Venison Steaks with Bacon Cream Cheese Gravy & Fire Roasted Jalapenos

When you ask most hunters what their favorite wild game dish is they normally say. “Poppers, I love to stuff it with cream cheese, jalapenos, and wrap it in bacon.”

Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with this dish, it’s been as my friend says a “Red Neck Staple” forever. I find a couple problems with this dish though and here they are.

1. It takes forever to cut the meat, jalapenos, and wrap them in bacon
2. The wild game meat tends to become overcooked and masked.
3. It’s an appetizer not a meal

So, after posting a confession that I’ve never made poppers I got slammed with statements like.

“But, the flavors all meld so well”

“I make this dish for people who hate wild game and they love it.”

“It’s what we’ve always done”

“You’re missing out, you need to wrap it in bacon dude.”

After listening to everyone talk I had this idea to deconstruct the Popper and create it into a meal. I decided to take all those flavors from the cream cheese, bacon, jalapenos, and grilled flavors and rework it into a meal that will not mask the flavor of the game meat, but enhance it.  Again I want to say I have nothing against the poppers, I just want to show people there is another way to get those flavors you love so much.

Venison Steaks with Bacon Cream Cheese Gravy & Fire Roasted Jalapenos

Ingredients:

4 Venison steaks

4oz Cream Cheese

½ pound bacon, diced

2 Jalapenos

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon cracked pepper

1.5 tablespoons flour (can remove to make gluten free)

1.5 cups milk

¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Get your grill nice and hot
• Season your steaks with simple salt & pepper or any of your favorite steak seasonings
• Grill your venison steaks and jalapenos. I tend to grill my steaks for 3-4 minutes per side and serve med-rare. The Jalapenos you’ll want to char the skin on all side
• Remove steaks from heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes, place jalapenos in a bowl of ice water
• Take the jalapenos out of the water and rub your fingers over the skin and it will peel off. Dice them and set aside
• While steaks are resting let’s start the bacon and cream cheese gravy
• In skillet add bacon over medium heat cook until crispy, remove from bacon grease
• Add flour to bacon grease, whisk and brown flour cooking 2 minutes
• Add cream cheese,milk, pepper, salt, paprika and garlic whisk until it starts to thicken. If gravy is too thick for your liking add ¼ cup more milk.
• Plate steaks and smother in gravy, top that with fire roasted jalapenos and crispy bacon
• Enjoy

Jeremiah Doughty

From Field To Plate