Smoked OP Beef Roast
This past weekend was all about reacquainting ourselves with old friends over some yummy food! On Saturday night we had our friends Kyoko, Greg and Sparky join us for a simply delicious OP (which simply means bone-in) Ribeye roast. It was an impulse buy that went down a treat. Heather made her infamous potatoes dauphinoise and steamed asparagus.
The rib roast was easy to prep and here’s what you’ll need to recreate a wonderfully tasty culinary treat:
First you’ll need to dry brine your roast. All that takes is a good helping of Kosher salt and some cling film. The dry brine method ensures a lovely taste but also ensures that the roast stays nice and moist. If you can, dry brine for up to 2 days or if you’re in a pinch like I was, 6 hours will do the trick. I use this method with our ribeye steaks all the time!
Once you’ve dry brined the beef, prep your herb coating. This produces a wicked bark and will have your guests begging for more. The mixture goes something like this:
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons dried thyme or oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
5 tablespoons olive oil
Mix all of the herbs above and add 1 part oil to 1 part herb mix. Pat the meat dry and then smear it with your new paste. Make sure you’ve covered your roast thoroughly and pop it back in the fridge but rest it on a rack so it doesn’t get all wet and soggy underneath. Try and keep it in the fridge for as long as you can. If you’ve got the time, 24 hours is great if you want to get the maximum penetration possible.
Now go prepare your grill. If you’re using an Egg, set it up for indirect heat with the plate setter. It’s important to stabilise the temperature at 225F – You’re going to ‘reverse sear’ this roast, meaning you’ll bring up the core temperature nice and slow and then finish the roast over a roaring fire to give it that wicked crust! Add in a small amount (no more than 1.5 chunks) of mesquite wood to add a lovely smokiness to the roast!
Place a drip pan with your pre-made gravy on top of your plate setter but under your grid. Ensure that this pan never goes dry by maintaining at least a 1/4 inch of fluid in the pan. It’ll catch all the drippings and trust me when I say, it’s really delicious! Your roast should sit above the drip pan but not in it’s own pan. You want to get the heat circulating all around the roast so I simply used a rack to achieve this effect.
Its critically important that you’ve also got a quality internal thermometer to measure your progress. Don’t ever follow a recipe by time, you’ve got to go with temperature. That way, you’ll never ever mess it up! Shoot for an internal temperature of 115F before you take off the roast and get your grill nice and hot. Once there, remove the roast carefully, take off your plate setter and open up the bottom and top vents for maximum temperature gain. At this point, when the grill is piping hot, return the roast and keep the dome open. You want to concentrate the heat on the exterior of the roast as opposed to cooking the insides much more. You’ll flip the roast a quarter turn ever few minutes and when your internal temperature hits between 125-130F, you’re done! That temperature ensures a lovely medium rare.
Let the roast rest for about 5 minutes and then carve up and serve.
You’ll note that Sparky was really pleased to receive a beef jus shower. He stayed under the table and covered himself in all the drippings that came off the cutting board. If you ever want to see a wee dog go absolutely bonkers trying to lick it’s own back, try this method for hours of family entertainment.
Serve your roast, potatoes, asparagus and homemade gravy.
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Overall Sparky Rating: 7,000,000/10