This easy to make garlic and rosemary crusted roast beef is a meal special enough for a Sunday dinner, Christmas or any other holiday.
If you love garlic, you’ll love this Garlic Roast Beef Recipe that is low-prep and full of flavor.
In my opinion, sometimes the most simple preparations of food can be the most delicious. You don’t need to add a lot to high quality beef to make it amazing. This garlic roast beef recipe has just a few ingredients, and takes minimal time to get in the oven.
What’s the difference between Roast Beef and Pot Roast
Before we dive into this recipe, it’s important to note this is for roast beef, not pot roast. Both roast beef and pot roast are great for special occassions, but they’re distinctly different — even though they both use cuts of beef labeled “roast.” Here’s a quick overview of three of the main differences:
- Roast beef and pot roast use different cuts of beef: For Roast Beef, we recommend using Rib Roast, Rump Roast, Sirloin Roast or Round Roast (eye, top or bottom). For Pot Roast, we recommend using Chuck Roast.
- Roast beef and pot roast use different cooking methods: Roast beef is cooked dry, and pot roast is braised and cooked in liquid.
- Roast beef and pot roast look different when cooked: Roast beef has a beautiful dark brown, crispy, salty exterior crust, and the interior is uniformly cooked to a medium rare (or your desired cooking temperature). Comparitavely, pot roast is cooked at a higher temperature than roast beef so the collagen in the muscles break down, and the beef becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender. A good pot roast falls apart when cut. A good roast beef holds together when cut.
What cut of beef is best for garlic roast beef?
- Sirloin Tip Roast: This boneless, lean cut is great value. Best when roasted and carved into thin slices.
- Eye of Round Roast: A lean, flavorful cut often used for roast beef at local delis. Can be roasted or slow-cooked.
- Bottom Round Roast: Great value and very lean. Best for roasting or slow-cooking and slicing thin.
Tips for cooking the perfect roast beef
- Leave the beef out of the fridge to reach room temperature before cooking in the oven.
- Salt the entire roast liberally with kosher salt and seasonings.
- Cooking the roast lifted out of the pan on a roasting rack improves air flow and will result in more even browning.
- Use an oven safe meat thermometer to ensure the roast is cooked to perfection. Make sure you insert the probe into the center of the cut.
- Always allow for carryover cooking. Watch the thermometer, and when the center of a roast comes within 10 degrees of the target, it’s time to take it off the heat. The temperature will rise an additional 5-7° degrees as it rests after being removed from the oven.
- Always let he roast rest for 15-20 minutes before you cut it. This will allow the juices to redistribute evenly and lets the meat fibers relax for ultimate tenderness.
- Always slice thin, against the grain to break down and shorten the muscle fibers for more tender beef.
Temperature Guide
When you’re cooking an expensive roast, you want to get it to the table cooked just the way you like it. The secret to judging precisely when meat is done is to known the meat’s internal temperature by using an oven proof meat thermometer (this is our favorite). Plus, always take into account carryover cooking, which is the final doneness tempearture after the beef has rested.
- Rare 120-130ºF
- Medium-Rare 130-135ºF
- Medium 135-140ºF
- Medium-Well 145-155ºF
- Well Done 155ºF and up
These temperatures are the final doneness temperatures. Beef should be pulled from heat 5 to 10ºF lower than these temperatures to allow for carryover cooking while the beef rests before carving and serving.
Garlic Roast Beef
Equipment
- Digital meat thermometer
- Roasting pan
Ingredients
- 2-3 lb Beef Roast eye of round, top sirloin or bottom round
- 4 cloves garlic cut into thin slices
- 1 tsp rosemary dried
- olive oil
- kosher salt, to taste
- fresh crashed pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Remove the roast from refrigerator 1 hour before cooking to reach room temperature. Using a sharp knife, pierce meat about 1/2-inch deep and insert slivers of garlic in each hole, pushing all the way in.
- Lightly cover beef with olive oil and season generously with salt, pepper and rosemary.
- Place an oven safe meat thermometer all the way into the center of the meat. Place the roast in a roasting pan with a rack (you can cook without a rack if you don't have one).
- Preheat oven to 350° F. When the oven reaches 350° F, put roast in the oven.
- Roast until the thermometer reads 130° for rare, 135° for medium rare, 140° for medium, and 155° for well done. Due to carryover cooking, when the center of a roast comes within 10 degrees of the target, it’s time to take it off the heat. The temperature will rise an additional 5-7° degrees as it rests after being removed from the oven.
- Remove the roast from the oven and let it rest 15-20 minutes before you cut it so that the juices distributed evenly.
Kitchen products we love
One more thing!
Do you want to learn more about beef? Join our weekly e-newsletter where we share farm happenings, recipes and beef availability. Sign-up and get a cheat sheet with 9-must-ask questions before buying beef directly from a farmer. Or, we have an entire ebook about beef that goes through purchasing and preparing beef from a cattle farmers perspective.
Here are a few other links you may like:
Nice to Meet You!
We're Matt & Jessica, fifth-generation cattle farmers & the owners of Clover Meadows Beef. Good food starts with knowing where it comes from. On our blog, you'll find easy beef recipes, cooking tips, stories of how we raise our cattle, and how to buy farm-fresh beef locally. Our goal is to make cooking beef easy so you feel confident cooking any cut of beef in your home kitchen.