Cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage

4 cooking corned beef and cabbage methods for your perfect St. Patricks Day dinner are here! Tender Crockpot, Instant Pot, or dutch oven corned beef every time. Then add a few leaves to the pot or make simple cabbage recipes of your choice on the side.

in Ninja Foodi

Find directions for Ninja Foodi corned beef and cabbage recipe here. Beef and vegetables come out incredibly flavorful using this method. This is probably my favorite method. Using a pressure cooker makes everything easier and the tenderness cannot be replicated any other way really.

This one is great because you can pressure cook as is, air fry when it’s done, or make air fryer corned beef only. Your choice.

If you are unfamiliar with the Ninja Foodi pressure cooker and air fryer it’s amazing. This method is using a pressure cooker Your corned beef will come out fabulously tender

I highly recommend this method, no matter what brand of pot you have. Also the flat cut is better than the point (if I can find it). You just get a thicker section that becomes more tender overall.

• Potatoes taste amazing but tend to fall apart once everything is done
• Cabbage can be steamed essentially in the juices as little or as limp as you like
• Another option is to cook them separately using this Ninja Foodi cabbage, air fryer cabbage, or baked cabbage steaks recipe after the meat is done.

This option only takes about 15 minutes and creates a crispy crunch on the outer leaves. If you would rather cook the vegetables separately, I agree with you. I typically will make Slow Cooker Cabbage before this goes in.

Ingredient Notes

1. A piece of corned beef + pickling spices will come in the bag with your meat. Of course you can make your own spice packet with mustard seeds and other ingredients but I have never bothered to do this
2. Liquid, I love beer because of the flavor it lends this dish. Yes you can cover with water instead but I recommend the other
3. Head of cabbage with just using the outer larger leaves to soften or you can use other methods linked above that have more flavor honestly

in a Dutch Oven

If you don’t have a large dutch oven it’s a great way to cook using cast iron. This is how to cook Dutch Oven corned beef and cabbage recipe here.

Your meat will not be quite as tender as the other 3 methods shared. Corned beef must be almost submerged to get tender. Basting will need to be done during the cooking process.

• The potatoes come out better than any other method in our opinion.
• Cabbage is my favorite in the dutch oven as well.
• You can add potatoes and carrots too, they come out perfectly tender when cooked together.

in Oven

This is how to cook corned beef in the oven directions are here. If you have not tried this method it was surprisingly wonderful with our sweet mustard on the top.

in Instant Pot

The only way we won’t do this is to bring it to a boil on your stove. That would defeat the purpose of it being marinated because the taste would totally change. I would highly suggest out of them all to make Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage here. This comes out similarly to the top Ninja Foodi recipe. You can use any brand of pressure cooker for this method.

My Instant Pot is the 6 qt. and plenty big for the 5 of us. This comes out amazingly tender on high heat, and perfectly cooker. Potatoes taste great, softer than making them in the dutch oven but firmer than the Ninja.

• I didn’t add carrots but you could 
• Cabbage can be cooked as little or as much as you wanted
  • Or cook it separately using our Instant Pot cabbage recipes.

Everything soaks up a bit of the beer flavor, or whatever liquid you choose.

in Slow Cooker

This method will take all day. My crockpot is here for reference. Your corned beef will come out extremely tender and juicy Flavor of the beer or liquid will be absorbed by potatoes and meat The flavors and texture will be similar to pressure cooking but take the longest

You can reduce heat to warm if you are serving this for a longer period of time. I wouldn’t leave it on with additional heat for more than 30 minutes or it may dry out. I used the recipe below for years until I got my Instant Pot and Ninja Foodi, now I use those

Find the recipe for slow cooker corned beef brisket here if it is fresh or defrosted but there is more y’all. This year I experimented for those who may be forgetful and came up with how to cook frozen corned beef in Crock Pot too!!

Tips for Cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage

We made this one recently and it seriously was devoured! Last but not least you could try our Traeger corned beef recipe if you have a smoker at home.

1. Use beer
   1. I don’t drink it at all regularly but it gives everything a great flavor
   2. If you aren’t comfortable then I’d use beef broth over water any day

It’s really a simple way to bring a whopping punch of flavor to this dish really.

1. Choose a large piece
   1. Your corned beef will shrink A LOT when it’s cooked
   2. Flat is always better than a point piece
2. Buy a piece with a decent amount of fat
   1. Fat means flavor and will be more tender than a lean corned beef brisket
3. Don’t overcook your cabbage
   1. Cutting it into 4 large chunks is best we think
   2. Cook just enough to soften it but not so long it is limp

** But wait, we just added a 5th way….this is a canned corned beef recipe made 4 different ways if that is all you have. What should you serve with corned beef and cabbage?

How to Use Leftovers

As with any other recipe please tweak it to add ingredients you love like bay leaves inside the pot if you prefer, or other seasonings. We love a bowl of Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup every year.

If you have extra veggies don’t throw them out. Try our other simple cabbage recipes like old fashioned cabbage soup and others. Let us know which are your favorite! One of our favorites is this slow cooker stuffed cabbage recipe. Leftovers work great in this corned beef soup