Best Prime Rib

I’m not sure there’s anything more special and delicious at Christmastime than a beautiful, perfectly cooked piece of roast beef. This is my version of prime rib, which is as good the next day, sliced cold right out of the fridge, as it is served warm on a plate with potatoes, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts. That was the menu I fixed for the Christmas special on Food Network and it’s the menu I’ll be fixing again toward the end of this week.

It’s also the menu I want to eat in Heaven. Prime rib sounds impressive, and it is. But in this case, impressive doesn’t need to mean complicated or difficult. The best friend you can have when roasting a nice cut of beef is a reliable meat thermometer: it’s the best insurance against overcooking it…which is a tragedy of epic proportions.

Here’s how I make mine.

Important: Use a meat thermometer! Cooking times may vary widely. 

Ingredients

• 1 whole rib eye roast (you can use boneless or bone-in prime rib) about 14 pounds
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 c. kosher salt
• 4 tbsp. tri-color peppercorns (or any peppercorns)
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1/2 c. minced garlic

Directions

1. 1Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. 2Cut rib loin in half (roast halves separately for more controlled/even cooking.)
3. 3Sear both halves in olive oil over very high heat until nice dark golden color. Place tricolor peppercorns into a bag, crush pepper corns with a rolling pin. Strip the leaves from the rosemary and thyme springs. Mix salt, crushed peppercorns, rosemary leaves, thyme leaves and garlic. 
4. 4Pour olive oil over the rib loin and pour on the rub mix. Pat slightly to get it to stick to the meat. Roast for 20-30 minutes at 500 degrees, then reduce heat to 300°F and roast for another 20 to 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 125 for rare/medium rare (roast will continue to cook slightly after removing from the oven.) NOTE: If you’d like the meat more cooked, leave it in the oven longer. Just keep an eye on the meat thermometer and don’t let it cook past medium rare! **USING A MEAT THERMOMETER IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ENSURE YOU COOK THE MEAT TO YOUR LIKING***
5. 5Remove from oven and let rest at least 20 minutes before slicing.

IMPORTANT: USE A MEAT THERMOMETER! COOKING TIMES MAY VARY WIDELY. Also, you can buy half this quantity of meat and just proceed with the preparation instructions. You’ll wind up with one prime rib instead of two!

(Note: Photos below are from a couple of different prime ribs I’ve made over the past couple of months. Don’t be confused if you see different pans/different pieces of meat!)

I start with a whole ribeye (boneless or bone-in), sometimes called a rib loin, about 13-14 pounds. If you were to cut this into slices, you’d have a bunch of boneless ribeye steaks. (And the price reflects this. Wow.)

Note that I am going to cut this piece of meat in half and roast it in two pieces. If you don’t have a large crowd to feed, you could easily buy half this amount!

Either way, though, prime rib is pricey…which is why it’s usually reserved for holidays or other special occasions.

I don’t have many step-by-step photos for this, so here’s the final photo of my salt “crust.” I just combined kosher salt, crushed tri-color peppercorns (I put them in a Ziploc bag and whacked them with a rolling pin), plenty of minced garlic, and a bunch of rosemary leaves and thyme leaves. This isn’t a hard, crack-it-open salt crust; it’s a light coating of flavor that’s both pretty and scrumptious. I absolutely love it.

I made prime rib again for a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, and I chopped the rosemary and thyme rather than leaving the leaves whole. I didn’t like it as much; it was missing that “evergreen in the snow” look of the original.

Live and learn.

Begin by heating a heavy iron skillet over very high heat. Also known as high heat. Ha. Drizzle in plenty of olive oil…

And brown each piece of meat on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

After the meat is browned, transfer it to a roasting pan with the fat side up. Pour half the salt mixture all over the top, letting it cascade over the sides a bit. Repeat with the other half of the meat.

Throw the meat into a preheated 500 degree oven and roast it for 20 to 25 minutes. This will start the cooking process and ensure that the prime rib will have beautiful, sizzly color.

After that time, reduce the heat to 300 degrees and insert the meat thermometer so that the probe goes right into the middle of the meat. Continue roasting the meat for an additional 25 to 30 minutes for rare…longer for medium rare. Just watch the thermometer and remove it when it’s 5 to 10 degrees before the temperature you want, because it will continue cooking after you remove it from the oven.

UPDATE: Be prepared to roast the meat longer than 30 minutes to get it done to your liking. (We like ours very, very rare!) Just watch the meat thermometer.

Remove the meat from the pan and let it rest, covered in foil, on the cutting board for at least 20 minutes. (Never cut into roast beef immediately after removing it from the oven! It’s against the law.)

This is a really nice medium-rare and is on the verge of being too cooked for me. But it’s perfect for a crowd!

Mmmmm. Beaut-ee-ful. And again, if I were serving just my family (as you’ll notice if you watched the Christmas special) I would have gone much more rare than this.

Now this? This is too done. Still yummy, of course, but there’s just not enough red going on. I’d consider this medium. There’s a little bit of pink, but not enough to count. (Note that this does make yummy thin-sliced roast beef for sandwiches later.)

(Though again…my beef doneness tolerance is a little skewed considering I live among ranchers.)

Just remember to watch the meat thermometer! Again, it’s your best friend.