Instant Pot Venison Cheese Steak Sandwiches are a delicious and different way to enjoy your deer meat! Hunting season is here and game meat will be available so I wanted to share this recipe for anyone who likes wild meat.
In my last post, I shared my Instant Pot Venison Roast Recipe with Gluten Free Mushroom Gravy. This Instant pot venison cheese steak sandwich recipe is a great way to use the leftovers of the instant pot venison roast instead of cooking venison steak.
Recipe Prep
I like to thaw my deer meat ahead of time instead of cooking it frozen in the Instant Pot. The reason I like to do this is because I can marinate the meat before cooking it to help remove the game taste. You may skip this step but I highly recommend it. When I know I’m going to cook this recipe, I remove the meat from the freezer the day before and allow it to fully thaw in the refrigerator.
The red wine vinegar is the secret ingredient that removes the game taste from the venison. It’s so effective that my family didn’t know they were eating deer meat…they thought is was beef! The soy sauce and worcestershire sauce add a wonderful umami flavor to the marinade. I marinate my venison steak for about 30 minutes to an hour before cooking it, but you could certainly marinate it over night.
I like to use Trader Joe’s Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend when I cook red meat. If you don’t have this seasoning or you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s then simply leave it out.
Cooking the Meat
After marinating the venison steak, I sauté it in the Instant Pot for about a minute on each side. You may need to do this step in separate bathes so the meat is not touching in the pot. Once you have sautéd the venison steak, remove it and set aside so you can deglaze the pot with broth.
It’s important to deglaze the pot before pressure cooking so the bottom of pot does not burn. I’ve been using chicken broth with my most recent red meat recipes because it adds a nice depth of flavor.
Once the pot has been deglazed with the broth add the steak back to the pot. Next, lay the sliced onions, peppers, and mushrooms over the venison steak in that order and don’t stir them together. You will want to leave these ingredients layered. Set the Instant Pot to manual and pressure cook for 15 minutes and then allow it to naturally release steam for another 15 minutes.
Recipe Ideas
When the pressure has released for 15 minutes, quick release the rest of the steam and open the lid once the floating valve has dropped. You will need to remove the venison steak and vegetables using a slotted spoon onto a plate. Separate the vegetables and meat, then using two forks, shred the steak into bite size pieces.
There will be leftover broth in the Instant Pot. If you want turn it into gravy using 2 tablespoons of tapioca starch and forming a slurry, you can. The recipe could stop here. The gravy, meat and vegetables could be poured over rice or mashed potatoes. If you don’t want to make sandwiches then this is a good alternative.
Building the Sandwich
This is the best part–building and getting to eat this sandwich! I usually lay all the sandwich ingredients out and make a sandwich bar because not everyone likes onions, peppers, and mushrooms. The following ingredients are what I used to make my sandwich.
Gluten Free Bread
At the time of making this sandwich, I could not find a gluten free sub roll so I used a gluten free bun instead. Schar does make a gluten free sub roll which would work great for this sandwich. I toasted the bread in the oven on broil with a little bit of butter.
Sliced Cheese
Once the bread toasted, I then added a slice of provolone cheese to both sides of the bun. I returned the bun back to the oven on broil to melt the cheese. I allowed the buns to cool for a couple of minutes and then added my next ingredient…mayonnaise!
Mayonnaise
We like mayonnaise on our sandwiches so I added about a tablespoon of mayo to each sandwich.
Meat & Vegetables
After the mayonnaise was spread over the bun, I then added the shredded steak, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Now, on to the best part! This is the part that makes this sandwich a cheese steak sandwich…cheese sauce!
Cheese Sauce
My inspiration for this recipe came from none other than the Philly cheesesteak with the orange, gooey cheese! I do feel that the cheese sauce is a must when eating a steak sandwich. There are recipes that show you how to make the cheese sauce from scratch but since Kraft has many gluten free options, I decided to use Kraft Cheese Whiz.
I warmed up the cheese according to the instructions on the jar right before serving it. I laid the warm cheese sauce out so people could pour as much as they wanted over their steak.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you don’t have venison steak then you can certainly substitute it for thinly sliced beef steak. I would love to know if you try this recipe so please drop me a comment below if you do.
Instant Pot Venison Cheese Steak Sandwiches
Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce, gluten free or tamari sauce
- 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce gluten free
- 1/2 teaspoon pink salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Trader Joe's Umami Seasoning Blend optional
Instant Pot Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat or cooking fat
- 2 pounds venison steak
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 green peppers, sliced
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms, Baby Bella
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
Sandwich Ingredients
- 4 gluten free buns
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- 1 (15 ounce) jar Kraft Cheese Whiz, warmed
- Mayonnaise optional
Instructions
Marinade
- In a small bowl mix together the pink salt, black pepper, granulated garlic powder, granulated onion powder, mustard powder, and Umami Seasoning Blend, set spice mixture aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the red wine vinegar, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce and whisk together, set aside.
- Remove the venison from the package and pat the meat dry using a paper towel.
- Sprinkle the spice mixture all over the venison steak while rubbing in the spices.
- Add the venison steak to the large bowl of the red wine vinegar mixture and allow the steak to marinate for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode and add the cooking fat.
- Once the fat has melted and is hot, add the marinated venison steak to the pot and allow it to sauté for 1 minute on each side. (May need to do this step in batches all the pieces of meat get browned.)
- End sauté mode and remove the steak from the Instant Pot.
- Pour the broth in to the pot. (Deglazing)
- Stir in the worcestershire sauce and add the meat back to the Instant Pot.
- Layer the onions, peppers, and mushrooms in this order on top of the steak and do not stir or mix together these ingredients.
- Place the lid on pot, turn to locked position, and set vent to sealed position.
- Manually switch pot to "pressure cook" for 15 minutes.
- When cooking time is complete, allow the pot to naturally release pressure for 15 minutes.
- Once the 15 minutes are up, quick release the rest of the steam by turning the vent to venting position and allow steam to vent until the floating valve drops.
- Turn lid to unlock it, and remove it from the pot.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the steak and vegetables from the pot.
- Separate the steak from the vegetables and using 2 forks, shred the steak into bite size pieces.
Cheese Steak Sandwich
- Evenly divide the butter among the 4 Gluten Free Buns.
- Using a toaster oven or oven on broil, toast the buns.
- Lay a slice of provolone cheese on each side of every bun and return it to the toaster oven or oven and allow the cheese to melt.
- Remove the buns from the toaster oven or oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes, spread desired about of mayonnaise on the buns.
- Evenly divide the shredded steak and vegetables into 4 portions and lay one portion onto the bottom half of each sandwich bun.
- Next, pour desired about of Cheese Whiz over the steak and add the top of the bun to the sandwich and enjoy!
