper

1 six pack of your favorite low brow domestic beer

The Art

Freeze the chops until it is warm enough to sit ouside comfortably in shorts and a tank top {shoes optional}

Combine all the rub ingredients and rub them liberally {until no more will stick to the meat} on the chops.

Place the chops in a pan of a width sufficient to just fit into the smoker with at least 2 1/2 "sides; combine and pour the first three ingredients of the marinate into the pan. Pour 1/2 of a can of beer over the chops.

Take the pan of chops, a camp chair and the other five and a half cans of beer to your smoker in the back yard.

Combine and ignite two double handfuls of charcoal briquettes with three double handfuls of mesquite chips soaked in water for at least twenty four hours. This will produce a very thick, very cool {about 175 "}, smoke.

Important!-Do not use the water pan, do not remove the chops from the pan. Place the pan on a grill rack set at the closest position to the fire, using the marinade as the steam producing medium.

Enjoy the warm spring/summer evening in the camp chair while tending the fire and thinking about the frozen winter terrain, the bare dark trees, the sunless skies and the silent majestic creature-a gift from God; simply appearing from the mist, while you drink the remainder of the six pack. Drink it slowly because:

1. As the marinade is converted to smoke you will need to replenish it with the beer.

2. At such a low temperature you will be out there for about two hours or until the meat is warm completely through.

When complete serve directly off the grill with a combination mint jelly/horse radish sauce. My favorite side items with this dish are steamed asparagus and baked sweat potatoes. This meal pairs well with any dry woody Cabernet Sauvignon.

Bon apitite, Y'all 

Learn more about this author, Ronald Sellers.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.