Truth be told, I've made this before on the Egg and that was the way we intended to cook it this year, as it is so divine. But given that our Easter Sunday this year was overcast and we were expecting severe thunderstorms, I opted for a simpler cooking method. Erring to the side of caution, we decided to do this in the oven at the last minute. Absolutely the right call, as it turned out.
So with Easter dinner saved by my last minute change in cooking plans, we ended up having a perfectly cooked prime rib that suited everyone at our table. For those that like medium cooked beef, there were the end cuts and the medium-rare to rare cuts were further in and closer to the center.
Here's how I did it this time:
10 lb prime rib roast, rib in (about 4 large ribs), unpackaged and patted dry
large roasting pan
You can have your butcher remove the ribs or do it yourself. It's pretty easy to do as you literally just cut very close to the bone, meat side, as much or as little as you want.
This makes serving easier and also, the ribs cook at a different temperature than the rib cap. You can leave them on, but it's definitely a trick to employ if you want to ensure a perfectly cooked prime rib. And, this way, the ribs will cook at the same time as the roast.
I cooked the ribs too and used them as a "rack" to roast the meat on and they were so dang good. However, if you want to save these for another meal, go ahead and rub them too and then freeze or refrigerate for later, if you prefer.
I also trim some of the fat side and remove the silver skin, because silver skin does not break down and is not good eats... The fat, however, is luscious so leave enough to aid in the basting of the meat as it will melt and break down and add such wonderful flavor to the meat. No need to remove it all.
Rub:
- 6 large cloves of grated or finely minced garlic
- zest of 2 large washed lemons
- 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary leaves, finely diced
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp sea salt
- 1-2 tbsp fresh cracked black pepper
Prep:
Now, it's pretty easy if you have a small food processor. Just put all of your ingredients in and pulse until combined. But it doesn't take that much time to do it by hand either. I use a fine lemon zester to zest the entire lemon and then grate the garlic on the same microplane grater. If you have a garlic crusher, that will work and so will mincing it finely with a knife.
Use the above recommendations but it essentially works out to be equal parts of all ingredients above, except for the salt and pepper. The mixture will be more like a loose paste, which is great for coating the meat.
Rub the entire surface of the meat, including the ribs, with the rub and place the whole thing in the roasting pan. I place the roast on top of the removed ribs to lift the roast off the bottom of the pan and it turned out nicely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Roasting:
On roasting day, remove from the fridge a couple of hours before you cook to let the meat come to room temperature. It makes for a more even, predictable baking time.
Preheat the oven to 250 F degrees.
For medium rare, you want the internal temperature to be around 130 degrees so have a meat thermometer handy. Cooking time is roughly 15-20 minutes per pound. I cooked ours, which was 10 lb, for 2.5 hours on 250 and the last 10 minutes or so, I turned on the broiler to get a good color.
Again, keep an eye on the internal temp. Once it starts to get around 120, it will go very fast and if you want a perfect medium rare, take it out at about 125 as it will continue to cook and warm up to 135. Ours got to 140 even out of the oven and it was still perfectly rare at the very center but I wouldn't let it stay in the oven unless you enjoy medium well prime rib. I mean, what's the point of that? Prime rib should be served medium rare to rare as it is such a beautiful and tender cut of meat, getting no exercise, it will never be tough.
Serving:
The pan juices are lovely to make a gravy or serve as is. Loaded with flavor, it won't require much even if you do want to make a sauce so it is highly unlikely that you will need to further season the sauce.
We removed the roast and ribs to rest before serving and we added sautéed baby portabella mushrooms, which we did ahead of time, back to the roasting pan.
You can add a bit of heavy cream if you like a creamier style of mushroom gravy but we just added a couple of pats of butter and served it like that. It was so delicious!
I guess we did something right because everyone devoured the meal with not a single bite of rib or roast left behind... Too bad, because I sure had my heart set on prime rib subs. Alas, I will have to buy a bigger roast next time!
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