Being a northern Wisconsin family, it may come as no surprise that a primary protein source at our house is venison. We harvest 2-4 deer a year between the gun and bow season and butcher them ourselves. Using our Kitchen Aid mixture, we grind upwards of 60 pounds of venison a year, which we use instead of ground beef or turkey 90% of the time. I’m always looking for new ways to use it, and this was a fun recipe to develop from scratch. This venison and wild rice casserole has a feel of tater tot hot dish (I’m close to the Minnesota border, don’t ya know?) with a true from scratch taste. It’s going to become a go to for comfort food, I’ll tell you that!

The ingredients FOr Venison and Wild Rice Casserole

• 1 pound ground venison, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic
• 5 cups cooked rice, I did a mixture of wild and long grain
• 1 ¼ cup onion (1 large), diced
• 1 ¼ cup celery (6 stalks), diced
• 2 cups carrots, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, diced
• 2 cups broccoli, diced
• Olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sage
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup chicken stock

Your Steps

If you don’t have cooked rice, start there. I wanted both wild and long grain, so I got enough water boiling for both, and started the wild rice 10 minutes prior to adding the long grain as it takes longer to cook. Follow the directions on the back of the package. I cooked 1 cup of dry wild rice and 1 cup long grain rice which resulted in lots of leftover rice for another meal later down the road. I added a little chicken broth base (I love Orrington Farms) and pepper to just season the water a little.

Meanwhile, dice all of your veggies. I love all the color they bring together. Heat a large kettle (I used my Dutch oven) with ½ to 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the veggies, garlic, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme, cooking on a medium heat until the carrots are just tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the veggies from the kettle, putting them in a large bowl. In your same pan (The less dishes, the better, right?), cook the ground venison (or hamburger or turkey) until no longer red. Stir into the bowl of vegetables along with your cooked rice.

In your kettle, melt the butter under medium heat. Stir in flour and continue to stir until you have a beautiful golden brown color. To this, add milk, ⅓ of a cup at a time, whisking until well combined and thickened. Repeat with the chicken stock. (I again added some pepper here to taste, but it certainly isn’t needed). Stir this cream mixture over the vegetables, venison, and rice mixture.

Spread your delicious casserole mixture into a greased casserole dish and bake uncovered for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. I actually prepped mine in the morning, stuck it in the refrigerator,  and baked it in the evening. Since it was cold, I baked it covered for 15 minutes and then gave it an additional 15-20 minutes without a cover. It was perfectly crispy on the top and creamy in the middle. A wonderful comfort food.