Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

Our easy Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage and potatoes is the best recipe for St. Patrick’s Day or year round! Your brisket will become fork tender this way using potato for trivets. This uses fresh but you can cook Instant Pot frozen corned beef similarly.

This is the best pressure cooker meal we have made this year. Using the flat cut with everything cooked in the same pot, now you have no excuse to make this popular holiday meal lickety split fast. Just one of our popular Instant Pot recipes shared around town!

We don’t do a lot to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but I will say one thing I enjoy is this traditional dinner! It isn’t just for the holidays, and it isn’t just made in the oven anymore. You can use these instructions for the Ninja Foodi pot too.

This one explains how to get this cut nice and tender starting from fresh or defrosted. If you have had a forgetful moment I get it. That is why I also wrote instructions above if it is still rock hard. We’ve made slow cooker corned beef brisket recipe for years, but this doesn’t take all day.

Ingredient Notes

Corned beef brisket is where we shart, ours was 3 lbs. Plus pickling spice seasoning packet that comes in bag. You will use that too. Or make your own corned beef spices if necessary.

Is flat cut or point cut corned beef brisket best?

Flat is the best of the best. This cut is larger, square in size, and more tender if you ask me too. It tends to have a bit more fat too and fat=more flavor. Remember that it will shrink when cooked too so choose a bit larger than you think (plus leftovers are amazing).

You need some cooking liquid but beer is by far our favorite choice for that. Really anything will do. If you are really opposed to using this then I might suggest beef broth instead.

Use 2 large potatoes instead of a trivet (because that is not as tasty). You want them sliced with the flat end down so the meat can sit on top and stay out of the liquid (that would make it mushy).

You don’t have to have a head of cabbage, but it is traditionally served together. You just the outside larger leaves will be used unless diced to make our pressure cooker fried cabbage. And I like to add a onion quartered.

You should definitely make our mustard sauce for corned beef too. Brush it on top of the brisket and then have on the table.

Optional Add-Ins

You can add thick slices of onions and/or large chunks of peeled carrots at the end with the cabbage leaves. This is optional but if you want to add more vegetables this is a great option. I kid you not everyone will fight over the potatoes once they taste them. They’re incredible! You can make Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi corned beef and cabbage the same way.

How to Make Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes

1. Cut baking potatoes in half
2. Place at bottom of your Instant Pot with the cut side down.
3. Set corned beef brisket on top of the potatoes. We will use these as our trivet. Make sure it’s flat so it doesn’t fall over.
4. Pour in your beer or liquid of choice really. Sprinkle seasoning packet on top of the meat and get ready to cook quickly.
5. Set to high pressure cooking time. (good for a 3 lb piece)
6. Do a natural release for 10 minutes, then let rest of steam out.
7. Open lid and remove meat, set aside to keep warm.
8. Cut onion and put into pot with liquid.
9. Add the largest cabbage leaves.
10. Place on top of potatoes the carrots and cabbage leaves (or omit carrots).
11. Put lid on, close steam valve, cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
12. Do a quick release, cut meat, and serve vegetables on the side.

Can you add beer into a pressure cooker?

I have done some research on carbonated beverages and pressure cookers. It states there is no problem pouring it in as is straight out of the fridge but I just leave it out overnight so becomes flat. It maintains the great taste that will then permeate into your meat and vegetables but the fizz is pretty much gone. Your choice.

Do you rinse corned beef before cooking?

NO! I mean some people do in order to minimize the overall sodium content but it will drastically change the taste since the brine is really where it’s at with this. Just remove it from the bag and put the small seasoning packet aside, I do rinse that off. Place it into your pot as is.

Tips for Success

You see most people use a trivet when making cooking corned beef and cabbage in a pressure cooker but you are really missing out if you do it that way. I like using a few large potatoes cut in half instead because then they soak up all the drippings of the meat as well as the liquid you use to cook / “steam” it. Your multicooker is needed too

Pour some broth inside pot on top of everything when serving. When everything is done slice. Serve with some potato from the pot, onion, and cabbage. It is fork tender I tell you!

Frequently Asked Questions

Leftover recipes

I tend to make a batch of Ninja Foodi cabbage or some air fryer cabbage wedges with the leftovers, or make one of the recipes below.

• We have a lot of different leftover corned beef recipes here to look over.
• Of course you can make Reuben sandwiches with some Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing. Grill it between 2 slices of rye bread.
• Our corned beef soup is more like a chowder and comes out so good you could really add any type of meat to it.

You can make dutch oven corned beef and cabbage too if you’d like to try a different method each year!

The nutritional information is included here as well, the calories, saturated fat, etc. are calculated by the recipe card itself. Like I said, you can use this for any brand of pressure cooker or Ninja Foodi.

Keep in mind that beyond the 85 minutes to 90 min. it takes a bit to reach pressure. Overall I would leave 2 hours to have this finished to perfection and ready to serve.