WARNING.....Attention all hunters and home chefs out there! Public Service Announcement....quit stripping the meat off your various animal shanks just to add to your sausage or jerky grind mix! This delicious meat can be simply prepared in a slow cooker and produce wonderful barbacoa style tacos, chopped meat barbecue sandwiches, or even a mega fancy serving of Osso Buco divine enough to impress Gordon Ramsey himself! Okay, maybe he won't make you put two pieces of bread over each ear and call yourself an idiot sandwich, but those wonderful shanks of venison, veal, lamb, you name it can be simply prepared to create a wonderful meal! Before you decide to go back to those boring age old ways of turning shanks into sausage or jerky, check out this walk through. I promise it can't get much more simple to create something wonderful from a very tough cut of meat. Let's get cooking!
For today's walk through, I will be using a front and rear shank from this past season's deer harvest. If you are going to try this recipe, you will more than likely be using all four shanks or at least both fronts or both rears, but I did one of each just to show that it can be done pretty much with any shank cut. Clean them up as best as possible, but a little silver skin or sinew won't be affecting this meal unlike other preparation methods. We are going low and slow which breaks down everything, so don't waste too much time trying to perfectly clean up your shanks.
Do yourself a favor and take note of this pro tip. Measure your pans and slow cooker so your shanks will actually fit in them. I found out the hard way and had to break out the old hacksaw to trim up the rear shank. Not a huge problem, but I was lucky to have a new blade on hand. No one wants to use an old, oily, dirty saw blade on food they plan on eating, eh? That being said, once you know everything will actually fit, begin by melting a few tablespoons of butter in a hot pan and sear off your shanks, one at a time, all all sides. Liberally season everything with salt and pepper, of course! That nice crust you put on your shanks will go a long way to enhancing the flavor in the long run, so don't skip this step and spend the 2 or 3 minutes per side of each shank.
Believe it or not, the hard part is done! Next, place your seared shanks into a slow cooker and top with 3-4 cups of stock. Chicken, beef, or vegetable stock will all do the trick so just use what you have on hand. I went ahead and smashed a few cloves of garlic and added them on top of the shanks. We shouldn't have to worry about any strong game flavors coming through, but garlic is an easy fix to covering up any off-putting flavors that steer some people from wild game. Obviously, if you are cooking beef shanks, it's even less of an issue but besides vampires, who doesn't love a ton of garlic flavor in their food! I went super plain this time, but you could also add a packet of dry onion soup or any other flavors you want to incorporate at this point. Set your slow cooker to low and let her rip for 8-10 hours while you sleep for the night or head off to work for the day!
It's that simple, folks! After your shanks have cooked on low for at least 8 hours, carefully remove them from the liquid and allow to cool a few minutes. No need to burn your paws trying to shred smoking hot meat! Most of mine started to fall off the bone and shred itself just trying to get it out of the crock pot so take your time and make sure not to leave any tasty meat behind!
If you want, strain the remaining liquid from your slow cooker, add to a stock pot, and simmer away for a bit. Toss in a couple tablespoons of corn starch to thicken it up and BOOM, you got some tasty gravy to enjoy with your shredded shank meat! Like I said in the beginning, this shredded meat can also be enjoyed on some tortillas as a taco, or chop and put on a bun for a sandwich. The possibilities are nearly endless, but no matter what actual meal route you choose, take some pics and tag me on instagram letting me know what you turned your shank meat into this time around! My son was so excited to eat a "deer leg" he just had me put some in a bowl to which he dumped every 6 year old's favorite condiment, ketchup, and chowed down like it was his last meal on Earth! Or you could make some potatoes to douse with your shank gravy and enjoy a more, normal meal. Do whatever you like, besides be lazy and making sausage out of everything, and just keep cooking!
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