Prime Rib Roast with Au Jus

This year I hosted Christmas dinner for my family, which was a first for me. I'm usually in charge of Thanksgiving and sometimes Easter. So deciding what to serve for Christmas dinner stumped me for quite a few weeks. I didn't want to do another turkey and ham is usually an Easter meal in my eyes, so I was looking for something different. Prime rib was my answer and yet I had no experience with rib roasts. I guess you have to learn somehow though right? I was concerned mostly because prime rib roasts are an expensive cut of beef and I didn't want to screw it up. I did a LOT of research and wasn't sure if it helped or hindered. Almost every recipe I found used a different cooking method and different rub blend for seasoning the meat. The night before I prepared this roast I went back and forth on which method was right. My darling husband calmed me down by simply saying each recipe is a personal preference and until I give it a go I would never find my own. So with that (and a few extra personal preferences of hubby's) I came up with a mix of recipes, if you will. (note: most of my measurements are approximate as I don't actually use measuring spoons when creating a rub, it's all made to taste. But I did notice that every recipe tells you to use at least a tablespoon of salt as it's a big piece of meat)

Prime Rib Roast:

Ingredients:

7lb Prime Rib Roast (I really like leftovers! You can use a smaller roast if you'd like)
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon cracked pepper
1 tablespoon EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Au Jus:
1 cup beef broth
1 cup red wine

Directions:

About 1-2 hours prior to roasting take meat out of fridge and bring to room temperature

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder in small dish. Rinse your room temperature roast and pat dry with paper towels. Coat roast with EVOO, then liberally rub seasonings all over roast. Place in roasting pan and insert meat thermometer, be careful not to touch bones with the thermometer. (I encourage the use of a digital thermometer. http://s10.thisnext.com/media/largest_dimension/731350A7.jpg) Place in oven and roast on 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue roasting until meat reaches an internal temperature of 125 degrees. (Mine took approx 2 hours) Remove roast from oven and transfer to cutting board or baking sheet. Allow meat to rest covered with foil for at least 10 minutes prior to slicing. Leave thermometer in roast, the temperature will continue increase (approx 10 degrees) while the meat rests. Then remove bone from the meat and slice the roast.

(My end temperature result of my roast after resting was 140 degrees, which lead me to a medium-rare roast)

Au Jus:

Carefully drain off most of grease in pan. Return roasting pan to stove top and heat over medium-high heat. Deglaze pan with 1 cup beef broth and 1 cup red wine, scraping up all the flavorful bits on bottom of pan. Bring to boil and allow to reduce by half. Transfer to gravy bowel and serve with rib roast.