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Garlic butter herb prime rib is melt in your mouth tender, cooked to medium-rare perfection, and marbled with fat. The seared garlic butter herb crust is incredible!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Holiday Feast: The holidays wouldn’t be complete without a prime rib roast. You could pair it with Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, and Rolls.
- Easy to Make: Prime rib may seem intimidating, but with my tips and easy-to-follow instructions, you will have the most succulent, tender prime rib of your life!
Herb Garlic Butter Prime Rib Ingredients
I always buy my roast with the bone. The butcher at our local grocery store cuts the bone but leaves it partially attached and ties it onto the roast. This makes it easier to carve the meat, and the bone creates a rack for the meat to cook on. See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.
- Prime Rib: I like to get a bone-in cut and tied.
- Butter: Make sure that the butter is softened to blend well with the herbs and seasonings.
- Garlic Cloves: If you don’t have any fresh garlic cloves on hand, you can use minced garlic! 1/2 teaspoon equals about one clove.
- Thyme, Oregano, and Fresh Rosemary: I like to use freshly chopped herbs to make the flavor taste top-notch!
- Salt and Pepper: Use these to taste!
How to Cook Prime Rib
Preparing steakhouse-worthy prime rib isn’t as tricky as it seems. Enjoy this decadent recipe this holiday season with friends and family!
- Prepare the Meat: Remove the meat from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before bringing it to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- Mix Together Garlic Butter Herb Sauce: In a small bowl, mix butter, garlic, thyme, oregano, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Then, rub all of the butter on the outside of your prime rib and place it in a roasting pan or large skillet with the fat side up.
- Cook Prime Rib: Cook for 15 minutes and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. It is about 15 minutes per pound of meat. Bake until it reaches an internal temperature of 110 degrees.
- Let the Meat Rest: Remove from oven and let it rest with foil for at least 20 minutes. The temperature will rise to 130 degrees for a medium rare prime rib.
What Cut Of Meat Is Best?
A prime rib roast (or a standing roast) is cut from the back of the upper rib section of the steer. It usually is a total of 7 ribs. You will need a 3-bone rib roast to make this slow-roasted prime rib. This is cut from either the chuck or the loin end of the rib sections. Here are some tips on how to choose the best meat!
- Bone IN: You will want a bone in the prime rib. On average, a 2-6 pound prime rib has 2 to 3 bones.
- Tied: When ordering from a butcher, ask to keep the strings on it if possible. This ensures it cooks evenly and keeps its form while cooking.
- Deckle: If possible, ask to have the largest deckle. The deckle is tender and the most flavorful piece of meat.
Cooking Tips
Melt-in-your-mouth garlic herb prime rib is just what you need to celebrate the holidays this year! These quick and simple tips will help cook it to perfection!
- Use a Thermometer: Using a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat is the best way to ensure a perfect prime rib every time.
- Take it Out of the Fridge: Take your prime rib out of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to let it rest before cooking. This will ensure an even cook time.
- Keep the Bone In: You can remove the bones before cooking, but it is unnecessary. The bone in adds to the flavor and helps keep the prime rib tender and juicy.
- Let it Rest! Remove your prime rib from the oven when it is about 5 degrees lower than your desired temperature. Cover your meat and let it rest. It will slowly cook as it is resting.
- Cooking Information Per Pound: The bones create a natural roasting rack for the meat. Cook the prime rib at a higher temperature of 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and continue to cook until the thermometer reads 110 degrees. About 15 minutes of cooking time per pound.
Cooking Temperatures
Prime rib can be a little intimidating to make because you are trying to achieve the perfect medium-rare temperature. In the closed oven method, you roast the meat at 500 degrees for 5 minutes per pound. Then, you leave the oven closed for 2 hours, and it slowly cooks. If using this method, I highly recommend putting a thermometer inside the meat so you can check on it without opening the oven while it cooks.
- Rare: 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit
- Medium-Rare: 130 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit
- Medium: 135 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit
- Medium-Well: 145 to 155 degrees Fahrenheit
- Well Done: 155 degrees Fahrenheit
Storing Leftover Prime Rib
Having leftover meat is just another way to enjoy it a little longer! You still have all the tender, juicy flavors infused. Enjoy another slice of heaven a second time around with these storing ideas.
- How Long Does Prime Rib Last in the Refrigerator? It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days.
- Can You freeze Prime Rib? Yes! Let it rest until completely cooled. Once it’s cooled, place in a ziplock freezer bag, letting all the air out. Lay flat in the freezer for 1 month. When ready to eat, place it in the refrigerator overnight until it is thawed.
- Reheating: If it’s been frozen, let it thaw completely. Place in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until it has reached the desired internal temperature. Enjoy!
A Reader’s Review
This was absolutely amazing! The flavor was phenomenal. I like my meat well done and it was still super tender.
More Beef Recipes to Enjoy
This prime rib recipe is one of my very favorites! If you loved it as much as I do, then I have a few more that you should try! They are all so different but super delicious! Try one or try them all…. you can’t go wrong with any of them! Your family will thank you later!
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Garlic Butter Herb Prime Rib Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Remove the prime rib from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before bringing it to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- In a small bowl mix butter, garlic, thyme, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. Rub all of the butter on the outside of your prime rib and place in a roasting pan or large skillet with the fat side up.
- Cook for 15 minutes and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. It is about 15 minutes per pound of meat. Bake until it reaches an internal temperature of 110 degrees.
- Remove the prime rib from the oven and let it rest with foil for at least 20 minutes. The temperature will be 130 degrees Fahrenheit for a medium rare prime rib.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Simply wonderful prime rib!
Has anyone used the juices for gravy? I made this and we loved it but I was curious if anyone made a gravy instead of an aju to go with their roast.
Always A Family Favorite!
Terri Reagan again forgot to rate in previous comment! FIVE STAR RECIPE FOR SURE!!
I used this recipe to cook a 3.5 Lb. Rib Eye Roast. I have to say that the meat was very tender and the flavor was Outrageously delicious! I have eaten at some really great
Steakhouses and i do not think i have EVER had anything that tasted this wonderful! Both my husband and i were in heaven while dining on this Savory roast.
The flavor from the fresh herbs and garlic and butter was perfection!
The crust was perfect! I seared in very hot 500 degree oven for 15 minutes and then finished at 350 until meat was at 127 degrees internally. A little rare but better this way so i can re-heat and not dry out.
Looking forward to leftovers tonight!!
This was the best prime rib recipe ever. I cooked it for my family Xmas dinner that w do in January and they couldn’t get enough of it I made a 20 pound roast and it was perfect so once again thank you…..
Alyssa, I can’t praise you enough for your recipes and video tutorials! I’ve never roasted a whole chicken or made a Thanksgiving turkey (always a guest, never the chef) yet inspired by your post, decided to make my first prime rib! While the prime rib was in the oven, so easy to make the Garlic Parm Green Beans w/ Bacon and your Dad’s Famous Mash Potatoes! My guests were floored! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Can this be made in an InstantPot?
I meant will it work with a boneless prime time.
We tried your recipes tonight and it was the best ever!Thank u so much it was amazing! Definitely a keeper!
Good recipe. The only issue we had was that it wouldn’t raise to 130 degrees after taking it out–it got up to 125. We took the foil off and put it back in the oven at 325 and it got there a little while after that. I think next time I may wait until it’s at 115 degrees until I take it out of the oven instead of 110.
sounds like an oven issue
I’ve been making delicious prime rib roasts for decades and have stuck with one method pretty much the entire time. Stumbled across your recipe a couple of days ago and decided to pull out a roast from the freezer and give this a go for our NYE dinner and NYD leftovers (it’s just me and my husband).
After following your recipe, we checked on it and the middle was still pretty rare but the ends were perfection! End pieces are always done a little too much for my liking but these were perfect. The fact that the meat in the middle was pretty rare means I won’t over cook it when reheating, a huge plus.
I usually dip my prime rib in a horseradish sauce and had some on my plate, but honestly, this was so delicious it didn’t need a thing. The crust was amazing. Really looking forward to our leftovers this evening with the leftover au jus we have.
This will be my go recipe for prime rib from now on.
I made this for Christmas dinner this year, using boneless prime rib, and followed the recipe to a “t”. It was perfect – the best prime rib I have ever made. I won’t use any other recipe. The leftovers are amazing as well. Thank you so much for this recipe!
This is a solid recipe for Prime Rib. The herbed crust this makes is heavenly. My family absolutely loved it.
I used your garlic herb butter recipe and it was wonderful! We like our meat done just a little more than suggested…more to a medium to just slightly more. So after cooking at the high temp and reducing heat I used an internal thermometer and set it for 147. It took about 4 hrs for a 10# roast at 325°F. But it was perfect. Juicy and melt in your mouth good. I used the pan drippings strained and mixed with a little cornstarch and water to make gravy to serve with it. Wonderful meal! One question. How do you convert your fresh herb amounts to dried herb amounts? I couldn’t find fresh.
A correction needs trim be made in the directions. It took four college graduates to figure out “plave” is not a cooking term but a typo!