Prime Rib
Active Time: 1 hr 30 min
Total Time: 6 hr
Ingredients
prime rib:
> rib roast (4 lb)
> butter (1/2 stick)
> black pepper (~1 tbsp)
> dried herbs (whatever you have, ~1 tsp)
> salt
beef au jus:
> beef drippings (1/4 cup)
> flour (2 tbsp)
> beef broth (2 cups)
> salt, pepper
horseradish sauce:
> sour cream (1/2 cup)
> mayonnaise (3 tbsp)
> grated horseradish (4 tbsp)
> apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp)
> dijon mustard (1 tbsp)
> cayenne powder (1/4 tsp)
Instructions
prime rib:
1. Generously salt the outside of your prime rib, ideally ~1 day in advance. (if you can't, just skip this step and add a bit more salt in step 3)
2. Make sure to take out your prime rib of the fridge and bring to room temperature >6 hours in advance.
3. Make butter mixture by mixing together butter, black pepper, dried herbs. Spread all over the prime rib. Generously salt with more salt than you think you might need.
4. Roast in a preheated oven at 500 F for 20m, or ~5m for every pound of meat.
5. Turn the oven off, and leaving the roast in the oven with the door closed, let the roast sit in the oven for ~2 hours.
6. Remove roast, slice, and serve.
beef au jus:
1. Melt the beef drippings in a small saucepan (or the roasting tray on which the beef was cooked). Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes.
2. Add beef broth gradually, whisking constantly.
3. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally. Continue to let it boil for ~5m for a slightly thicker consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
horseradish sauce:
1. Gather all the ingredients and mix together until fully combined.
Notes/Tips:
> The original recipe for the horseradish sauce contained about half as much horseradish, and mustard powder instead of dijon mustard. I found it to not have enough horseradish kick to it, so I doubled the ingredient amounts. If you prefer something less strong, feel free to adjust the horseradish amount.
> The jus is technically supposed to be pretty thin, but I personally prefer it to be a little bit thicker, somewhere between jus and gravy. So I continued to reduce it for ~5m, even though it's essentially "done" once the jus comes up to a boil.
> Supposedly, bone-in rib roast gives it a better taste, but I honestly don't know how much of a difference it makes.
> Make sure your butter is soft + at room temperature! Otherwise it'll be extremely difficult to mix / spread. If not, popping it in the microwave for ~15s (enough to warm it a little, but not enough to melt anything) could help.
> Definitely use a meat thermometer probe if you can. If it's cooking faster than expected, consider pulling out the meat early. We want to target ~135F for medium-rare, but because the roast is so large it'll have a lot of carry-over cooking, and depending on the oven temperature you might want to target more like ~125F at the innermost point.
> Consider using this method (https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/7077-crumple-foil-when-roasting-at-high-heat) to add some crumpled foil at the bottom of your roasting tray to reduce the amount of smoke coming from your roasting tray. There will be some smoke but hopefully with this method you can reduce it.
> If you do find that your oven is smoking before you've reached the full 500F cooking time, consider reducing the temperature to 325F or so and cooking the rest of the way at that temp (and adjust when you turn off the heat accordingly). That should hopefully reduce the amount of smoking from any drippings that may have splattered.