Why This Perfect Prime Rib Is So Good!
- Tender, juicy and delicious!
- A foolproof prime rib recipe.
- A deep and flavorful red wine jus.
- Perfect to serve a large crowd.
Perfect Prime Rib Ingredients
- Bone-on beef rib roast
- Oxtail bones
- Tomato paste
- Vegetables: onions,carrots, celery
- Garlic
- Cooking Oil
- Red wine
- Chicken & beef broth
- Thyme
- Salt and Pepper
An Easy Prime Rib Recipe
It’s easier than you think, almost foolproof if you have a meat thermometer. Even if you do goof and leave it in the oven a little longer than desired, it will still be amazing moist and tender (because of the slow ‘n low cooking temp)
Don’t be fooled by the word “prime” in the name of Prime Rib Roast – just regular ‘ol supermarket Choice cut rib roast is fine, no need to splurge (and what a massive splurge that would be!) for the Prime cuts.
These days, I like to dry age my roast (This weekend would be the perfect time to start the dry aging if you are game to do it yourself!), but it’s absolutely not necessary.
The recipe I use most comes from Cook’s Illustrated with some small changes. It’s come out perfect every single time.
How to Cook Perfect Prime Rib Recipe with Jus – Step By Step
Start with oxtails smeared with tomato paste – this will produce some crazy flavor for the Red Wine Jus (which honestly, is 42% of why I love Prime Rib). Throw some veggies into the pan and roast for 20 minutes to give it a head start.
After the oxtails and veg have had a nice bake in the oven, you can already see how much flavor it will add to the recipe.
Here’s the roast….instead of trying to carve the roast off the bone AFTER cooking, Cooks Illustrated advises to carve the meat off the bone before roasting for 2 reasons:
1. It’s easier to carve to serve without having to wrestle with bone.
2. The bone will flavor the au jus later in the cooking process.
You’ll want to cut the roast as close to the bone as possible – don’t waste any of that precious meat!
In a large frying pan or cast iron pan (preferred), sear each side of the boneless roast.
Get a nice crusty crust.
On each side.
Now we’ll tie the roast back onto the bones. I like using strips of cheesecloth. Easier than wrangling with twine and that fancy tying thing. Two strips is all you really need – tie it like a present.
Tie the roast back on — this is important, because the bone will serve as our “rack” in the roasting pan so that the roast cooks evenly. The bone also gives a lot of flavor. Push the oxtails and veg to the side.
Roast 17-20 minutes per pound…for a 7 pound roast that would be 2 hours. Check temp with a meat thermometer – just stick the thermometer deep in the middle (don’t touch bone). 122F for rare, 130F for medium-rare.
Now it’s time to make the savory red wine jus! Spoon out the fat from the roasting pan (use it for the Yorkshire Pudding Recipe!) Return roasting pan with the oxtails, vegetables and the BONES of the rib roast (just untie them from the roast) with wine, broth and thyme.
Simmer it good.
Strain.
And it’s done!
Carve the prime rib roast.
Serve the prime rib with jus
But don’t forget….for your favorite dog…
Oh look! Steph from Faye Bernoulli blog made this Prime Rib recipe. Here’s her photo.
What If I Have A Bigger Roast?
I’ve gotten this question 4 times this past week! So, I’ll answer it here:
Q: I have a 12 pound roast, can you please help me figure out timing?
A: So you’re having a big party at your house!
What To Serve With The Perfect Prime Rib – Yorkshire Pudding!
How can you resist!? The beef fat from the roasting pan goes into making these airy Yorkshire Pudding popovers. You can also serve up some Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Roasted Carrots with Sesame Ponzu Vinaigrette.
Top Tips For This Perfect Prime Rib Recipe
- Get bone-in rib roast, preferable first-cut, ribs 9-12 for most flavor. Choice grade of beef (i.e. not the pricey Prime grade) is what you’ll ask for.
- Take note of how many pounds the roast is prior to cooking (bones and roast) to determine cooking time.
- Use a meat thermometer.
- Serve with Yorkshire puddings!
Check Out These Other Delicious Beef Recipes
Fall off the Bone Baby Back Ribs with Sweet Chili Sauce
Cayenne Cinnamon Ribs with Maple Glaze
Grilled Garlic and Rosemary Ribeye Steak
Perfect Prime Rib Recipe with Au Jus
Ingredients
- 1 bone-on beef rib roast about 7-8 pounds
- 1 1/2 pounds oxtail bones
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 onions quartered
- 3 carrots cut into thirds
- 3 stalks celery cut into thirds
- 1 whole head garlic halved
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil divided
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 3/4 cups beef broth
- 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
- ake roast from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400F, place rack on lowest position. Rub oxtails with tomato paste, place in roasting pan. Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic, toss with just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil. Roast for 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, cut the bone from the rib roast (try to carve as close to the bone as possible). Rub roast with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and generously season with salt and pepper. Heat large frying pan on high heat. When smoking hot, place rib roast, fat side down in pan and sear each side 5 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool for a few minutes. Place the roast right back onto the bones. Use kitchen twine or strips of cheesecloth to tie roast back onto the bones.
- When the oxtails and vegetables are done, remove pan from oven.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 250F.
- Push the oxtail bones and vegetables to the sides, place roast, bone side down in roasting pan. Return pan to oven. Roast for 17-20 minutes PER POUND or until temperature of the middle of the roast is 130F (medium-rare to medium). Transfer roast to cutting board, carefully untie the bones from roast. Cover loosely with tin foil. Rest for 20 minutes.
- While roast is resting, make the red wine jus. Keep the oxtails and vegetables in the roasting pan but pour out all but 1 teaspoon of the fat (reserve for Yorkshire Pudding if desired). Place the bones that you've untied from roast in roasting pan 2 burners set on high heat.
- Pour in the red wine and cook until wine is reduced by half. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the bits. Add the beef broth, chicken broth, thyme. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add any juices accumulated from the rib roast on the cutting board. Turn off heat.
- Remove the oxtails and the bones. Strain the jus with mesh strainer, pressing down with wooden spoon to extract out all the juice from the vegetables. Carve the roast, serve with the jus. Give the bones to a nice dog.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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This looks so amazing that I am going to go out and invest in a real roasting pan. Â This looks like it should be a holiday dinner, but I don’t know if I can wait that long. Â You batted this one of the park!
Just had our Christmas dinner (yes, we have it on Christmas Eve ) and followed the recipe to aperfection ! It was amazing! Thank you so much! My son was happy (the California foodie) and everyone gobbled it right up! Wow, just wow! We even did the asparagus and tomatoes!Â
Chery – Fantastic! I’m so happy you loved it. Merry Christmas.
Hi, I came across this delicious recipe and this is my first time ever making a prime rib for Christmas. I am hoping that I can start dinner at 6, but my question is, what time should I start to prep and cook to make sure all my sides and this beautiful piece of meat is finished by the time everyone is hungry? What would you recommend on doing first?
Tried this and loved it. I let my meat cook just a little longer and let my sauce thicken and added another cup of wine and it was awsome.
I know this is an old recipe with a lot of comments, but I needed to add one more.
I am the family cook and always try to make something special for our small family of 4 (all adults, no kids, no living parents) each year. I made this for them the year it was posted and got rave reviews. This year, as we were sitting around the table after Thanksgiving, sipping coffee, nibbling on pie, and chatting, the subject of “what should we do for Christmas” came up.
Brother in law says: Do you remember that prime rib thing you made a few years ago with the incredible sauce? Could we have that again? We’ll buy all the ingredients if you’ll fix it.
Sister in law says: Yes yes yes. That was the best thing you’ve ever made. Please make it again.
So … here we are at Christmas 2013 and, yes, I will be making it again. Complete with the fantastic au jus. Thank you for a recipe that my whole family finds memorable. 🙂
Oh fantastic!!! You just made my day. Merry Christmas 🙂
omg…looks delicious
You’re so awesome! I don’t suppose I have read something like this before.
So nice to find someone with a few original thoughts on this issue.
Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that’s needed on the web, someone with some originality!streetdirectory
Hi there, step #4 is oven temp not roast temp 🙂
What is the oven temperature for the slow roast of the prime rib?
Given #4 step is the temp of the meat.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe. Made the roast and red wine jus for Christmas and it was AMAZING! the sauce is insanely good :>) I was nervous at first because sometimes I don’t like a “winey” taste in my sauces so I almost substituted with broth, but I’m so glad I didn’t. It definitely was the hero of the meal. The roast came out perfectly. I took it out at a temp of 120 and let it sit for about 20 min. Once it hit a temp of 130 we carved a perfect melt in your mouth medium rare. Merry Christmas!
This looks mouthwatering! A savory treat for the family. Can imagine even the leftovers (if any!) would be great with some sandwiches dipped in that au jus.
Girl! That is one beautiful piece of beef up there. MmmMmm 😀
What is the oven temperature for the slow roast of the prime rib?
It’s step 4 in the recipe.
Don’t toss the bones to the dog! crisp them up in the oven and serve these dino bones slathered with BBQ sauce.
I’m making Prime Rib Roast for the fam this Christmas! Thanks for all the wonderful tips and tricks to make this roast a good one!! Will try to blog about it after……if my little vultures don’t get to them before I whip out the camera!
Boy that meat looks so tender
beautiful photos. Lovely recipe. So hungry.
Made this for New Year’s eve dinner (minus the jus) and followed the technique. It was amazing! It was on the rare side at 130 F but just heated it up more afterwards to make it medium rare (better rare and over cooked!). Thank you for sharing!!
You’re very welcome! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I don’t know about the Prime, but I used your salting technique on my steaks and boy oh boy, I’m “Queen” of the world. Thanks!
Thanks Kim! Happy New Year!
I made this dish for xmas eve dinner, and i am so proud of myself!!! this was my first time making a roast and i was pretty nervous. i followed the instructions step by step and the result was very rewarding! i will make this recipe again!!! along with the roast, i roasted some asparagus, stuffed mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes!!!
thank you for sharing this A-MA-ZIIING recipe! you’re the best!!!
Thanks Kat! I’m glad you loved it. Happy New Year!
We made this for Christmas Eve dinner and it was hailed as the best meal we’ve ever made in 18 years of cooking Christmas Eve dinner for the family. They’re still raving about it to folks who couldn’t make it to our place for the meal. Thanks for the wonderful recipe! 🙂
Meat is not always easy to shoot. You’ve taken these shots perfectly and beautifully. Great job Jaden! 🙂
Made this this eve with the small end (bones 12 thru 9). Didn’t have oxtails, but it still turned out great. Used bacon grease in place of veg oil. This was a fantastic tutorial and is now our roast beast recipe. Don’t forget the sour cream mixed with fresh dill and as much horseradish as you can comfortably stand. It is a necessity with this behemoth! My good dog thanks you 🙂
Wow….looks so good…drooling majorly. Will definitely make it soon!
if that is not one of the best looking meat i’ve seen, i don’t know what! it’s making me drool.
I made this for the first time ever today. Though I didn’t have oxtails, it came out FANTASTIC!! Thanks so much for posting the recipe!
I love this, Jaden, thanks — the recipe is right in line with my way of thinking on the rib roast, and the photographs are gorgeous! I’ve always been in favour of the proper thin gravy with the roasted veggies and no flour, for a rib roast, so now I’m looking forward to trying your oxtail-and-tomato-paste trick on Christmas Day.
Some of the drippings for the Yorkshire pudding, some to roast some small Yukon Golds
If my prime rib roast weighs 16 lbs, should I double the oxtail bones and veggies, and the rest of the ingredients?
Yes, I would double all ingredients.
You mind sharing your photo settings with me? They look really good.
Hi Brian, these were taken last Christmas and I remember I had very little natural light to work with. Light was coming in from 2-oclock direction of the photo. 50mm 1.4 lens set at ISO 500 f/3.5 set on a tripod.
I normally wouldn’t shoot food at f3.5; my sweet spot for food is usually f6.3 or f7.1; but because I had such little light I had to open up my aperture. Hope that helps! You should also check out our photog tutorials at foodblogforum.com
A) This looks incredible.
B) Same here… my mom wouldn’t let us do anything more complicated than mixing the Jif cornbread mix. I learned to cook when I moved out at 18.
C) OMG THIS LOOKS INCREDIBLE.
Looks amazing! Gotta add it to the Christmas Day menu-I just LUV me some red meat!
Ha, another person who has this pet peeve! (Most Americans call jus ‘au jus’, which causes me to deny whatever they ask for or say. I don’t know what ‘with-juice’ is, but I sure as heck don’t serve it with my dishes! http://www.vandeflier.com/2010/09/making-jus-and-a-pet-peeve/ )
This looks fabulous – I’ll have to fix this for mr. bunny, one of these days – I’m so impressed with the detail of your instructions! purrrrrrr. thank you for all the tips!
love, piggledy
This looks so good I think I need to make it this week! Go Grasshopper!
THANK YOU for the cheesecloth tip! “Who Knew ?” 🙂
I was right up with you until…….
You said “Nick nack paddy wack, give the dog the bone”
Those are beef back ribs. Put some bbq rub on them and grill or roast them for a bit longer and you have “chef’s treats”.
Give them to the dog after you have picked them clean 🙂
Haven’t even read the post yet but this picture alone…..hubba hubba. Food P*rn at it’s best!
oooohhh Jaden, this looks gorgeous!!! I made a Lamb Roast yesterday. It came out so yummy too!!
you’re welcome. looks yummy 🙂
Cooked bones are NOOOT good for dogs! It’s really easy for the bones to splinter and choke or injure the dog. Raw bones are great… but gotta use the bones in this recipe, so gnaw on them yourself then toss em out!
Okay, PSA is over. This looks delicious! My dad wanted to do a roast this Christmas… not exactly what he was wanting, but this looks better!
Oooh, I love me some prime rib! Sounds so good right about now.
Gosh, you make it look so easy. I’ll have to check if my rural South Carolina grocery store sells the meats. I may have to go past the Piggly Wiggly to find the goods.
Ahhhh….as soon as I came to steamykitchen.com I am greeted with a fabulously perfect prime rib…I almost crawled into my computer screen!!
I’ve never made prime rib before but after this, I think I might be brave enough to try my hand at it. 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful recipe and the encouragement!! 😉
thank you Jee! it’s an easy recipe, most of the work is done by the oven.
I’m hosting our family Christmas dinner this year and was hoping to tackle prime rib, but have been worried about doing it without some major guidance. Thanks so much for this post. Very helpful and PERFECT timing!
Love it!
Have fun making Christmas dinner! I know you’ll love this recipe.
YUM! this looks AWESOME!! i usually try and do prime rib for our christmas dinner or new years!!
droooooooling….
This is my very favorite cut ever. Too bad hubs doesn’t like it. He says it’s hammy. Oh my….
I grew up near LA, too. 😉
My god that is some gorgeous meat! I’m drooling!
Thanks Miri!
this is on my perpetual “to make someday” list. my husband would love it, too. yum!
My husband would love for you to come cook dinner tonight! 😉
I’ll be right over! 😉
My husband’s family always makes prime rib (but the pricey stuff) for Christmas dinner, this year I am making it! The dog will be looking forward to those bones though 🙂 I will have to give your Au Jus a try, I have a recipe I love but there is always room for improvement 🙂
The oxtails rubbed with tomato make a huge flavor contribution!
Whenever I make prime rib, the dog turns into a freak. I’m the only person on earth who can even get near the oven as he curls up in front of it and growls at anyone else who comes near. He knows he’s getting one of the bones, and he doesn’t want anyone to mess it up for him.
Aside from that, however, I’ve used a blowtorch to sear my roast (my brother uses an old clothes iron), and it’s not only fast, but FUN!
But, you’re right. It’s kind of tough to screw up, but with the cost of a rib primal these days, I think a lot of those fears are justified. I mean, you get nervous when you take your shiny red Ferrari to the grocery store and park in the lot, don’t you?
Oh heavens, heavenly goodness! That picture has my mouth watering!
actually ‘au jus’ is sort of like saying ‘with jus/sauce’ in french. ‘au jus’ is not a thing itself therefore i suggest changing the title of this post and the mistakes throughout to just say ‘with a red wine jus’
aha! fixed! thanks so much.
-silly American! 😉
Oooh, the oxtails alone would be a perfect meal. Looks great.
That looks wonderful! Yum!
oh yum. wow. thanks for sharing!
oh my goodness. the prime rib looks amazing! you are so talented, jaden.
@Brian – Rock, paper, scissors for the bones!!!
Jaden – I didn’t know you used to live in San Jose. I’m just a little north in Palo Alto. The ‘650’ in my name is from the area code.
Mmmm… looks so delicious!! I definately want to make this for Christmas eve dinner!!
How do you dry age the rib roast at home?
Love it but I’d chew on the bones too heheh