Roasted Garlic Herb Rack of Pork

8 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Roasted Rack of Pork is a show-stopping, holiday main dish crusted with garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary or use boneless pork loin for easy weeknight meals.

Ultimate Garlic Pork Loin is one of our most well loved Main Courses! Just like Pork Loin, this holiday meal-worthy pork roast is easy to make, goes with any side dish, and perfect for special occasions or a quick, tasty dinner.

Roasted Rack of Pork uncut on roasting pan

ROASTED GARLIC AND HERB RACK OF PORK

Roasted Rack of Pork is a delicious main dish worthy of any fancy dinner party but it doesn’t have to feel fancy. The decorative frenching of the bones makes it a showstopper (and your guests don’t need to know the butcher can do it for you!) They’ll never know that it took you less than 10 minutes to go from butcher paper to oven. When you are at the store you may find that this cut of pork is actually less expensive than many cuts of beef.

Why buy bone in?

Buying pork loin bone-in helps to keep the pork moist. This is true with bone-in chicken and beef as well. So while it may look like a dinner party meal, this recipe is also great for any meal you’re preparing at home for your family too. It also helps with re-heating as bone-in proteins tend to re-heat more forgivingly than boneless.

Roasted Rack of Pork tastes even better than it looks! Roasted with just a small amount of seasonings, the fat from this rib roast gives all the flavor you need. Gone are the days of dry overcooked pork, every bite of Roasted Pork is tender, juicy and delicious.

Frenching the Rack of Pork

For this Roasted Rack of Pork, you want a bone-in pork rib roast or center-cut loin. You don’t have to french the bones but they do make this pork roast look absolutely stunning. If you have the butcher french the bones for you, they can also remove the chine bone. If you french the bones yourself, remove the chine bone and use it to prop up your roast as it cooks.

Roasted Rack of Pork on roasting pan before cooking

Frenching a rib roast is a moderately tedious task but as long as you feel comfortable with a paring knife it isn’t very hard to do. Don’t feel like it is necessary to cut every bit of meat off the bone, as you can see in the photo above the frenching done was not excessive and in the cooked photos it still looks beautiful. This level of prep only took about 3-5 minutes. You can also ask your butcher to do it for you, many will do it for free.

If you are feeding a crowd, you can double this recipe by using two racks of pork. Place the racks of pork parallel to each other, with the bones facing in and the fat cap up and out. Use kitchen twine to tie the racks together, just enough that they don’t tip over but not so close they don’t cook evenly. Cook for about 18-20 minutes per pound of pork.

This beautiful Roasted Rack of Pork is perfect for an Easter Dinner or Christmas Feast! You can serve your tender, juicy pork with fresh, simple veggies like Green Beans and a starchy side like Mashed Potatoes, but the perfect pairing is Honey Roasted Apples and Potatoes as pictured below. Roasted Rack of Pork goes with with all your favorite sides dishes, making it a great main dish all year long!

DELICIOUS SIDE DISH RECIPES

Roasted Rack of Pork individual chops on a bed of roasted potatoes

VARIATIONS ON ROASTED RACK OF PORK

    • Dry Pork Rub: Mix together 1 tablespoon salt, ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon black pepper.
    • Herbs: Like our Herb Crusted Pork Roast, fresh herbs are great for this Roasted Rack of Pork. Try fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, or basil.
    • Mustard: Pork and mustard go great together! Use dijon mustard rubbed into the pork or you can add a tablespoon of dry mustard to the seasonings.
    • Potatoes: Make this a one pan meal by adding potatoes and carrots to the bottom of your roasting pan and then place the pork roast on top.
    • Cranberries: For a Christmas dinner, make a Cranberry Relish and leave out the sugar (or replace with brown sugar). Rub the fresh relish into the pork before roasting.

MORE TASTY PORK RECIPES

HOW TO STORE ROASTED RACK OF PORK

  • Serve: Roasted Rack of Pork can be out at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Cut into pork chops for easier storing.
  • Store: Put your cooled pork into an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
  • Freeze: Cool the pork roast completely before storing in a sealed container. Freeze up to 3 months.

HOW TO KNOW ROASTED RACK OF PORK IS COOKED

Thankfully the USDA no longer recommends that you cook pork way past dry! According to Foodsafety.gov, pork is safe to eat when the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.

Roasted Rack of Pork sliced in half

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Roasted Garlic Herb Rack of Pork

Roasted Rack of Pork is a show-stopping, holiday main dish crusted with garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary or use boneless pork loin for easy weeknight meals.
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 4 pounds bone-in pork rib roast , frenched
  • 2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme , minced
  • 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary , minced
  • 4 cloves garlic , minced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Season pork with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary, garlic and olive oil.
  • Place rack in a roasting pan fat side up (resting on the chin bone). Cook for 90 minutes or to an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
  • Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes, covered loosely with foil before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 322kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 30g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 87mg | Sodium: 278mg | Potassium: 504mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 12IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 39mg | Iron: 1mg
Keyword: Roasted Rack of Pork

Tender Garlic Herb Rack of Pork

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. This was a quick, simple recipe that tasted delicious! Everyone went back for a 2nd helping.
    I look forward to making this again and again!

  2. Hi Sabrina, so in your description above you talk about using mustard on the pork, but the recipe doesn’t actually mention this?

    1. We mentioned mustard as a variation on the recipe you can try if you want more mustard flavor in the dish. Just add the mustard when the variation suggests and otherwise follow the recipe as normal!

  3. I always cook my rack to 133* at 330* & remove from oven. Let sit till temperature rises to 143* & I find it perfect. Very slightly pink in centre. Any temp over 143* & I find it overcooked. Every one seems to take it out at 145 & sit it to 155 or more. Don’t do that. Steve

  4. Really question the temperature suggestion of 325 F After an 1 1/2 hours, the pork was still pink in centre. Temperature more like 425 for first 1/2 hour and then down to 350 for remainder.

    1. There’s nothing wrong with pink pork as long as the internal temperature is correct. It’s not like chicken. You’re welcomed to try it the way you suggested if you’re more comfortable with that. Enjoy!