Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage easiest way to make this classic Irish Dish. The two-step cooking process ensures a delicious meal with tender corned beef with vegetables that are cooked perfectly without getting mushy.
Corned Beef and Cabbage is a soul-satisfying, stick to your ribs, meat and potatoes kind of recipe that the Irish culture is known for. This Instant Pot recipe keeps all those classic flavors--just speeds up the process. And the result is out of this world!
What is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is a brisket that has been brined and cured. It typically is sold with a pickling mixture made from mustard seeds, peppercorns, dill, allspice, cloves, and a few other spices. It is earthy, tangy, and flavors the cured brisket perfectly.
You can purchase corned beef year-round, but they are much easier to find around St. Patrick's Day, as Corned Beef is a classic St. Patrick's Day meal--especially when served with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.
Why the Instant Pot is Best
This Irish girl was raised on Corned Beef and Cabbage, as it was one of my mom's favorite meals. It reminded her of her childhood and of her family that came to America straight from Ireland.
I share my mom's love of Corned Beef and Cabbage, but I have found a better way to prepare this Irish meal--the Instant Pot.
Not only is the process faster in the Instant Pot, but the corned beef also becomes more tender and flavorful than when cooked on the stove or in the slow cooker, which is the traditional method.
I will NEVER make Corned Beef and Cabbage any other way!
Notes on Ingredients
- Corned Beef: This recipe works with both a flat cut or point cut, and no changes to time need to be made. I personally prefer the flat cut, as it is leaner but a lot of people like the marbling found in the point cut.
- Pickling Spices: Most packaged corned beef brisket comes with a pickling spice blend. If yours does not, you can use 1 tablespoon of pickling spices.
- Guinness Beer: The dark rich stout beer adds so much flavor to this meal. You can use any brand you like, or you can use beef stock in place of the beer if desired.
- Brown Sugar: This may seem like an odd addition but just a little bit of brown sugar balances out this meal perfectly.
- Potatoes: You can use red potatoes, russet potatoes, or new potatoes. Cut your potatoes into 2-inch chunks or leave whole if using baby potatoes.
- Carrots: Use whole baby carrots or 2-inch chunks of peeled large carrots.
- Cabbage: Green cabbage is best for this recipe and you will only need ½ head of cabbage. Use the remaining half to make coleslaw or add to fried rice.
How To Make Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Step One: Pressure Cook Corned Beef
- Rinse the corned beef and pat dry. This removes the brine from the brisket, preventing your end result to be too salty.
- Place onion slices into the bottom of the inner pot of a 6 or 8-quart Instant Pot.
- Place the rinsed corned beef on top of the onion slices.
- Sprinkle brisket evenly with seasoning packet, garlic, and brown sugar.
- Pour the beer and beef broth into the inner pot.
- Select the manual/pressure cook setting and adjust the pressure to high. Set Cook time for 85 minutes.
- Once the cook time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for at least 15 minutes, then do a quick release of any remaining pressure.
- Remove the brisket from the Instant Pot and place on serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
Step Two: Pressure Cook the Vegetables
- Remove the onion with a slotted spoon and discard.
- Drain off all but 2 cups of the cooking liquid. You can also strain the cooking liquid if desired to remove the pickling spices, I do not find that necessary.
- Add in the potatoes and carrots to cooking liquid.
- Top with cabbage wedges that are still intact.
- Cook for 5 minutes on high pressure.
- Let pressure release naturally for at least 5 minutes before doing a quick release of any remaining pressure.
- To serve, slice the brisket against the grain.
- Serve with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and whole grain mustard for dipping, if desired--my personal favorite.
Gluten-Free Modifications
In order to make Gluten-Free Corned Beef, check your corned beef label carefully to be sure the brisket and seasoning packet both do not contain gluten. You will also need to use 2 cups of beef stock instead of 1 cup beef stock and 1 cup of beer.
Leftover Corned Beef
Leftover Corned Beef can keep in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. And the meat itself can be frozen for up to 3 months. It is delicious reheated the next day, but can also be used in creative leftovers.
- My favorite way to enjoy leftover Instant Pot Corned Beef is to make a creamy, cheesy Reuben Dip.
- But if dip is not your thing, you can't go wrong with a classic Reuben Sandwich. Add sliced corned beef to rye bread, top with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing and pan fry in a bit of butter to toast.
- Make Corned Beef Hash using potatoes, corned beef, and scrambled eggs.
- Make Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup.
Video Tutorial
If you learn better through visual videos, be sure to check out my YouTube video where I will walk you through how to make this perfect Instant Pot Corned Beef with Cabbage, Potatoes, and Carrots in detail.
More Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Pork and Sauerkraut
- Instant Pot Smoked Sausage and Potatoes with Green Beans
- Instant Pot Pulled Pork
- Instant Pot Ribs
- Instant Pot Meatballs
- Instant Pot Honey Baked Ham
If you enjoyed this Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage, please be sure to leave a comment and review below.
Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
- 3 pound corned beef brisket
- 1 Seasoning Packet or 1 tablespoon pickling spices
- 1 large onion sliced
- 5 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 cup stout beer such as Guinness
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 pound small red potatoes cut in half
- 1 pound baby carrots
- ½ head green cabbage cut into 2-inch wedges
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse brisket with cold water and thoroughly pat dry.
- Place onion slices into a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot. Place brisket on top of the onion mixture. Sprinkle with brown sugar, garlic, and pickling spices. Pour in beer and beef broth.
- Select manual/pressure cook setting on high pressure. Set cook time for 85 minutes.
- Once cook time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Then do a quick release of any remaining pressure.
- Remove brisket from the Instant Pot and place it on a serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
- Remove onions from the pressure cooker using a slotted spoon. Drain off all but 2 cups of the cooking liquid in the Instant Pot.
- Stir in potatoes and carrots and top with cabbage. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Once cook time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes then do a quick release of any remaining pressure.
- Thinly slice corned beef against the grain and serve with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.
Equipment Needed
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published in 2019 but updated in 2021 with a new video and tips.
K mamma
I love your recipes! I usually have all the ingredients and they are always yummy! Made this for for St. Patrick's and everyone loved it - including the picky ones! My instant pot is tied up with yogurt right now, how long would you recommend if using a slow cooker?
Kristen Chidsey
I love hearing you enjoy and trust my recipes! For slow cooking, I would recommend 12 hours on low.
Milia
Totally awesome (yes, I was a high-schooler in the 80s 😁)!!! The entire family loved it and wants it again. My only complaint is that it took longer than I had expected for the pot to come to pressure again for the vegetables (about 15 minutes or so). There was no lag time between the vegetables going in and the meat coming out; I did unplug it for a few seconds when I did that exchange b/c sometimes the pot thinks I'm continuing what I was doing and an unexpected time/temperature will pop up while I'm trying to reconfigure for the next thing I'm putting in the pot. But it was only unplugged for the amount of time it took to pop the meat out, scoop out some of the liquid, and put in the vegetables. Everything was still super-hot inside. Maybe it's because it's the big 8-quart pot 🤔? Anyway, I can't thank you enough for this super-easy, FANTABULOUS dinner 😘!!
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Milia! I love hearing you enjoyed so much! As for the timing coming back to pressure, that does seem a bit long to me as well. I have not had it take that long for me using the 8-quart, but every model can be a bit different (like ovens). Sorry you had to wait for the veggies so long, but happy to hear you enjoyed the overall meal.
Claudia
Cooking this week end. If adding one cup of beer and one cup of beef broth - how do you drain off 2 cups liquid before adding veggies? Will there be liquid left to cook the remaining ingredients, does the meat give off liquid during cooking? Thx for clarifying.
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Claudia! The meat will give off liquid as it cooks, but you drain off up to 2 cups, meaning you cook the veggies using 2 cups of the cooking liquid. Feel free to not drain anything off if that is easier for you. Enjoy!
Christie
Easy and yummy! Thank you!
Kristen Chidsey
You are very welcome Christie!
Christina
Love this recipe! Didn’t use onion because family member has allergy to onions. used a madero brown stout beer and water which really enhanced the flavor. Will use this recipe again hopefully not wait until next year. ☘️☘️❤️
Rhonda L Carrillo
Won't be waiting for St. Patrick's day to make this again. Wonderful dish.
Kristen Chidsey
It really deserves to be enjoyed year-round.
Kathy Shepard
This was soooo good! What is the best way to reheat the leftovers so as not to dry them out?
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Kathy! I am so happy to hear you enjoyed. I would place the meat in a shallow dish and cover it with the cooking liquid. Cover the dish with a paper towel and heat for 1-minutes intervals until heated through. The liquid will help keep the meat moist.
Janay Murphy
I made this last night & it was amazing! Even using all beef broth & no beer!
Dee Gee
I have tried every way to Sunday making corned beef and cabbage and hands down this is the absolute best. I used Irish Death stout because that's what I had on hand and it turned out so good my husband asked me to make this ALL the time. Since it is just the two of us and my instant pot is a small 3 quart I halved the ingredients and again perfection. Thank you.
Kristen Chidsey
This makes me so happy! Thanks for sharing Dee Gee!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks for sharing Janay! I love hearing you enjoyed (even without the beer.)
Dianne Wright
If you go to print command, you can adjust the recipe by # of servings which will then change the recipe by the pounds. Avoids lots of questions and it really great. Making tonight so I'll come back and post again.