A bone-in prime rib roast is one of the most impressive roasts you can serve, and it's surprisingly simple to cook. The real secret isn't complicated technique, it’s all about the seasoning for a prime rib and proper temperature control. This recipe will show you how to take the worry out of cooking a prime with exact cook times, internal temperatures, and the overnight seasoning for a prime rib that produces the right balance between flavorful outer crust and tender inner rare meat.
Seasoning For A Prime Rib
Here in Colorado, where ranching traditions run deep, learning to cook a standing rib roast felt less like a choice, and more like a rite of passage.
I still remember the first time I committed to roasting a beautiful standing prime rib. The sticker shock at the butcher counter was real, and right behind it came the fear of ruining such an expensive cut. But I trusted the process, followed the steps, and was genuinely amazed at how perfectly it turned out.
A prime rib roast has incredible natural flavor, so you need to use a seasoning that enhances the beef without overpowering it. I’ve used this recipe for over 30 years, with consistently positive results every time.
You most certainly can season a prime rib roast simply with salt and pepper. It’s beefy flavor will shine. But I highly recommend an overnight rub or seasoning paste. My recipe uses a seasoning paste that’s blended in food processor or blender, then rubbed over the prime rib, which is then refrigerated overnight or at least 12 hours before cooking.
Why Season Prime Rib Overnight?
- Flavor: Prime rib is a thick textured beef roast. The seasoning will not penetrate the meat thoroughly, but will add some wonderful surface flavor. Which if you thoughtfully choose seasonings, will compliment the beefy flavor.
- Crust: Not only will overnight seasoning add some flavor, it will create a better outer crust while cooking.
- Juiciness: This flavored crust, with it’s oil base, will seal in the meat’s juices as it cooks, which equals to a juicier prime rib.
How To Season A Prime Rib The Night Before
Aside from the fact that you’re turning this impressive beef roast into somewhat of a make ahead entree, here are other benefits and how-to’s.
- Dry Meat: Pat roast completely dry. I use paper towels to remove the moisture from the surface of the meat. This is so important for that sought after outer crust.
- Even: Take the time to rub the prime rib seasoning mixture evenly over all sides. Even the fat areas.
- Refrigerate: Place the prime rib roast on a sheet pan, and refrigerate uncovered 12 – 24 hours in the refrigerator.
- Room Temp: Remove the seasoned roast from the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting.
Table of contents
The best seasoning for Prime Rib includes, Kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, Garlic (fresh or powder), rosemary or thyme, oil or softened butter. My recipe takes a classic blend and adds some fun flavors:
- Oil: Oil will be the glue that hold all of the seasonings together and coat the outside of the prime rib roast. Choose a neutral oil like canola, vegetable or better yet, avocado oil.
- Seasonings: Thyme, juniper berries, freshly ground black pepper and a single blend chile powder. Preferably New Mexico Red Chile Powder.
- Garlic
- Lemon and Parsley: We’ll use both the juice and lemon zest.
About Juniper Berries: f you have a good quality spice shop you can readily find Juniper Berries. If you need a substitute, consider rosemary, caraway seeds or allspice berries. Any of those will impart an earthy flavor to this prime rib recipe.
How To Cook A Small Standing Bone-In Prime Rib Roast
This recipe works well for cooking a small prime rib, which would consist of a two bone or four bone roast.
Prepare The Prime Rib Seasoning
- Step 1: Combine parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, juniper berries, garlic, pepper and chile powder in a blender or food processor.
- Step 2: Start drizzling in oil, blending until smooth.
- Step 3: Rub mixture over surface of the roast. Place the prime rib in a roasting pan with elevated grates, fat side up. Your turkey roaster will work great here. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
- Bring roast to room temperature before proceeding. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cook prime rib degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees.
- Step 5: Place a digital read probe meat thermometer in the center of the roast and cook until temperature reaches 135 degrees for medium rare. Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let roast rest for 15 minutes before carving.
Should Rib Roast Be Covered In The Oven?
No. Rib roast should be cooked uncovered so the exterior browns and forms a crust.
How To Carve A Standing Rib Roast
- If you purchase your Prime Rib from a reputable butcher, ask them to remove the bones from the meat, and then place them back in position and tie the whole thing back together. The bones carry so much flavor while cooking, and also act as a “rack” to cook the meat. Once cooked, you can easily lift off the bones and slice the meat.
- Use a sharp chef knife to slice against the grain to shorten the muscle fibers. This will make the meat more tender and easier to chew. Aim for slices about ¼ to ⅓ inch think for best texture.
- Tip: A carving meat fork helps hold the meat in place for clean even cuts.
Tips For Success:
- Don’t skip the steps for letting the prime rib roast come to room temperature before cooking. The roast will cook more evenly.
- Don’t skip letting the meat rest before slicing. This rest time allows the juices to redistribute in the meat. If you slice too soon, all of that glorious flavor will run out on the cutting board.
End Result
You won’t believe your eyes with that first cut. Your Chef Knife will slid through the wonderful crust on the outside to reveal a perfectly rare prime rib roast. A very rewarding kitchen moment indeed.
Bone In Prime Rib Roast Or Boneless?
Anytime you can roast meat with the bones intact, it's a bonus. The bones give the meat additional flavor.
However, a boneless rib roast is somewhat easier to handle and still very rich in flavor, beefy in flavor, juicy and tender with generous marbling throughout.
Rib Roast Internal Temperature Guide
A bone in prime rib roast is traditionally served rare to medium rare. If you want to cook it to a more “done” state, here is an internal temperature guide.
- Rare: 125 - 130 degrees
- Medium Rare: 130 - 140
- Medium: 140 - 150
- Medium Well: 150 - 160
- Well: Over 160 degrees
How To Reheat Prime Rib
Since the prime rib has been initially cooked to a medium rare state, you've got some wiggle room to reheat the sliced meat without drying it out.
- Place a couple of slices of prime rib on a microwave safe plate. Cover the prime rib with a damp paper towel. Depending on how thick you've sliced the meat, set the timer for a minute and cook on 50% power.
- Check the prime rib by placing your hand on the paper towel. If you feel it needs more heat, give it more heat by repeating the 50% power level in 15 second increments.
- Don't over pre-heat it. After all, you're not trying to cook it, your goal is to warm it to your level of heat satisfaction.
- Another option is simply letting the prime rib come to room temperature to serve. That way you're guaranteed that beautiful medium rare experience.
Best Sauce For Rib Roast
Traditionally, a prime rib roast is served with a Horseradish Cream Sauce or Au Jus.
What To Serve With Prime Rib
Here are some side dishes to make this a grand meal.
- I love serving fresh crisp tossed salad topped with my recipe for Blue Cheese Dressing
- Garlic Butter Baked Potatoes are always a good choice.
- Blue Cheese Potatoes Dauphinoise for a fancier meal.
- And Green Beans with Dijon Mustard Cream Sauce is always a good choice.
FAQ’s
Taking into consideration the weight of the bones, a good rule of thumb is to allow 1 pound of prime rib per person. A bone-in standing rib roast will feed about 2 people per bone. Also take into consideration the side dishes you are serving. Usually a bone-in standing rib roast is served for special occasion meals which calls for special occasion sides, which are usually hearty in structure. In that case you can plan on ½ to ¾ pound per person.
Cooking Time: It’s been a popular idea over the years to cook the prime rib at a very high heat temperature for a few minutes, then cook at a lower heat for 15 minutes per pound. Please don’t rely on time increments. Use a digital read meat thermometer. No if’s and’s or but’s. You can plan on a roast taking about 15 minutes per pound.
Marinades don't penetrate a prime rib deeply. That cut is simply too thick.
What they do instead is build a deeply seasoned crust and flavor the outer slices, which is exactly where the best rib roast flavor lives anyway.
Simple Oven Roasted Rib Roast
This recipe comes from the the Denver Junior League Creme de Colorado Cookbook titled Fall River Bone In Prime Rib Roast with Hunter’s Horseradish Sauce. An outstanding and easy recipe for Prime Rib in the oven.
And if you’re looking for more Prime Rib Roast recipe ideas, you won’t want to miss this Peppery Beef Rib Roast recipe courtesy of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Explore More Beef Cuts For Roasting
Explore More Homemade Sauces For Beef
And, if you’re interesting in trying more sauce recipes that I use regularly on beef dishes, here are some ideas.
And if you’re a beef lover you won’t want to miss my category for Beef Recipes, you’ll find lots of tasty recipe ideas. Including one of the most popular beef recipes on my site for Beef Tagliata. Its a proven crowd pleaser that’s so easy to make you won’t believe it.
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Bone In Prime Rib Roast and The Best Seasoning For A Prime Rib
Ingredients
- ¼ cup fresh parsley minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon peel fresh grated
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme crumbled
- 6 juniper berries crushed
- 3 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 2 – 4 drops Tabasco Sauce
- ½ cup olive oil
- ⅛ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1-5 pound standing rib roast
Instructions
- Combine parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, juniper berries, garlic, pepper and chile powder in a blender or food processor. Start drizzling in oil, blending until smooth.
- Rub mixture over surface of the roast. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
- Bring roast to room temperature before proceeding. Place roast in large heavy roasting pan with a raised grate, and roast in preheated oven at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees Place a digital read probe meat thermometer in the center of the roast and cook until temperature reaches 135 degrees for medium rare. Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let roast rest for 15 minutes before carving.
Notes
- Rare: 125 - 130 degrees
- Medium Rare: 130 - 140
- Medium: 140 - 150
- Medium Well: 150 - 160
- Well: Over 160 degrees
- Don’t skip the steps for letting the prime rib roast come to room temperature before cooking. The roast will cook more evenly.
- Don’t skip letting the meat rest before slicing. This rest time allows the juices to redistribute in the meat. If you slice too soon, all of that glorious flavor will run out on the cutting board.
Nutrition
Bone In Prime Rib Roast … It’s Whats For Dinner
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
That looks great, especially with that tasty horseradish sauce. Was probably even better as leftovers!
You didn’t hear us complaining about those leftovers. 🙂 Thanks Nazneen
That was quite a pithy blog—-in other words I learned something. Your prime rib looked perfect to me. Yay boy howdy with the price of that baby, one does not want something to go sideways. A simple Oh Darn and moving on would not cover a failure. I didn’t know the uber prime rib had to be 7 ribs big. You know what I am craving right now. Seriously, very interesting blog. Thanx for the research.
I couldn’t agree more Carol, and “darn” would not have been my word of choice for a mistake. 🙂
Another wonderful recipe from Creme de Colorado! I would love to try this when we have our daughter and son-in-law over for dinner. It did turn out beautifully!
I love my Colorado Jr. League books. And they’re perfect for my western style food for my blog. Thanks for stopping in and the comment Susan.
I wonder if the leftovers would freeze well. I’ve never attempted to cook prime rib. My husband would die and go to heaven if I did, especially with this horseradish cream!
I’m pretty sure they would freeze well. For this meal we didn’t have any leftover to find out. I hope you try that horseradish sauce, it’s a special treat.
I wish you would have invited Manservant over. Since I don’t eat meat anymore, he totally craves it. Coming from a family of butchers we had this a lot when I was a kid. But no one ever took a photo that looked as good as this! You guys must be in meat heaven! I can smell it from here and I still love the smell of meat cooking. Go figure!
Thank you Abbe! And Manservant would have been very welcome to help us eat this.
Oh yum! I just want to lick the screen! It’s always scary investing in expensive ingredients — so happy it worked out for you. Looks beyond delicious.
Thanks Yvette. I was so nervous when I started out on this one. And the outcome was so rewarding.
Lea Ann! You’re making us hungry now…and we only just had breakfast!
Yay, that’s my job. Thanks for stopping in and the comment. 🙂
You did a terrific job with the prime rib and the horseradish sauce that you made to go with it sounds perfect.
Thanks Maureen. And I did try your Burger tacos. Great flavor.
Nothing beats a perfectly cooked prime rib and that certainly describes yours. Love your horseradish sauce too.
Sam
Thanks you Sam. That horseradish sauce is a great recipe. I hope you give it a try.
Now THAT is a meal! So glad it turned out well for you. i am still getting over the price tag but after seeing the results I know it was worth it!
Thanks Holly. And yes, I was afraid to look at the price tag as I carried that piece of meat through Tony’s. But it was worth the experience, the flavor and the defeat of agony over my fear of cooking Prime Rib.
I have never cooked a prime rib. Love that horseradish sauce. We do grow our own horseradish. Maybe I should try a prime cut like this with our home grown stuff.
A house I lived in years ago had a horseradish plant that come up every year. Thanks for the reminder. I’m going to plant one this year at this house.
Oh Lea Ann this looks wonderful, where did you find the juniper berries? My husband would love me for this….. thinking father’s day dinner. Thanks!
I found Juniper Berries at our local Savory Spice shop. I loved the flavor they brought to this marinade.
This is perfectly cooked! And looks so lovely. I haven’t cooked a prime rib roast for years, and would always do one about this size (5 pounds). I’ve been thinking I need to do this again, and will probably do so in the fall. You done good! Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you John!
Awesome. What more can I say? Thank you for sharing your success.
Linda
Thanks Linda. It was a nice celebration over getting that meat cooked correctly. 🙂
Woohoo, now you are talking! This does look perfect. My family will never forget the first one of these I ever cooked. It was Christmas Day and I didn’t give it nearly enough time and we were all starving by the time it hit the table. Thank goodness I can say it was worth it. Next time you make one, remember my phone number if you need help polishing it off.
Thank goodness for that cookbook and it’s instructions. Or I probably would have been in that same situation.
This is why I don’t cook. Too much stress. 😉 It looks amazing! You must cook this for us some day. Please put it on the list.
I think I thrive on cooking stress.
Woman, you have outdone yourself!! There is nothing finer – in my opinion – than a perfectly rare slice of prime rib with zippy horseradish. Bet that snazzy new knife slid through it like buttah!
Thanks Vickie! I kinda felt that way myself. And ohymygosh I love that snazzy new knife. 🙂
Looks like you did outstanding and the horsey sauce sounds very good as well. Now I’m really hungry.
Thanks Larry. That’s a real compliment coming from you.
Nicely done, the internal temp is perfect and your pictures make me hungry! Thanks for letting us be at your table!
Thank you so much Mick.
That is *perfect*!
Thanks Karen. 🙂