There’s nothing more satisfying than conquering a big hunk of meat like a prime rib roast and making it the center piece of your family’s holiday gathering. This primal cut is fit for a king (or Queen) and certainly calls for celebration but it’s also an expensive cut and one you don’t want to screw up. I’ve smoked many prime rib roasts at my restaurant over the Christmas holiday and have done it a number of ways on various smokers and grills. I’m going to share some of my best practices here so you can duplicate my success for your family’s gathering. The attached photos are of a 5.5 pound, bone in, prime rib roast that I grilled on my 22″ Weber Kettle with the Rotisserie attachment.
For this recipe, I like using briquettes because they are measured amounts of BTU’s. When you need to keep the temperature stable try adding 2-3 briquettes at a time on top of the hot coals and wait for those to ignite. You can also add a chunk of your favorite spice wood. I like mesquite.
Prime rib roast internal guideline temperature chart:
115-120˚F for rare
125-130˚F for medium-rare
135-140 for Medium
145-150 for medium-well
For a visual reference chart, check out this link from Certified Angus Beef.
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Smoked Prime Rib Roast
Equipment
- Weber Kettle Grill
- Weber Kettle Rotisserie attachment
- Thermometer (instant read, super fast ThermaPen)
- Hand Held Torch ( or Searzall attachment if possible)
- Butchers twine
- Sheet pan and wire rack
Ingredients
- 5-7 Pound Prime Rib Roast
- 3.5 Tbsp Kosher Salt, Course, Blue Box Rule of thumb is 1/2 tsp per pound of meat
- 2 Sticks Kerry Gold butter Salted
- 2-3 Sprigs Rosemary smashed to release oils
- 3 Sprigs Thyme Smashed to release oils
- 3 Tbsp Black Pepper Butchers Grind
- 1 Tbsp Granulated Garlic or stud roast with fresh garlic
- Kingsford Competition Briquettes
Instructions
- Generously salt a 5-15 pound Prime Rib Roast 2 days before. Place on wire rack and "air chill" in your fridge. I use the course kosher salt in the blue box.
- Remove from fridge and apply a mixture of softened butter, thyme, rosemary, black pepper and granulated garlic. (You can also dust it with your favorite rub at this time)
- Set up your Weber Kettle Grill Rotisserie attachment. Place the briquette basket holder on one side of the grill. The roast will spin through hot and warm zones. Add 2-3 briquettes onto hot coals when temp begins to drop.
- Place an aluminum 1/2 pan underneath rotisserie to catch meat and butter drippings
- Our 22" Weber Kettle ran at about 300º and we let it spin till the roast reached 115º.
- Once it reaches 115º you can either let it keep spinning till 125 and baste the roast with the butter/ drippings that collected in the pan below. Or what I did was to get a hand held torch and begin to sear it in a back and borth motion while it was spinning. With both methods, let the roast rest for 30 +/– minutes before slicing.
