This venison and dumplings recipe is one of my favorite comfort food meals of all time. Soft, plum dumplings swam in a delicious gravy with fork-tender deer meat. What’s not to love about that?
Looking for more comfort food for the 2025 hunting season? Check out my entire collection of venison slow cooker recipes. If you want to branch out for some other dinner ideas, take a look at my updated for 2025 venison recipes guide.
If you’ve been following me for the last few years you’ll know that I’m a shank junky. Besides the neck, its some of the most tender meat on the animal.
In this recipe I’m going back to my Southern roots with some buttermilk dumplings. You usually see these served with braised birds, squirrels or rabbits, but I think they’re a great pairing with tender venison shanks.
But these dumplings are a little different than your normal southern style dumpling. These are formed, cut out and par-baked, which allow them to be made ahead of time and held at room temperature for about 3 hours before you finish cooking them in the broth. So if it’s a cold day, crank up the fireplace and give this winter weather comfort dish a try.
Cooks Notes
If you’re going the extra mile for presentation, skip the shank shredding process. You can place the tender shanks under your broiler until nice and browned and then serve in the center of your dumping platter. And if you’re interested in a deeper dive, check out my guide on how to cook venison shanks and processing tips.
Related Venison Recipes
Below are some of my favorite cold-weather dishes.
- Venison Bourguignon
- Venison Cube Steak
- Venison Breakfast Sausage
- Slow Cooker Venison Stew
- Venison Soup
Lastly, if you try this venison and dumplings recipe, be sure to leave a comment or tag me on Instagram! I thoroughly enjoy hearing feedback and checking out the photos of recipes that you’ve made.
VENISON AND BUTTERMILK DUMPLINGS
Ingredients
For the Dumplings
- 3 1/3 cups pastry flour, chilled
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter (frozen and then grated with a cheese grater, then refreeze)
- 1 1/2 cups cold butter milk
For the Gravy
- 3 venison shanks
- 2 cups carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 cups celery, diced
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon naturally brewed soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons mild vinegar based hot sauced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the dumplings
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or butter a non-stick baking sheet and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cold flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Using your hands, work the frozen grated butter into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Add the cold buttermilk and mix until just combined. Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead until it is smooth (this should take about 2 minutes).
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut out the dumplings using a 1/2 inch circle cutter or use a knife and cut into squares. Line the dumplings onto your prepared baking sheet. They should be touching like you would do for biscuits. Bake the dumplings for for 8-10 minutes until they start to firm up. They shouldn’t have any color on them. Pull the dumplings apart and let them rest at room temperature uncovered for up to 3 hours.
For the Venison and Gravy
- Place the shanks in a large enough pot so that they can lay horizontal. If they cant lay horizontal, trim a couple of inches off of the bone so that they fit. Cover with just enough water so that the shanks for covered. Add 1 cup of the carrots, 1 cup of the celery and 2 cups of the onions and the herbs. Cover and bring to a simmer until the shanks are fork tender (about 3 hours).
- Remove the shanks from the pot and set aside. Strain the pot and reserve the cooking liquid and discard the solids. Wash the pot and set it over medium-high heat. Add the butter, once it is melted add the remaining vegetables and cook for 10 minutes while stirring frequently.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the all purpose flour. Stir until until there are no lumps in the flour. While frequently stirring, cook the roux until it is a light golden color (about 8-10 minutes).
- Slowly stir in the strained broth broth. Bring this to a simmer and cook at a simmer until it has thickened. About 25 minutes.
- While the broth is simmering, remove the meat from the shanks and shred thinly. If you like tendons, chop those up and mix in the with meat.
- Add the soy sauce, hot sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the Dumplings
- Add the dumplings to the stew and simmer for about 5 minutes or until cooked through.
1 thought on “VENISON AND BUTTERMILK DUMPLINGS”
Made this recipe twice now. So good! Add more water than you think to have extra gravy