It doesn’t have to be St. Patrick’s Day to enjoy Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage. In fact, if you buy a few corned beef briskets when they are on sale and freeze them, you can have pressure cooker corned beef and cabbage any time of the year!
Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
There are a few ways to prepare corned beef and cabbage. The ingredients vary from adding garlic and onions (more of a New England Boiled Dinner), to cooking with beef broth or beer (as opposed to just water). My recipe is a bit of all of that, and it is rich and full of flavor. The brisket is buttery tender and falls apart in your mouth! Combined with cabbage, potatoes, onion, and carrots, this is a one-pot meal that will feed the whole family.
I’ve been making corned beef and cabbage since I was about 21 years old. Um, let’s just say that that was a long time ago! Ruth Anderson, the wonderful cook and friend I used to work with, gave me her recipe. I never changed it until I decided to make an Instant Pot version. I wanted Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage to be extra flavorful, and easy to make, so I made a few changes.
The first step of the recipe is a dump and start deal. Just put the corned beef in the pot with the spice packet that came with it, a few aromatics, a bottle of Guinness®, and some water. Then cook.
The second step is cooking the veggies. If you were to cook the veggies with the brisket, they would be complete mush by the time the meat was done. But that’s all there is to it. No browning or anything!
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Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is absolutely delicious. Make this classic St. Patrick's Day Irish meal. Pressure cooker corned beef brisket and cabbage is a dump and start recipe!
- 6 cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 Yellow Onion, quartered
- 2-4 lb Corned Beef Brisket, rinsed (with the spice packet). If larger than 3lbs, cut in half
- 1 12 oz bottle Guinness Beer, or other Stout (or 2-3 cups Beef Broth, or Water)
- 2-3 cups Water (2 for a small brisket, and 3 for a larger one)
- 3 med Carrots, cut in 3" pieces
- 2 med Potatoes, cut into fourths or sixths
- 1 small head Cabbage, cut in fourths or sixths
Add the garlic and onion to the pot.
Place the brisket in the pot with the fat side down.
Sprinkle spice packet over and around the brisket.
Pour the beer (or other liquid), and water in the pot, trying not to wash off all of the spices from the meat.
Place the lid on the pot and lock in place. Set the steam release knob to sealing.
Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button, or dial, and then the + or - button or dial to 90 minutes, and make sure it is set to High pressure.
When cooking cycle is finished, turn off the pot and let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 minute natural release). Then manually release the remaining steam (slowly at first, in short bursts so you know only steam will spew from the knob) until the pin in the lid drops down. Then open the lid and use tongs to carefully remove the meat to a dish, spoon some of the hot cooking liquid over it and cover to let it rest.
Add the carrots, potatoes, and cabbage to the pot and close the lid, set it to sealing, and set the cook time for 3 minutes. Do a controlled (slowly at first, in short bursts so you know only steam will spew from the knob) Quick Release when the cook cycle is finished.
Slice the brisket against the grain for the most tender and easy to eat meat. Then place the meat and vegetables in a dish with enough cooking liquid poured over to make it nice and juicy.
Serve with some crusty bread to sop up that wonderful broth!
Resources to make this recipe and more
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I made this as a test run for St. Patrick’s Day and it turned out delicious and so tender! Thank you for this recipe! Making it tomorrow for sure!
Awesome! Have fun!
Making this right now wish me luck.
You’ve got this!
I am making this tonight, but the time schedule is way…WAY off.
First – it does nat take into consideration the time it takedms for the pot to heat up and then begin the 90 min count diwn.
Second – time does not add in the 15 min down time when the 90 min is up.
Plus QR…
Third – after adding the vegetables, then restarting the IP…
Easily, combined time adds another 30 – 45 min to the over all time Overall time is 2hrs 45 min, not 1 hr 40 min.
Started @ 6, with the pot heating up as I started… Sat down to eat @ 9 pm.
It was good… But time posted is not correct!
Hi Cynthia, I understand. Pressure cooker recipes, even from my Nana’s era, state the actual cook times. It needs time to come to pressure, yes, and that time will vary by elevation, how full the pot is, temperature, etc. Restarting the veggies should have been much quicker as the contents were already hot. If you are new to pressure cooking, then this might have been frustrating for you. Thank you for your feedback, and I will look into a way to add in some average “resting” times.
Made this the other day. 5 lb roast, cut in half, on high pressure for 105 minutes. Used one Guinness and 3 cups beef broth. It was all delicious, but beer foam did spurt out all over the place when pressure was released.
Hi Mike, that’s no fun. Two ways to counteract that issue is to 1) Let the pot do the natural release, and 2) when you release the remaining pressure, do it in short bursts, until you can be sure that only steam will be coming out. I call it a controlled release. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe, and hope that tip helps.
Can anyone tell me if cooking the veggies after the corned beef should be at low or high pressure?
They are cooked at high pressure.
Hi – Just wondering if you place the brisket on the rack in the pot or if you don’t use the rack at all.
Thank You!
Hi Neil, I do not use a trivet/rack with this recipe.
It’s in the pot now. 56 more minutes to go on initial cooking time, and I can’t wait! It’s been years since I had corned beef and cabbage, and just think about the Reuben sandwiches tomorrow!
Woo hoo! Enjoy!