How To Smoke Prime Rib
How to Smoke a Prime Rib Roast?? Now I promise this isn’t as hard to do as it sounds, plus you will never be able to purchase prime rib in a restaurant! I have ruined many people from restaurant prime ribs with mine!
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Smoked Prime Rib makes the perfect Christmas dinner! I have been making this for the past four years. While you can roast a prime in a roaster, the smoker is my favorite for flavor and my extended family’s favorite. If you aren’t sure what to do with your leftover prime rib, I recommend my Crockpot Prime Rib Chili!
Pit Boss Pellet Grills
Traeger Pellet GrillsZ Grills Pellet Grills
It doesn’t matter what kind of smoker you smoke; the prime rib will turn out amazing. Just remember to smoke to temp, not to time.
What Is Prime Rib?
Most people assume that all Prime Ribs are made equal, but they aren’t. Almost everyone I know confuses a Prime Rib and Rib-eye. I can’t pick a favorite; they are both fantastic.
Rib roast vs prime rib what is the difference? Most Prime Ribs are made out of a Rib Roast. You can buy these boneless or as a bone-in. I love the bone-in for more flavor and the bones to make broth. Christmas is a good time for many grocery stores will have their roasts on sale to stock up and freeze a couple. The Rib Roasts are marbled with fat as well, making them juicy and tender as well. You can also find them at Snake River Farms with marbling and high-quality meat!
Prime Rib Rub Ingredients:
- Prime Rib Roast– You can get a prime rib at the grocery store, but the Snake River prime ribs are amazing. They arrive frozen; you store them frozen until you are close to your cook day.
- Avocado Oil– You can swap it out with olive oil, which will hold the seasonings onto the prime rib.
- Onion Powder
- Thyme
- Garlic Salt
- Prime Rib Seasoning– I prefer the Snider’s brand of Prime Rib seasoning, I also have used the Pit Boss Prime Rib seasoning, and it worked as well.
- Montreal Steak Seasoning
- Fresh Ground Himalayan Pink Salt
- Fresh Ground Pepper
How To Smoke A Prime Rib Instructions :
The first step is to season your Rib Roast a couple of days before you smoke it. If your roast is frozen, you must allow thawing time.
I drizzle over my roast with avocado oil and then rub it down with all my seasonings. Sometimes you can have your butcher season yours, however, every Christmas, we buy in bulk from Safeway, and we end up seasoning our own.
About an hour before starting to smoke your roast remove it from the fridge and allow the roast to start warming up.
On the day of cooking, you must know your smoker and how to prep it for smoking. Now I use a Smoke Hollow Smoker to smoke in and also use apple pucks as well when I smoke.
All the smoking equipment I use is below and on Amazon! I did adapt the pipe on the smoker to billow out more smoke to help it smoke at a lower temperature to make the food taste even better.
Vertical SmokersBradley PucksMeat Thermometer
If you have a pellet grill, I highly recommend these steps on How To Smoke Prime Rib on A Pellet Grill – here. Pellet Grills do smoke differently than electric smokers for temperatures and smoke times. I have both my vertical pellet both work amazing!
Money and time-saving tips from the old lady. If you order pellets online from Walmart and spend $35, they will drop them off at your door for free!! Their everyday price on pit boss pellets is amazing, plus the expert grill brand has a great price. (see them ->here)
For your electric smoker, remove your chip holder, water bin, and racks out of your smoke.
Next, put a cap on your exhaust pipe if necessary.
The next step is to fire up your smoker and then allow the smoker to start heating up.
Next, I start by placing in my chips first and then putting the water tray in after I have smoke rolling. I have found that I can get good smoke faster by doing this method.
Spray your smoker rack with a nonstick spray, then place your prime rib roast on it.
Once your smoker gets hot enough and the smoke rolling, place your prime rib roast onto your rack. I keep my smoker at 150-200 degrees. Smoke for about 5 to 6 hours while keeping an eye on your smoke, temperature, and water levels. (I set timers for every 45 minutes to double-check)
I smoke to an internal temperature of 120-140 degrees for medium-rare.
Next, turn the heat off your smoker and allow the roast to rest for about an hour without heat.
Lastly, serve and enjoy!!
How Long To Thaw A Prime Rib:
As with any meat thawing, a Prime Rib in a fridge is the safest way to thaw and control the temperature of the roast. There will be some variance in doing this in the fridge, but it will take 4 to 7 hours per pound to thaw on average.
Now, if you are ready to cook or forgot to pull the meat, you can place the meat in a sealed plastic bag and squeeze out all the air. Fill a large bowl or container with cold water and submerge the bag. Swap out the water every 30 minutes to thaw the meat out.
AT WHAT TEMPERATURE DO YOU SMOKE PRIME RIB:
Now, you can smoke at any temperature. I believe that low and slow is the way to go!
If your smoker has a smoke setting, you can allow the prime rib to smoke in the smoker before turning it up. Sometimes, this will cook the meat slowly, reducing the cooking time.
- 225 degrees Fahrenheit for ~40 minutes per pound of meat.
- 275 degrees Fahrenheit for ~20 minutes per pound of meat.
AT WHAT TEMPERATURE IS A PRIME RIB DONE?
Use the time guidelines above for when to start checking the temperature of your meat. Knowing your preference for rareness will help you know what internal temperature to use a digital meat thermometer to cook the meat to. The ends of the prime rib roast will be more done, so take the temperature towards the middle of your roast.
- Rare is at 120 to 125 degrees F. The center will be bright red, with a pinkish color toward the exterior portion.
- Medium Rare is at 130 to 135 degrees F. The center is very pink and will be slightly brown toward the exterior portion.
- Next, the Medium is at 140 to 145 degrees F. The center is light pink, and the outer portion is brown.
- Medium Well is at 150 to 155 degrees F. The center is not pink and is browner all the way around.
- Well Done is at 160 degrees F. and above, is not pink, and will be a darker brown.
What do you make for Christmas dinner?
What To Serve With Prime Rib:
I love to Smoke Side Dishes! You can check out my favorite Smoked Side Dishes -> here! Below are my favorites to serve with Prime Rib. You can serve anything with it.
- Smoked Baked Potatoes
- Smoked Loaded Cheesy Potatoes
- Smoked Loaded Baked Beans
- Cheesy Potatoes
- Smoked Sweet Potato Casserole
Prime Rib
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Ingredients
Instructions
- The first step is to season your Rib Roast a couple of days before you are planning to smoke it.
- I drizzle over my roast with some avocado oil and then rub down with all my seasonings. Sometimes you can have your butcher season yours, however every Christmas we buy in bulk from Safeway and we end up seasoning our own.
- About an hour before starting to smoke your roast remove from the fridge and allow the roast to start warming up.
- On the day of cooking you will need to know your smoker and how to prep it for smoking.
- For your electric smoker remove your chip holder, water bin, and racks out of your smoke. Next, put a cap on your exhaust pipe if necessary.
- The next step is to fire up your smoker and then allow the smoker to start heating up.
- Next, I start out by placing in my chips first then put the water tray in after I have smoke rolling. Personally I have found that I can get good smoke faster by doing this method.
- Next, spray your smoker rack with a nonstick spray and then place your prime rib roast on it.
- Once your smoker gets hot enough and a smoke rolling place in your prime rib roast onto your rack. I keep my smoker at 150-200 degrees. Smoke for about 5 to 6 hours while keeping an eye on your smoke, temperature, and water levels. (I set timers for every 45 minutes just to double-check)
- I smoke to an internal temperature of 120-140 degrees for medium-rare.
- Next, turn the heat to your smoker off and allow the roast to rest for about an hour in the smoker with no heat.
- Lastly, serve and enjoy!!
Absolutely Awesome thank you for sharing 👏🏻💯
This looks amazing! One of my grandsons does a great job of smoking various meats. But this makes me want to try.