Grilled Venison Eye of Round Recipe with Caprese Salad

A flavorful venison steak marinade helps create this perfectly tender Grilled Venison Eye of Round Recipe with Caprese Salad. A meal special enough for a date night but easy enough to serve any day of the week!

I’m really excited to share this venison eye of round recipe. If you’ve tried some of my other venison steak recipes in the past, I hope you will put this eye of round with caprese salad on your menu very soon.

It's been a beautiful summer here in North Dakota, with plenty of sunshine and plenty of rain to give us a huge crop of tomatoes. If you are like us, and your backyard garden is full of ripe tomatoes, it is my hope that this delicious steak and caprese salad recipe comes to you at the perfect time.

We most often think of venison tenderloins or venison backstrap when it comes to tender venison steak. But you’ve really got something special when you can create a juicy, tender steak with an often overlooked cut like the eye of round! There is no need to reserve this meal for a special occasion. This recipe allows you to whip up a steak dinner on a busy weeknight now that the kids are back in school, and their schedules are full of after-school activities.

What is Venison Eye of Round

The venison eye of round is a long, cylinder-shaped muscle found in the hind leg of your deer, elk, antelope, or moose and is sometimes referred to as the hidden tenderloin. This is because it is similar in shape, and it is also a really beautiful cut of meat. The eye of round is a bit denser in texture than the tenderloin or backstrap. That's because this area gets a lot of movement, so the meat is leaner and less tender than the more popular steak cuts. Because of this, I recommend you start this recipe with using a Jaccard Meat Tenderizer to tenderize the eye of round before placing it in the venison steak marinade.

Venison Steak Marinade

Most often, I prefer seasoning my venison steak simply with good kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper before cooking it on the grill or in a cast iron skillet. But because I'm pairing this steak with a caprese salad drizzled with olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction, a venison steak marinade with the same ingredients works really well and helps with the tenderizing while adding a great flavor.

A venison steak marinade helps to add moisture to this lean cut of meat and acts as a barrier to heat transfer, a type of security blanket to prevent overcooking. The olive oil-based marinade coats the meat so that you still end up with a juicy grilled venison steak after cooking over high heat. The sugars in a marinade also help with caramelization to give that nice brown crust we all love.

The venison steak marinade ingredients are simple - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and minced garlic.

How to Cook Venison Eye of Round

1. Start by placing the eye of round on a cutting board and tenderize it using a Jaccard meat tenderizer.

2. Pat the venison steak dry with paper towels and then season it all over with kosher salt and black pepper.

3. Combine all the venison steak marinade ingredients (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and minced garlic) in a mixing bowl or freezer bag.

4. Add the venison eye of round and marinate for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

5. When you are ready to start cooking dinner, get your grill hot and ready for direct cooking at medium heat, 350-400 degrees. Clean the grill grates.

6. Place the venison steak on the grill and cook for just 2 minutes. Don't walk away! You need to keep a careful eye on the steak and flip it over and cook another 2 minutes, keeping it over direct heat. This will allow the steak to cook thoroughly without burning. Flip the steak one more time and cook until an instant read meat thermometer inserted in the thickest portion of the meat registers 130 degrees F (for medium-rare). Every grill is slightly different, but for me it usually only takes a total of 5 minutes to reach that perfect medium rare.

7. Transfer grilled venison steak to a cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing against the grain. While the meat is resting, you can assemble the caprese salad.

How To Make A Balsamic Reduction

• It’s so easy to make a balsamic reduction (balsamic glaze) at home. It only takes 15 minutes and it’s better than buying it from the store.
• My wife and I are pretty much obsessed with really good balsamic vinegar. It all started with a trip we took to Italy 10 years ago, just before our daughter came into our lives. We love to drizzle it on salads with a little olive oil, but it's also delicious with roasted brussels sprouts and beets. Basically, we use balsamic vinegar any chance we get.
• But when it comes to a balsamic reduction, with that thick, sweet drizzle, the first thing that always comes to mind is caprese salad. When you reduce balsamic vinegar, you’re evaporating the water and concentrating the sugars. So, you end up with this naturally sweetened syrup. 
• The great thing about making a balsamic reduction at home is that it only takes two ingredients – balsamic vinegar and honey. It only takes 15 minutes out of your busy day and will fill your house with a heavenly smell.
• Just add ½ cup of balsamic vinegar and 1 teaspoon of honey to a small saucepan. Bring that to a boil, then reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 15 minutes. By that time, you'll end up reducing it by about ½, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Just remember that it will continue to thicken even more as it cools.

How To Make Caprese Salad

Caprese Salad is the perfect salad when your garden is exploding with tomatoes this time of year. Perfectly ripe sliced tomatoes, slices of buffalo mozzarella and fresh picked basil. That's it in a nutshell, and something the girls and I could live off of during these last few weeks of summer. 

1. Start by slicing a few ripe tomatoes into ¼-inch slices.

2. Do the same size slice of ¼-inch for the fresh mozzarella or do like we do and just buy the pre-sliced version of buffalo mozzarella found in most grocery stores.

3. Start by layering slices of tomatoes on a serving platter. Tuck the slices of cheese between each tomato so both are visible then tuck whole basil leaves between the mozzarella and tomatoes. Arrange the slices so you can see every layer.

4. Sprinkle everything with kosher salt and black pepper, drizzle all over with really good extra virgin olive oil and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the balsamic reduction.

How To Serve Grilled Venison Eye of Round with Caprese Salad

Now slice the steak thin against the grain, sprinkle just a little bit more kosher salt and black pepper on top of the slices and serve immediately with the salad. I recommend also having some nicely toasted French bread on the side to mop up all that delicious olive oil and balsamic vinegar reduction. Enjoy!

Come Deer Hunting in North Dakota

If you are headed our way for North Dakota deer season, check out the North Dakota Game & Fish Department website. And if you want me to come along with you as your camp cook, photographer, or butcher, you can find out more details here.

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