Click to enlarge (medium rare)
I was at my Natural Grocers a couple weeks ago and picked up an elk chuck roast. I had no earthly idea how I planned to cook it, but did know I wanted to do it on the grill outside, since I think that brings out the best flavor in meats. I had only tasted elk one other time in my life and couldn’t actually remember the flavor, only that it was delicate and similar to beef. Not really as gamey as venison to me. So I came up with a fairly simple marinade that really did a great job of tenderizing what otherwise would nave been a fairly tough cut of meat. Elk has virtually no fat, so there is no fat marbling to help tenderize it. This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and is certainly fit for any Paleo-Primal table. I served mine with a small oven-baked sweet potato, grilled pineapple slices and a nice green salad. All I can say is man, oh, man, was it ever good!! My husband REALLY liked this marinade and has eaten elk many more times than I.
NOTE: You can use low-sodium soy sauce or tamari if you can’t get coconut aminos. I use the latter now for health reasons and the lower sodium count. I find it at Natural Grocers and it is available on-line and probably places like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.
INGREDIENTS:
2 lb. elk, steaks or chuck, cut 1¼-1½ thick (reduce cooking time if using thinner cuts)
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
2 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. coconut aminos or low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp. onion powder or 1 T. finely minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder or 2 Cloves minced garlic
½ tsp. coarse black pepper
¼ tsp. smoky Chipotle powder (or cayenne)
4 T. unsalted butter or ghee, melted
DIRECTIONS: Prepare meat by trimming off any obvious large pieces of sinew. Butterfly larger/thicker roasts so they are between 1¼-1½” thick. Place meat into a gallon ziploc bag. Mix the next 8 ingredients (all but the melted butter) in a small bowl. Stir and scrape the marinade into the bag. Zip bag and manipulate with your hands to evenly coat the meat. Marinate for 4 hours in the refrigerator, turning and manipulate the meat and marinade bag every hour. When ready to cook, prepare a bed of hot charcoal in your grill. When the coals are ready, place meat on grill. Using a sauce brush, baste the meat (and 5/8″-3/4″ pineapple slices if making them) with melted butter/ghee several times while cooking to help with moisture.
This will need to cook about 6-8 minutes on a side if you like your meat very rare. Allow around 10 minutes per side for medium rare, as shown in the pic above. Medium will take about 12 minutes on a side. You ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to cook game well done on the grill (as it has no fat/marbling to help keep it moist) or therein lies the path to a tough, dry result you will be VERY disappointed in. And elk is too expensive to fall prey to “death by overcooking”. This marinade will work just as well with beef or lamb.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each contains: (does not include pineapple slices)
307 calories
16.7 g fat
2.58 g carbs, .17 g fiber, 2.41 g NET CARBS
35 g protein
202 mg sodium
497 mg potassium
21% RDA copper, 54% iron, 35% phosphorous, 27% selenium, 46% zinc, 10% magnesium
I never had tried elk yet, the meat looks interesting
I personally like elk better than venison, Ray. Less gamey to me. I plan to cook with it more often, now that I have a local supplier.
Nice. Too bad we can’t get Elk in DFW. It’s great meat.
There’s a Natural Grocers in Dallas. They carry quite a bit of exotic meats. I can get ostrich, bison and elk at mine. The elk they carry is coming from Colorado. The Eat Wild website shows a couple farms raising emu and a lot of exotic meat suppliers scattered across the state. I haven’t gone that route yet, however.
http://www.naturalgrocers.com/store-info/store-locator?distance%5Bpostal_code%5D=75023&distance%5Bsearch_distance%5D=10&distance%5Bsearch_units%5D=mile
I can also get some cuts at Whole Foods in Austin. Surely there’s a Whole Foods (maybe several) in the DFW area. Bet you have more sources up there than I have in Temple.
Thanks a bunch!
They actually are within 8 miles of my house. I need to go check them out because I do love Elk. I used to have friends of mine who would hunt and give me deer and elk but that stopped about 6 years ago. I’m very excited.