Venison bacon – how to cook

This is more of a topic of conversation than a recipe… I hope you’ll forgive me.
I am to the point where I cook pork bacon on my pellet grill/smoker 99.9% of the time. It turns out great every time.
So this past season I got venison bacon made. I thoroughly enjoy the flavor of it, but I really cannot say I’ve figured out the best way to cook it.
The first time I made it on the smoker it was phenomenal. Every subsequent time it’s still great flavor but super chewy. Your jaw gets tired after a piece or two.
Has anyone cracked the code on the best way to cook this stuff?

over cooking it?? or temp to high???

I mean… probably? The thing is I don’t know what is correct. Will it ever get crispy and not tough or do you basically just have to heat the stuff up and it’ll have that SPAM-like texture?
I like my pork bacon really crispy and maybe that’s just not a possibility with venison bacon.

I don’t think I have ever had crispy Venny bacon. Unless I fried too long and then it was burnt.

Mine were placed in square pans probably 3″ thick.
Then dumped out on the racks in the smoker for a couple hours.
It wasn’t meant to be eaten that way, did not get up to temp.

I cook mine in a pan but only enough to get it heated through or in the microwave.
It’s more like venny sausage warmed up. It’s not tough but it’s not melt in your mouth either.

We get venison bacon processed at McDonalds Meats in Clear Lake. They slice it then which helps a lot. I put it on a wire rack over a sheet tray in the oven. Flip once. Crips up nice

What temp are you doing it at? You are going to need to get it to a hot temp and many of these cheaper pellet smokers dont get super hot to get it crispy. 400 is where I would do it. Mine gets to nearly 1000 degrees if I put the sear grates etc on it, but then I would melt the siding on my house.

350. I can go hotter.
I’m wondering if doing it in a pan wouldn’t be better to retain some moisture.

Yeah use a cast iron pan for sure.