Venison and Broccoli with Sriracha Lime
Backstrap, dried broccoli, and a hot-sour sauce built from three squeeze bottles.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Venison steak | 1.5 lb | sliced thin against the grain at home, frozen flat, packed in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Dried broccoli | 2 oz | freeze-dried or home-dehydrated florets |
| Dried mushrooms | 1 oz | any sliced variety |
| Wide rice noodles | 12 oz | they rehydrate faster than udon |
| Soy sauce | 2/3 cup | |
| Sriracha | 2 tbsp | |
| Honey | 2 tsp | |
| Sesame oil | 6 tbsp | divided, half for the sear |
| Garlic | 4 cloves | or 1 tbsp granulated |
| Lime juice | from 2 limes | bottled juice works and does not roll off the table |
| Cornstarch | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried green onion | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Pour 500 ml of boiling water over the broccoli, mushrooms, and green onion in a bowl or spare pot. Leave them ten minutes, then drain the liquid into a cup and keep it.
- Shake the soy sauce, sriracha, honey, lime juice, garlic, cornstarch, and 3 tbsp of the sesame oil together in a bottle. Shake it again right before it goes in the pot; the starch settles.
- Get the pot hot over the fire or a wide burner. Add the remaining sesame oil and the venison in two batches. Two minutes a batch, no stirring for the first minute. Pull it out and set it aside.
- Put the rehydrated vegetables in the hot pot for a minute, then return the meat.
- Pour in the sauce and the reserved soaking liquid. It will thicken in about a minute. Kill the heat there.
- Cook the noodles separately in 200 ml of boiling water, or break them into the pot and let them finish in the sauce with a splash more water.
This is a camp translation of a cast-iron wok dish. The fresh produce is the part that does not travel, so broccoli and mushrooms come dried and get a ten-minute soak first. Save that soaking water — it carries the mushroom flavor and gives the cornstarch something to thicken.
The sear matters more than anything else here. Venison is lean enough that a slow pan turns it grey and tough, so the pot has to be genuinely hot and the meat has to go in dry and in batches. Two minutes total, then out. The sauce goes in last and off high heat, because cornstarch that boils hard breaks back down into liquid.
Meat in a cooler makes this a day-one or day-two meal, not a resupply staple.
Packing
Sauce ingredients get mixed at home into one leakproof bottle, cornstarch included. Sliced venison freezes flat in a zip bag and doubles as a cooler ice block for the first day. Dried vegetables travel in one bag together.
Variations
- Elk, antelope, or thin-sliced beef sirloin all behave the same way.
- No noodles: serve it over instant rice, which also makes the meal gluten-free if you swap in tamari.
- Backpacking version: dehydrate the cooked meat and skip the sear entirely, rehydrating everything at once.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/venison-and-broccoli-with-sriracha-lime-sauce