This moist and tender classic venison meatloaf recipe uses ground deer meat along with seasonings and veggies to make this a top notch comfort food dish.

Meatloaf is a classic dish to make with ground beef, but dare I say that I like it with ground venison even more? While this recipe takes a couple tweaks to help balance out the wild game flavor and ensure that there is enough moisture, the result is a browned and glazed outside with a tender and moist inside that will have everyone going back up for seconds!

The little bit of extra work of soaking bread in milk and blending that along with veggies to make a paste really makes all the difference in this recipe! No large, crunchy veggie chunks here. Just a smooth and tender incredibly moist meatloaf.

For another hearty venison dish, try Dutch Oven Venison Stew and Venison Salisbury Steaks.

Secret to a moist venison meatloaf

Moisture and Fat!

Ground venison on its own is incredibly lean, which is great. But this means that for certain recipes you may want to add a bit of fat moisture other ways to ensure the meatloaf comes out juicy and flavorful.

Aside from fat, finding other ways to add moisture is key. By adding milk soaked bread pieces, oil with the sauteed onions and garlic, and other liquids, you will come out with an amazingly tender venison meatloaf.

Ingredients

Ground venison: The base of a ground venison meatloaf is ground venison, of course. This recipe will work with ground beef or other ground game meats as well.
Bread pieces: This works with the milk to make what is called a "panade." This is used in things like meatballs and meatloaf to help them stay juicy and tender.
Milk: I suggest using whole milk.
Vegetables: A mix of onions, celery, and garlic.
Worcestershire sauce: I wouldn't make a meatloaf without it!
Tomato paste: Only a little bit is necessary to really deepen the flavor of the meatloaf.
Egg: Eggs help to hold the ground venison meat together and form a loaf.
Seasonings: This recipe keeps it simple, just salt and italian seasoning.
Glaze ingredients: I feel like I really perfected the glaze, it is so tasty! It has ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar (I prefer this to regular white vinegar for another layer of flavor).

How to make ground venison meatloaf

Step 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, add bread pieces and milk and allow to soak for 5 minutes.

Step 2. While the breadcrumbs are soaking, roughly chop onions, celery, and peel garlic. Add to bowl of your food processor and pulse until very fine.

Step 3. To the food processor with the vegetables, add bread mixture and pulse a few more times to combine.

Step 4. To a large bowl, add ground venison, vegetable/bread mixture, 2 eggs, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, italian seasoning and salt.

Step 5. Work the mixture together with your hands until everything has just come together but don't over mix.

Step 6. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour in meat mixture and gently press to form into a loaf shape with a smooth top. Place into the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Step 7. While it's baking, create your glaze by whisking together apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and ketchup.

Remove meatloaf from oven and carefully spoon on glaze before placing back in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Step 8. Remove from the oven, the internal temperature should reach 165 degrees F.

Wait 5 minutes before slicing.

Recipe Note

You'll notice that there is a glaze to this meatloaf recipe. This is simply how my family likes it and has always made their ground beef meatloaf. If you don't want to add a glaze, you can skip that final step.

Use a meat thermometer to test doneness. Ground meat can be hard to tell if its cooked through, especially something as large as this. A digital read thermometer makes its very simple.

What to serve with venison meatloaf

More delicious ground venison recipes