Perfect Smoked Barbecue Prime Rib Roast

My pink to the edge, perfectly medium rare, super juicy, and kissed-with-smoke salty herbaceous crust prime rib has been a family favorite for many years, long even before I started winning barbecue championships.

One of the most common questions I get from my barbecue students and website visitors around Thanksgiving or Christmas is how to barbecue a prime rib. Thanks to the super gracious folks at Snake River Farms, I’ve prepared an especially high quality grade of 28-day aged prime rib. Let me share my answers to the common questions I get asked:

1. Can I cook it in my smoker? Yes; I cook mine in my Weber Smokey Mountain with Kingsford Blue briquettes with tennis-sized chunks of apple wood. I put one in at the start and another 45 minutes later. Just two chunks are plenty. You can also use hickory chunks or California red oak.
2. Will it be better than an oven version? Yes, you will get a nice smoky roast that will be a spectacular centerpiece for an unforgettable feast for your guests.
3. How do I set up my pit to smoke a prime rib? I cook mine low and slow in a 200F pit with some apple wood; I remove when internal temp is 110F and sear the sides over direct fire or on a hot pan for a final medium rare temperature of around 125F.
4. What size prime rib do I buy for my party? For a party of six, plan on two servings per pound of boneless prime rib. I add one extra pound (6 persons X ½ lb + 1 lb) to have some yummy leftovers for salad or sandwiches. If you purchase bone-in prime rib, figure that each rib bone is good for two servings. The bones are heavy and add about 1 ½ lb to the prime rib.
5. Where can I buy a good prime rib? A lot of folks have a local specialty butcher they know and trust. I go to my catering partner John Fueling’s store called The Corner Butcher Shop in La Verne, California, or I purchase them online from Snake River Farms, or I try my local Costco which sometimes carries prime grade rib roasts.
6. How do I choose a good one? Purchase the best grade you can afford. Prime is best and Choice is also very good. If money is no object, the best tasting ones I’ve had are 28-day aged Wagyu prime grade corn-finished rib roast. I prefer the usual grass-fed and grain-finished beef versus the all grass-fed and grass-finished. Your individual preferences will vary. If you are selecting them yourself, carefully examine every roast they have in the store and pick them based on the amount of flecks of fat you see on the cut side. Fat equals flavor so look for a well-marbled roast with lots of white flecks on the side and striations of fat along the length.

7. Is it better to get bone-in or boneless? Both are good and you can calculate which is a better deal as each bone is a 1 ½ pound which you pay for and cannot eat. Some folks like to gnaw on the bone as it has a lot of flavor and feels very satisfying. I prefer boneless.
8. What temperature do I cook it at? I cook my prime rib roasts in my pit very low and slow at 200F so I don’t lose any moisture and juices to evaporation and the slow cooking results in a pink finish all the way to the edge. I char the meat over direct heat or on a hot skillet after I smoke it to create a flavorful crust or bark. In a pinch, I’ve also use a crème brulee propane torch to finish the crust to photo perfection
9. What time do I start if my Christmas dinner starts at 5:30? For a 6-person party and a 4 lb boneless prime rib, I would put it into a 200F pit around 1 pm; It should be done by around 4:30 and allow a for a 1-hour rest period before I slice and serve
10. Help, I’m out of time and only have 1 hour to cook a 7 lb prime rib roast before dinner. OK, for a MacGyver saving move if you’re in trouble or you’ve ended up facing Morimoto on Iron Chef, cut your boneless prime rib roast into 2 to 2 ½ inch thick steaks; follow my recipe below and smoke the steak at 250F, instead of 200F, for about 40 minutes until internal is about 120F; remove and char on top of a hot grill until internal is 135F; slice each steak in half and arrange the pieces on a serving platter with the pink side facing out; each piece of prime rib will have one pink side and one charred side which I really like
11. Will the prime rib be too smoky when I cook it in my smoker? Go easy on the wood and you’ll be OK. I find about 2 tennis-sized chunks of wood like apple, hickory, pecan, cherry, red oak is sufficient. I am NOT a fan of mesquite but you may be. I just don’t like the kerosene aftertaste of mesquite
12. How do I cook one prime rib so that guests who want rare, medium, and well-done, can get what they want? You cook it following my recipe below until rare and then remove and cut off the rare portion, sear the sides and keep warm; return the rest of the roast to the pit and cook until medium rare, remove, sear, and keep warm; cut off the portion you want well done and return to pit and cook until internal is 140F. Assemble the three pieces, rare, medium-rare, and well done into one piece on your serving platter. Garnish the top with some Italian parley to hide the cuts
13. How much will it cost me? Beef prices in the US vary depending on market forces of supply and demand. I’ve seen nice ungraded rib roasts for $3.99 per pound in Safeway or Stater Brothers; at the time I wrote this article, expect to pay $7 to $12 per pound for Choice and $9 to $20 per pound for Prime; for top-grade Wagyu, don’t be surprised to see $50-$80 per pound.
14. What seasoning works best for prime rib? I like a seasoning that’s salty, peppery, garlicky, and has hints of dried herbs like rosemary and thyme. In my SYD Moola Beef Rub, I incorporated these flavors plus other umami ingredients into my Championship Beef Rub
15. How long do you leave the rub on before cooking? I find dry-brine approach works best and one hour is good and overnight is best.
16. Do you wait for it to rise to room temperature before cooking? No, it’s not safe to do so. If you ran a restaurant and did this, you risk being shut down by the health department due the length of time the meat will resting at room temperature in the USDA danger zone of 40F to 140F that allows pathogens to multiply to the point it can make you sick. Ask yourself the last time you saw meat sitting in a restaurant kitchen waiting to come up to room temps. Besides, cooking it from fridge temperature of 36F in a 200F pit is much better as it gives you the longest temperature gradient climb to get the proper amount of smoke flavor into the open pores. Also, the longer period siting in the pit allows the meat to draw the salt ions from the dry brine into the meat. Searing it after smoking seals in the juices
17. Do you have a perfect smoked prime rib recipe? Funny you should ask . . .