Garlic Butter Prime Rib Recipe - The Cookie Rookie® (2024)

FAQs

Should I butter my prime rib before cooking? ›

Why Use Butter for Prime Rib? Rubbing a Prime Rib roast down with softened butter before cooking serves a few purposes. First, the extra layer of fat spread over the surface of the meat traps moisture so it can't escape as easily. This ensures a tender and juicy slice of roast beef.

To ensure a flavorful prime rib, make simple compound butter. For every 4 pounds of prime rib, combine 1/4 cup soft butter, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence. You can also use olive oil instead of butter and any dried herbs that you like.

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.

Let it REST, As with most meat, you want to let it rest after cooking to allow the juices to settle in the meat, making it juicier and more tender. If you cut into your roast without letting it rest, the juices will rush out then the meat will be chewy.

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.

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).

Cooked low and slow in the oven and finished with a blast of heat for the juiciest, most flavorful, evenly cooked prime rib roast. Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site.

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.

Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Roasting Pan

Besides the price, we love everything about this pan. Its shallow U-shaped rack offers stability to a turkey or standing rib roast, while leaving plenty of space toward the sides to roast vegetables beneath.

Prepare the Rub

You can season the roast a day in advance, but no later than 2 hours before cooking time. The seasoning needs time to flavor the meat while it's raw.

How long should prime rib sit before cooking? ›

Let it sit on the counter for 4 hours before cooking. Bringing the roast to room temperature is especially important here because a cold roast will take much longer to cook. Step three: Cook it low and slow. Set the oven to 225 degrees F and put the roast in the oven.

Make your Prime Rib rub: In a small bowl, stir together: 1/2 Tbsp salt, 1/2 Tbsp black pepper, 1 tsp minced rosemary, 1/2 tsp minced thyme leaves, chopped garlic, and 3 Tbsp olive oil. Lightly pat the roast dry with a paper towel then rub all over top and sides with garlic rub.

It's milk.

A steak that marinates in an acidic or enzymatic liquid too long, such as citrus juice or cola, becomes tough or mushy. But the acid in milk is so mild that you can soak beef in it long enough to tenderize it effectively, without damaging the proteins on the surface.

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.

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

Storing your prime rib correctly is crucial to your leftovers staying as juicy and tasty as day one. First things first, wrap leftover prime rib tightly in plastic wrap, preferably keeping it intact rather than slicing it. This will help keep as much moisture inside as possible.

Place the roast fat side up on a rack in a roasting pan. Do not add water or cover the roast. Roast at 450°F for 15 minutes. Then, set your oven to 275°F and cook to your desired doneness, based on the Cooking Times Chart below.