Everyone has a different Christmas meal tradition. Some eat turkey, others do ham, some do pizza take-out (no judgement), and others do prime rib. Prime rib can be an intimidating piece of meat to cook, after all you don’t want to screw it up, but Kevin has some tips to make you the hero of your holiday dinner.

First and foremost, Kevin says you need to know the meat you are getting. You can’t expect great results if you pick up a cheap, subpar product to begin with. Prime rib is a bit of an investment, but if done right it’s delicious, so look for the best beef you can get. Talk to your local butcher and have them point you in the right direction.

Next, you really want to have the best grill you can get, and obviously Weber has a ton of different options. I have a Weber Summit Charcoal and a Weber Kettle, both are awesome. Having a quality grill makes it easier to control the temperature which is critical on bigger cuts of meat like prime rib, turkey, pork butt and more. In addition, a good grill will deliver a better overall cook with heat that is more evenly distributed. Get to know your grill a little before cooking something like a prime rib, give a test drive with burgers, steaks, chicken, anything really. Hinging the success of your prime rib on a grill you’ve never cooked on before can be risky!

What kind of seasoning will you be putting on your meat? Flavor is something that can be debated all day, everyone has a different taste. If you do a little online stalking, like I do, of our friend Kevin Kolman you’ll find out he has endless blogs of kick butt recipes. He keeps it simple with prime rib doing a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic and some fresh herbs. Season it however you’d like but remember this is going to be the basis of the delicious crust that forms as the prime rib roasts so season carefully.

Now it’s time to cook! If you’re cooking on a kettle, Kevin says he would start with 25 briquettes on one side and once your grill is up to temperature place your prime rib on the opposite side, cooking it indirectly. As it roasts, you’ll add 8 to 9 briquettes every hour, on the hour. Monitoring your prime rib carefully is paramount, you want to get it to the right inside temperature. Once your meat reaches 120 degrees, take it off the grill and let it rest. If you are using wood, Kevin recommends starting the grill and putting wood in right away and letting it heat for 25-30 minutes before putting your meat on. That will give the grill a chance to burn through some of the charcoal that hasn’t lit yet and give your meat a much better smoke flavor than it would if you just tossed some wood chips on the fire and let them combust leading to an over smoked flavor. The tricky part about prime rib is that everyone likes theirs a little different – rare, medium rare, medium, or more on the done side. To accommodate more people at your table, you can cut a big prime rib in two pieces and cook them to different internal temperatures, one on the rare side and the other more medium. Monitoring your meats and pulling them off at the right time isn’t a guessing a game, you need to have a way to check internal temperatures accurately. Weber’s iGrill tool is a rockstar in this department. This is more than a meat probe, this is a barbecuer’s best friend! This handy little device allows you to hook up multiple probes, so you can watch more than one piece of meat. Through a free app on your phone, you simply input the kind/cut of meat you’ll be cooking, and it then monitors the temperature of the meat and your grill throughout the cook, sending you alerts as needed. Kevin talks about how this device really takes the guess work out of grilling and smoking. Plus, if you have company, you can spend less time babysitting your meat and more time hanging out with friends and family.

Listen in as Kevin talks about catching drippings to make gravy as well as food safety and not cross contaminating if you are cooking more than one cut of meat on the same grill.

Check out Kevin’s blog where he has tons of recipes and tips for all of you grilling fanatics. Even better, follow him on social media and drool over all of his delicious meat photos. Plus, leave him your questions – he answers a lot of fan questions about grilling/smoking and more. Don’t forget to hit up Weber and look through all of their grills and accessories.

Merry Grilling and Smoking

Trav