Bobby Flay's Cooking Career Started With Prime Rib — And He's Made It The Same Way For 30 Years

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Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is famous for countless cooking shows and award-winning restaurants. But even he had to get his humble start in culinary school and restaurant kitchens. According to Flay, prime rib was one of the first dishes he made. In a Food Network segment, chef Flay prepares prime rib for fellow celebrity chef friends for Christmas dinner, stating, "This is one of the first things I ever made when I started cooking in a professional kitchen and I'm going to do it exactly the way I did it ... thirty years ago."

His technique is simple and effective. He starts by making slits along the top of the roast with a pairing knife, nestling whole cloves of garlic in the slits. Then, he covers the roast in a thick layer of salt and pepper which will act as a crust to seal in all the moisture and keep the tasty juices from escaping during the long cooking process. To create that hard outer crust, Flay roasts the prime rib at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then turns the oven down to 350 degrees and cooks the roast for another 3 hours. He removes the prime rib from the oven when it's medium rare. However, Flay stresses the importance of resting the prime rib because it will continue to cook to the ideal doneness. It's also important to rest the prime rib so all those delicious juices that render down from the salt-encrusted fat cap can redistribute.

Chef Flay is a pro with years of experience making prime rib the same way, so he knows the recipe and timing for each step like the back of his hand. But for those of us that aren't so self-assured, you should invest in a meat thermometer (like this Alpha Grillers digital meat thermometer from Amazon) to measure the internal temperature of your prime rib. For a medium rare prime rib, pull it out of the oven at an internal temperature of 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. As the meat rests, it will continue to heat up to the ideal medium rare internal temperature of between 130 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

The prime rib may be done cooking, but Chef Flay isn't! While the roast was in the oven, he made a simple compound butter in the food processor with softened butter and fresh thyme which he'll use to make a fragrant au jus to serve alongside the prime rib. While seasoning is one of the keys to the best prime rib, Flay demonstrates the beauty of simplicity. Just as he kept the seasoning to a salt, pepper, and garlic trifecta, he also keeps the au jus simple, deglazing the pan he used to cook his prime rib with half a bottle of red wine and a splash of red wine vinegar. Lastly, he adds the thyme butter, stock, and black peppercorns, reducing the sauce for a few minutes.