Whole Smoked Ribeye Recipe

A whole smoked ribeye is one of the finer things in life. You can’t beat good beef – seasoned with a heavy dose of corse salt and black pepper and brought up slow in wood smoke until it’s just a tad over rare. That makes my mouth water just writing it!

For this cook I bought a whole Certified Angus Beef brand ribeye roast from a local grocer. It was a bone-in ribeye but I didn’t let that stop me. First I trimmed the ribs off the roast saving them for a smoked au jus. Then I removed the tail fat and took all the sinew off the top exposing the meat below.

At this point it was ready for the salt and pepper crust. I drizzled a little olive oil over the top to help the seasoning stick and hit the whole thing on all sides with my TX Rub. It’s a combination of coarse salt and coarse ground black pepper – really the only 2 things you need for a good ribeye roast.

The next main star of the show is the smoke and for this cook I fired up my Outlaw pit. Josie was more than willing to cook this ribeye! I start with a bed of Royal Oak charcoal briquettes to create a good coal bed and then start adding seasoned splits of Post Oak wood. Once the pit comes up to 275°F the whole ribeye goes on the cooking grate.

This cook takes about 2.5 hours but anytime I’m cooking a costly piece of meat like ribeye I use a wired probe thermometer to monitor the internal temp. In fact for this cook I used 2 probes. One in the back half and one in the front half this way I knew that I wouldn’t overcook it. For this I broke out my Thermoworks Smoke X4. If you don’t have a multi-probe thermometer system I highly recommend it.

I set the alarm for 125°F and kept adding splits of post oak about every 30 minutes to maintain cooking temperature. Once the alarm sounded on the Thermoworks Smoke X4, I pulled the ribeye off the pit and tented it with foil. It needs to rest for 20-30 minutes before slicing.

To serve I cut it into big 1” thick slices and served it with a smoked au jus I made using the rib bones. I shot a quick video on that so hit the link to check it out.

This whole smoked ribeye was absolutely delicious. The salt and pepper created a stunning crust on the outside and the post oak smoke gave the meat a smoked taste without overpowering it. I had every element I wanted in good beef – Salt, Smoke, and Beefy goodness!