Venison Stew With Guinness And Pickled Walnuts Recipe

Venison is generally a very lean meat, so the majority of the cuts you'll get from a deer are best suited to fast cooking at high temperatures. However, there are a few cuts of venison, notably the shank and neck, that are suited for the slow and low method of stewing. These cuts are both sinewy and packed with connective tissues, resulting in wonderfully tender meat in a richly flavored, gamey sauce when stewed for a few hours.

This venison stew with Guinness and pickled walnuts recipe, created by Tasting Table recipe developer Jennine Rye, was inspired by the home-cooked stews from her childhood. Diced venison is slow-cooked in Guinness over a period of 3 ½ hours to create a wonderfully tender and caramelized meat. Paired with a mixture of root vegetables and mixed with the unique tang of pickled walnuts, this one-pot stew is the ultimate in warming comfort food. Perfect for chilly days, it's ideal served on its own or with a simple side of steamed veggies. This venison stew is a great way to feed family and friends, so read on to find out how you can make this venison stew with Guinness and pickled walnuts.

To begin this venison stew with Guinness and pickled walnuts recipe, you will first need to gather the ingredients. You will want stewing venison, an onion, garlic, flour, Guinness, fresh thyme, pickled walnuts, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, vegetable oil, salt, and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 300 F.

Season the venison well with salt and pepper.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large, oven-proof pan with a lid over medium-high heat.

Brown the venison for 5–6 minutes. This may need to be done in batches.

Remove the venison from the pan. Add the remaining vegetable oil and the sliced onions.

Saute the onions for 5 minutes, until soft.

Add the garlic to the pan and saute for another minute or two.

Return the venison to the pan along with the flour, and stir everything together.

Pour in the Guinness, and add the thyme and pickled walnuts.

When everything is simmering, place the lid on the pan and transfer it to the preheated oven to cook for 3 ½ hours.

After 1 hour, peel and cut the potatoes, carrots, and parsnips into roughly 1-inch chunks.

Remove the venison stew from the oven, and add the chopped root vegetables along with 1 cup of water.

Place the lid back on the dish and return the venison stew to the oven to finish cooking for the remaining 2 ½ hours.

Serve hot from the oven with a side of greens.

Sometimes it isn't possible to follow a recipe word for word — we get it. Depending on the time of year or where you live, there may be certain ingredients that are impossible to come by. Perhaps the most difficult ingredient to acquire in this recipe is the jar of pickled walnuts. These were once considered to be an English delicacy and were made using unripe walnuts, as England's climate wasn't hot enough for the nuts to fully ripen. If you are unable to get your hands on a jar of pickled walnuts, don't worry.
The stew can still be made without them, though they do add a delicious kick to the dish. If you are up for a challenge, you could always try pickling your own!

There are many other ways this dish can be adapted. If you can't source good stewing venison, this can easily be swapped out for beef. Similarly, the root vegetables can easily be substituted for similar root vegetables; this dish can be a great way to use up any root veggies that you may have lying around. And, while Guinness is certainly not an elusive ingredient (this stout is popular all around the world), you could always experiment with different types of stout and ale to lend different flavors to the finished stew.

There are some foods that are definitely better when reheated and consumed the next day, like lasagna or shepherds pie. This venison stew with Guinness and pickled walnuts is another one of those dishes that tastes even more delicious the day after, as it allows the ingredients more time to marinade and develop. So, if you have any leftovers; rejoice!

To store the leftovers, simply wait for them to cool completely and then transfer them to an airtight container and keep them in the fridge. Leftovers can be kept for up to three days, and, although they could be eaten cold, they will be much more flavorful when reheated. For maximum enjoyment, we recommend slowly reheating this venison stew in the oven, instead of a quick reheat in the microwave. Simply preheat the oven to a medium-low temperature and then pop the stew into the oven in a casserole dish with a lid, adding ½ cup of water if need be to make sure it doesn't dry out. Allowing it to slowly reheat in the oven will keep the dish wonderfully tender and juicy, resulting in leftovers that are melt-in-the-mouth delicious.