You can have perfectly tender corned beef and cabbage without waiting and watching it all day! Make your corned beef dinner in your Instant Pot, and let it do all the work for you!
The meat will come out incredibly juicy and flavorful in about 90 minutes plus the time to slowly release the pressure, and it will only take a few additional minutes to get gorgeous, colorful potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, too! A wonderful St. Patrick's Day dinner will be on the table in a little over two hours with minimal hands-on time!
It's the perfect menu for a St. Patrick's Day feast, and we all like to pretend we are a wee bit Irish on March 17, don't we? Here is a fun little article about the holiday. I'm sure some of the topics will surprise you!
Since you can make this traditional corned beef dinner in your Instant Pot, you can buy the ingredients tomorrow and be a last-minute kind of cook! Usually, corned beef is sold fresh, not frozen, so there's no pesky defrosting time to deal with!
And, you don't need all day to make exceptional tender corned beef because pressure cooking drastically speeds up the time it takes to make a tough cut of beef fork-tender and juicy.
After all, there's no corn in it, and it isn't called that because of the peppercorns that are part of the spice mix. I'm such a curious person; I had to find out! I thought I'd share in case you are a trivia lover like me!
The term "corned beef" refers to the salty brine solution used to cure the beef brisket. The brine was made using large-grained rock salt, and the term "corns" was the word used for those large pellets of salt.
Corned beef is made by soaking beef brisket in a brine solution for a long period of time to preserve it and enhance its taste and texture. The other spices, such as peppercorns, bay leaves, mustard seed, cloves, and others, produce the wonderful, familiar flavor we've grown to love.
I have always been confused about which cut of corned beef I should buy: the flat cut or the point cut. Corned beef comes from beef brisket, a hard-working muscle from the chest region of a steer. Brisket is tough but, when cooked properly, has amazing flavor.
You can buy a whole brisket, but the corned beef you usually find in the grocery store around St. Patrick's Day is sold fresh in a pouch with a small package of spices.
Pointcut corned beef is smaller and triangular. It has a lot of fat running through it, which is good for flavor. It comes out nice and juicy when you cook it. Pointcuts are a good choice if you plan to shred the meat after cooking. It is usually a little cheaper, but there is more waste.
If you want to serve a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner with neat slices of meat, you should choose a flat cut. It is more common on the meat counter because it has a more attractive, rectangular, visually appealing look.
The flat cut is quite a bit leaner than the point. It does have a layer of fat on the bottom, which will keep the meat moist. A flat cut (sometimes called a round cut) will slice up more neatly than a point cut.
Begin by rinsing the corned beef and patting it dry. Slice an onion, chop three garlic cloves, and put them in the bottom of your Instant Pot. Lay the meat on them and add one bottle of Guinness and a cup of beef broth.
Guinness is the most iconic beer in the world. It has been brewed in Dublin since 1759. It is THE beer for Irish stew. Guinness is heavy, rich, and dark, with a unique flavor created by roasted barley that gives it a rich, malty taste. If alcohol consumption is a concern for you, there are non-alcoholic options, including Guinness' own Guinness 0.0.
I used Better Than Bouillon beef flavor to make my broth. In my opinion, it is the world's best. Put the lid on the Instant Pot, turn it to seal, and set it to pressure cook on high for 90 minutes. Allow the pressure to drop naturally when the cooking time ends.
Remove the meat and set it aside on a platter or cutting board. Remove and discard the onion and garlic. Retain one and one-half cups of the cooking liquid. I suggest if there's too much liquid, turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting and reduce the broth. This will enhance and concentrate the flavor!!
I used "B" sized white potatoes and full-size carrots I peeled and cut into two to three-inch lengths and a medium head of white cabbage cut in wedges. This step goes fast! Put the carrots and potatoes in the Pot and lay the cabbage wedges on top. Pressure cook on high for just four minutes; when the time is up, quickly release the pressure in the Pot.
Slice the beef thinly and trim off any unwanted fat. Arrange the vegetables on the platter with the meat and feast!! There you go! A platter brimming with Perfect Corned Beef and Cabbage!
This recipe is so good and easy to make; it should not be limited to serving once a year! Here are two other popular Irish recipes you might want to try! Irish Soda Bread and Colcannon are both delicious classics you will want to make again and again!
Flavorful, tender corned beef along with cabbage, carrots, and potatoes made entirely in your Instant Pot.
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Love, GB (Betty Streff)
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