The Perfect Prime Rib Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do restaurants make prime rib so tender? ›

How do restaurants make prime rib so tender? The secret to restaurant-style prime rib is cooking the meat super slow at low temperatures. I recommend cooking prime rib at no higher than 200 degrees F. This cooks the meat very slowly, turning the fat into butter and rendering the proteins juicy and soft.

Season it generously with kosher salt the day before roasting it and let it sit in the fridge uncovered overnight. When you take it out of the fridge before roasting, add pepper and any additional herbs.

Mix garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme together in a small bowl. Place roast in a roasting pan with the fatty side up. Spread mixture over the top of roast; let roast sit out until it is at room temperature, no longer than 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).

Remove the beef roast from the refrigerator 3 hours before you start to cook it. Sprinkle it with salt all over and let it sit, loosely wrapped in butcher paper. Roasts should be brought close to room temperature before they go into the oven to ensure more even cooking.

A low and slow start delivers perfectly evenly cooked medium-rare doneness all the way from edge to center. Blasting the prime rib with heat just before serving gives you a crackling-crisp, browned crust.

Our perfected broiling method and seasoning techniques ensure each cut of USDA Prime beef we serve arrives cooked to perfection and sizzling on a 500° plate.

The salt helps trap the heat to better cook the prime rib. “It conducts the heat and seals it,” says Betz.

Make small slits all over the prime rib and fill each slit with a slice of the garlic. Season liberally with the salt and coarse pepper, place on a rack set inside a roasting pan and roast for about 2 hours until medium-rare, or until a thermometer inserted into the center of the meat registers 135 degrees F.

Place the roast in a high-sided roasting pan bone-side down. The bones create a natural roasting rack for the meat, so don't worry if you don't have one.

I love using fresh thyme, sage, oregano and parsley. Or use a premade herb blend such as Herbs de Provence. Score the beef and add whole peeled garlic cloves. This adds a beautiful flavor and aroma to your roast.

Do you rinse salt off prime rib before cooking? ›

Remove prime rib from refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for 2-6 hours, depending on the size of the roast - DO NOT RINSE THE SALT OFF (1 hour per rib or 1 hour for every 2 pounds).

Overcooking the Prime Rib

That's why prime rib is so expensive: it's a huge piece of extremely good beef. Therefore, it's important not to cook it beyond medium-rare. Going past that temperature means the roast will no longer be tender.

Season the meat with the ground black pepper and seasoning salt, then cover completely with kosher salt. Roast in preheated oven for 4 to 5 hours, or until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

Marbling is the streaks of intramuscular fat that run through the meat. The more marbled your meat, the juicier, more flavorful, and tender it'll be. Buying "Prime" graded beef is a good guarantee of this fat content, though it's possible to find ungraded beef with plenty of marbling as well.

Roast in oven: Place roasting pan in hot 450°F oven for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 115 to 120°F for medium rare (125 to 130°F after resting), or 125 to 130°F for medium (135 to 140°F after resting).

Searing is an important part of roasting a prime rib. Searing the roast first will kill the surface bacteria, which is a nice touch, especially when you are roasting at lower temperatures.