Tacos are amazing. Substantial beef. Nutritious vegetables. Delicious dairy. All wrapped up in a toasted tortilla. What makes a traditional taco recipe even better is making homegrown venison tacos.
The hamburger is ground venison from our deer season. Salsa is homegrown with our own tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, and onions. Making these few substitutes from store-bought to homegrown transforms this recipe from good to amazingly fulfilling and delicious.
Ingredients
2 lb. Ground Venison, thawed
1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 c. Water
¼ c. Taco Seasoning
Tortillas
Cheese
Sour Cream
Salsa
Any other desired toppings
Cooking Ground Venison
Heat a large skillet to medium to medium-high heat. Once pre-heated, add a small layer of olive oil to the pan. Add ground venison. Use a turner to chop the meat into smaller pieces throughout the cooking. Flip when the bottom is browned. Continue until no pieces are no longer pink.
I know, I know. A lot of people don’t want to use the extra propane or electric to pre-heat a skillet. But pre-heating is what makes meat great. And honestly, the meat only begins to cook slightly if added to the pan while still cool.
Olive Oil adds flavor and fat to the ground venison. The recipe doesn’t need fat much with the meat, but there needs to be fat so that it doesn’t stick to the pan.
I usually hate chopping up hamburger. With venison hamburger though, I absolutely love it. It is so easy to get into small pieces and stay in small pieces. We butcher our own deer, grinding our own venison hamburger. It ends up having a different texture than any store bought. Instead of being in long strings of meat, ours is more compacted and the focus is more on the small pieces of ground venison. Thus, it is easy to chop with a turner while browning.
Venison hamburger also has less fat content than beef hamburger. This is the number one reason why I do prefer to make tacos with ground venison. I can entirely skip the step of draining the excess fat from the cook ground hamburger. It is not necessary!
Flavoring the Ground Venison
Combine taco seasoning with water. With skillet still on medium heat, pour taco water into ground venison. Use a turner to combine thoroughly. Cook until water has evaporated and seasoning coats the hamburger nicely.
Taco seasoning can be made from scratch, but I just find it so easy to buy some in bulk to have ready to go.
I find it best to mix the taco seasoning with the water before adding it to the hamburger. It makes it very even throughout the venison.
Do make sure to cook it down some. You don’t want soggy tacos. But, at the same time, don’t let it cook to where it burns the ground venison either. Best way to keep track is to stir the venison while it is cooking down the water.
Prep Taco Toppings
Shred cheese. Cut any desired vegetables. Have sour cream, salsa, and other pre-made toppings ready to go.
Cheese
Cheese can be bought pre-shredded. But it has a caking agent on it to prevent it from sticking to each other. To have a shredded cheese that melts into the venison, buy a block of cheese. Then use a grater (or food processor) to shred the cheese.
Homegrown Vegetables
With fresh, homegrown lettuce and tomatoes in the late spring and summer months, these would be a great addition to tacos with homegrown ingredients. Wash, spin, and dry lettuce. For tomatoes, use a serrated knife for easy cutting. Any other vegetables you like would work too.
Sour Cream
Not everyone likes sour cream on the tacos. Some people just like meat and cheese. But, the sour cream evens out the spiciness from the taco meat for me. It is an absolute must for any taco I prepare.
Homegrown Salsa
I grow my own Roma and red plum tomatoes, Jalepenos, onions, and garlic in order to make one the most delicious salsas I’ve ever tried. When I first started making salsa at home, I really thought that I still like a store-bought variety better. But after two years of having a constant supply of homegrown and homemade to enjoy in variety of recipes, I can’t go back to the store bought.
The salsa I make at home has a substantial amount of vegetables in it versus liquid. It doesn’t end up dripping everywhere, or making some recipes soggy. And the flavor, oh so good!
Toast the Tortillas
With a medium sized skillet, pre-heat to a medium heat. Once warm, place a tortilla onto the skillet to warm on one side for 10-15 seconds. Then turn and heat the second side for 10-15 seconds.
Oh, boy! This is a step I use to skip. But a taco with warm ingredients inside with a cool tortilla, ehh. It doesn’t match. And it doesn’t take much to toast the tortilla either. If the cooktop method doesn’t suit you, then the package with the tortillas will provide other options as well.
Assemble the Tacos
Layer venison ground beef in center, followed by cheese, sour cream, and salsa.
Then grab the top and bottom of the tortilla, folding inwards about two inches. Then fold the right side of the tortilla over to the left. Finish by folding the left side of the tortilla to the right. Folding it like so keeps all the meat, cheese, and other goodness inside of the taco.
If you don’t like soft-shelled tortillas, using hard-shells tacos is completely fine. Or if you are really ambitious for something homemade, make soft-shelled tortillas from scratch.
Directions for Venison Tacos
Heat a large skillet to medium to medium-high heat. Once pre-heated, add a small layer of olive oil to the pan. Add ground venison. Use a turner to chop the meat into smaller pieces throughout the cooking. Flip when the bottom is browned. Continue until no pieces are no longer pink.
Combine taco seasoning with water. With skillet still on medium heat, pour taco water into ground venison. Use a turner to combine thoroughly. Cook until water has evaporated and seasoning coats the hamburger nicely.
Shred cheese. Cut any desired vegetables. Have sour cream, salsa, and other pre-made toppings ready to go.
Layer venison ground beef in center, followed by cheese, sour cream, and salsa.
Then grab the top and bottom of the tortilla, folding inwards about two inches. Then fold the right side of the tortilla over to the left. Finish by folding the left side of the tortilla to the right. Folding it like so keeps all the meat, cheese, and other goodness inside of the taco.
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