Holiday Prime Rib Roast
Updated: Oct 22, 2021
Most of my part time jobs of my youth were cooking in restaurants. One of them was a steak house I worked at for 3.5 years while I was in college. Well, I at least worked there until they suspended me for not shaving my beard, it was neatly trimmed, but that’s another story for another time and a different type of book. It was at this steakhouse where I would ask them to order me a full prime rib roast at t
heir wholesale price so that I could take it home and make it for my family for the holidays. I didn’t realize this at the time but this elevated me to be the family’s holiday cook, now I’m rethinking my decisions of the past, but at least someone else does the dishes (most of the time). Nonetheless, this was the start of my self-imposed quest to perfect my prime rib recipe. And this has now become a holiday staple for my family, I say “holiday” because it doesn’t need to be any particular holiday for us to want to have prime rib. You have my permission and encouragement to make this for any holiday you’d like; Boxing day, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Groundhog day, Chinese New Year, mother’s day, father’s day, Valentine’s day (I should have thought of this one before)… You name the holiday you can make this roast for it.
Ingredients
One bone-in prime rib roast, any size will do but you’ll need to adjust the following ingredients
A bunch of gloves of garlic diced
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
½ cup fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
½ cup fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
¼ cup fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons Charlie’s choice, if you don’t have that salt will work
1 ½ tablespoons ground pepper
1 stick softened butter
Steps
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Combine garlic, herbs and butter in a bowl and mix
Prepare roast by removing any excess fat. If it has a significant fat cap on top, slice off leaving it in one peace and save for later.
Once roast is trimmed season with Charlie’s choice (salt) and pepper on all sides
Rub herb butter mixture over roast
Optional – if you saved the fat cap, you can lay it flat over the herb butter mixture and hold it in place with some toothpicks. As the roast cooks the fat will render and baste the roast from the top down
Place roast in the oven and roast until the internal temperature reaches at least 120 degrees for medium rare
Pro-Tip
You can reserve some of your herb butter mixture or make extra and sauté with sliced mushrooms for an elevated side dish
Reserve the pan drippings for an Au Jus, I haven’t perfected that yet, so good luck.
Temperature and Cooking Times
At 325 degrees the meat will take 17 to 20 minutes per pound
Rare | 115° | I would only cook it to rare if I were going to reheat it to serve the following day |
Medium Rare | 125-130° | |
Medium | 140° | |
Medium Well | 150° | |
Well Done | 160° | I don’t recommend spending a boat load of money on a prime rib roast and cooking it till well done but that’s your choice |