Venison Burger Recipe (for the BEST Deer Burgers)

Venison Burger Recipe

It’s hard to screw up a burger, but don’t take any chances on ruining your deer harvest! If you’re an avid hunter looking for a recipe for delicious, juicy, venison burgers, then check out this wild game burger recipe! This venison burger recipe uses only a few spices to create flavorful burgers, topped with your favorite burger toppings.

Venison Burgers Fat Content

We have our local butcher process our deer meat after hunting season, and they add 30% ground beef to the ground venison. Adding ground beef to venison burger increases the fat content, and also reduces the “gamey” flavor that straight deer meat can have. You can definitely cook deer burgers without adding beef or fat, because the seasoning in this recipe will still produce patties with great flavor. Just reduce the amount of time the ground venison burgers are cooked, as the ground deer meat fat content is extremely low, and the burgers will turn out extremely dry. I recommend medium-well done burgers (hot pink center), when using straight deer meat. If you have straight ground venison and want to add ground beef yourself, you can purchase ground beef from the grocery store and mix it to a similar ratio. If you only plan to cook 1 pound of grilled venison burger, you can purchase a 1/3 pound hamburger patty from the meat counter. Otherwise, divide a 1 pound package of high fat ground beef into thirds, and mix in 1/3 pound of ground beef per 1 pound of ground venison.

Venison Burger Toppings

Burger toppings are almost where I become a burger snob. There are sooo many options! During the summer, I like to harvest my toppings from the garden. That way I’m utilizing as many health benefits from this meal as possible (you can read more about the health benefits of gardening). I usually slice some red onions, open a jar of my homemade pickles, harvest some lettuce, and slice some tomatoes. My family likes cheese, so we usually add some cheddar or pepper jack cheese to half of our venison burgers. You could also cook some bacon or mushrooms to add as a topping.

Cooking Time for Venison Patties

Cooking burger patties on a pellet grill creates the best burgers ever. I prefer the PitBoss pellet grill, because it reaches the higher temperatures needed for searing the outside of the burger patty. Traegers are nice, but they do not reach the 425° or higher temps needed to sear and seal in the juices (to create perfect venison burgers). Of course, propane gas grills and charcoal grills are also nice, but the flavor given by the PitBoss grill is well worth the investment (if you regularly barbecue). The perfect timing for grilling 1/3 lb venison burger patties on a preheated pellet grill at 425° is to place the patties on a clean grill grate, cook 5 minutes, flip, 5 minutes, flip, 2 minutes, flip and add optional cheese, 2 minutes, then remove. Your deer burgers are now perfectly cooked to a well-done temperature, without drying out the patties.

Hunting for the Best Deer Season(ing)

Seasoning the ground meat mixture before grilling infuses the flavor throughout the burger patty. I find that adding garlic, onion, and Worcestershire sauce creates the best blend of spices for venison burgers. If you are trying to follow a keto diet, you’ll find that this is the best keto venison burger recipe (and it is an EASY recipe).

How to Make Venison Burgers

This venison burger recipe makes (6) 1/3 pound venison patties, which will feed 4 people (plus a lunch leftover). If your family is smaller, use the 0.5x recipe multiplier for 1 pound of premium ground venison to make 3 patties, or 1.5x recipe multiplier to make 9 patties. If you are cooking for a large gathering, the 5x recipe multiplier will make about 30 venison burgers.