Rosemary Who? Try this Amazing Prime Rib Roast Recipe

This year, my nephew was telling me he would be cooking a prime rib roast for my sister and her kids at their little family get-together. He told me they were on sale and I was intrigued. I have never had a prime roast. Ribeyes – yes. We are a huge steak-eating family. But I have never had it in a roast.

We are not a traditional family in the sense that we have a huge Christmas dinner and all that jazz. I usually want to have my kids come over and enjoy them. I don’t want to feel exhausted from preparing a huge meal. So it is either pizza or something fast and easy most of the time. But I felt that needed to change. haha, So I bought a 6-pound roast and got to work looking at all the ways people cooked them.

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My Search for the Perfect Recipe

What I saw was most people used a lot of Rosemary. My husband does not like rosemary. This started me on a long process of looking everywhere to find the perfect recipe. I finally ended up on YouTube. I stumbled upon a YouTuber named Matt Pittman at Meat Church BBQ. He was smoking a roast and was not using Rosemary. This showed me that my idea of a Roast without Rosemary could be accomplished. Now although he had a lot of his own spices that sounded amazing I was short on time. So what I appreciated about him was he broke down what the spices consisted of and I was on my way.

The difference though was – I was cooking in an oven and Matt Pittman was using a pit. So then I headed over to one of my favorite YouTubers, Joshua Weissman to see if he had any tips. And well what do you know? Ol’ Joshua never fails me. He had a recipe for cooking a rib roast. And although he used rosemary I was able to take away tips and tweak some of his recipe ideas to create my own.

It was a Christmas Miracle – I figured it out!

So between these two mad Rib Roast Cooking Geniuses and a few other tips and tricks, I found along my journey, I created my own recipe. And let me tell you… It was so amazing! My family loved it! My husband just kept saying he has been to some top restaurants and he couldn’t believe that I made this. He kept saying how it was better than any he has ate before.

I know, I know, It seems like he may have been tooting my horn just a bit. It was Christmas you know. But truthfully, that man and my oldest take their steaks very seriously. And neither have an issue with telling me if it wasn’t on point. So I was extremely happy with the compliments. And that is why I am here to share with you our new Christmas Dinner Tradition.

The first thing you are going to want to do is to get yourself a nice prime rib roast. I wanted mine to have the bones on so it would look pretty. And apparently, Christmas is the best time to buy these babies because they are NOT cheap! I was able to get one on sale though. They had a $70 roast marked down to $25. Mr. Meat Market man, me and my family just want to say thanks!

The whole process takes a few days. You will need to account for enough time to prepare the roast. And if you get your roast early you need to be sure to account for defrosting it if you happened to freeze it. Yup – it is those thanksgiving turkeys all over again

Let’s Get Busy Making this Prime Rib Roast

Now that you have your prime rib roast and you are ready to prepare it. The first thing you will want to do is do a French Cut on the bones. You don’t have to do this but why would you not? haha

I could explain this super simply by telling you cut all the fat from around the bones at the small end up a couple of inches and then clean up all the meat off the bones. Then tell you how to make a slice between the bones and the roast leaving a small bit intact to help you keep it together. But here is a video to make it even easier.

You’re welcome.

The only thing I do not recommend is cutting off the fat. They usually come trimmed and that fat gives so much flavor to your meat. It renders and has an amazing flavor. There is nothing like it. Cutting it off seems to me like it should be listed as a cardinal sin.

Why a Dry Brine?

I chose to do a Dry Brine on this to really amplify the flavors of this roast. When applying a dry brine you are doing a few different things. You are seasoning the outer surface of your meat, you are helping the meat retain its moisture, and helping it not dry out during the cooking time.

The salt in the brine will draw the moisture to the surface and then as it rests the moisture will travel back through the meat carrying the flavor of the seasonings throughout. The salts then help change the proteins within the meat to help it hold on to the moisture.

Let’s do this baby!

Once you have your Prime Rib Roast trimmed up and sliced it is ready to season. You are going to want to mix all your dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

• 4 tbsp Coarse Kosher Salt
• 1 tbsp Finely Chopped Fresh Thyme
• 2 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp 16 Mesh Black Pepper Coarse Black Pepper can be substituted

I laid my roast on a large cutting board and drizzled Worcestershire sauce all over it. When you do this you want to be sure to cover everything including the crevis you just cut between the roast and the bones. This creates a surface to help the seasoning bind to the meat.

Once it is covered you will sprinkle the seasoning on every side. Again don’t forget that crevis. The roast only gets seasoning on the outside of it. There is a lot of meat that will not have seasoning directly on it. So a thick nice coat is so helpful in distributing the flavor throughout the meat.

Once you have used every bit of seasoning that would stick to your roast it is time to tie it up. Using butcher’s twine I wrapped the string around the roast between the bones to hold it all together. This helps it keep form and makes it look so pretty.

Once everything is seasoned place your roast on a wire rack and place a pan of some sort to catch any drippings that may drip from it. HAHA, yes… I am using a lid from a huge container I have. It was a better size than all my pans. My motto is if it works, go with it. Although if you are looking for one here one on Amazon that has really good reviews and won’t break the bank.

Stick your roast in your fridge with no covering and let it just rest for 24 to 48 hours.

Today is the Day!! Let’s get cooking!

You will want to bring your roast to room temperature before cooking it. This can take between 4 to 6 hours depending on where you live and what the temperature is in your home. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time for this part. It really helps the roast cook evenly.

Once your roast is to room temperature it is time to get the last of the details worked out. First things first; turn your oven on to 250º and let it start warming up.

You want to get a nice pan to put your Prime Rib Roast in. You want the pan to be big enough to where the roast doesn’t touch the sides. The fact that you are laying a layer of sweet aromatic goodness on the bottom of the pan will allow you to cook the roast without a roasting rack.

Aromatics for a touch of added flavor

Here are the following ingredients you will need for the bottom of your pan:

• 2 Whole Garlic Sliced in Half
• 1 Whole Onion – Skin and ends removed
• Sprigs of Thyme
• 2 2″ long pieces of Lemon Skin
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil

Slice your onions in half and then cut them into slices and lay them around the pan in random places. Take whole garlic and rub off a good amount of the skin, but not all of it. The skin holds them together in fun little clumps. Slice them in half am place them cut side up. Using a potato peeler you can easily take off 2 slivers of Lemon Peel that are about 2″ long. Finally spread out your thyme and bay leaves. Finish it off with drizzling olive oil over the whole thing and sit back and enjoy the art.

Marinade

For the last step in this process before we stick the prime rib roast in the oven, we are going to cover it in a marinade. Mix all of the following ingredients into a small bowl.

• 3 Cloves of Garlic finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Whole Grain Mustard
• 4 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Onion Powder

Pour the marinade over the roast a little at a time. Using your hands lightly rub the marinade around the sides of the roast. Be sure to get a nice thick coat on top. And now you are ready to cook this big bad boy!

Cooking your Prime Rib Roast

When cooking a roast, slow and low is the way to go. A temperature of 250º is the perfect temperature to thoroughly cook the roast slowly without drying it out.

The roast needs to reach an internal temperature of 118º. A good meat thermometer is really crucial to good cooking. Any meat that gets overcooked gets dry and changes in flavor. There are all different kinds to get. You can get one like I have that is cheap but get it done. Or one like my son’s who is a grilling enthusiast. Either way, they are necessary.

The roast is going to take approximately 30 minutes per pound of meat. With this being said, please check it about 1/2 way through, again 2/3 of the way through, and so on. All of our ovens cook at different rates and you want to be on top of your roast.

Once your roast hits the 118º mark pull it out and set it on a counter or on top of the stove to rest.

You are going to let it sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour. This would be a perfect time to work on sides to go along with your meal. For this dinner, I made Brussels sprouts and garlic mashed potatoes.

Reverse Searing? What in the heck is that?

Yeah, that is what I said when I first heard the term. So apparently when you brown a roast in the beginning you mess it up. Who knew?

When browning a roast you create unevenness in the cooking process. You cook the first inch of the meat and then the rest has to catch up. This causes the outer layer to be heated up and the cooking process is accelerated. It creates the outer part of the roast to dry out.

By reverse searing, you cook the whole roast perfectly, allow it to rest then put the sear we all love at the end. This method gives you a juicy evenly cooked roast with the amazing crispy outer crust we all love.

So now that I rambled on and on let me explain what you need to do.

Heat your oven up to 500º. Once it is preheated you will place your roast back into the oven. You will only cook it for 10-15 minutes. Check on it periodically to make sure it does not burn. When the roast has the amazing dark brown coloring we all love it is done.

And Viola! Dinner is served.

I can not express how awesome this recipe is. It had gotten late by the time the roast was done so I feel the lighting in the pictures didn’t do it justice. If you end up making this and love it please let me know. I would love your feedback or anything you might have tweaked to bring it to perfection for your family.

Special Shout-Out to my awesome nephew for going back and forth with me during all this to help me tweak the recipe to be what it is… I love you, Seth!