Slow Cooker Corned Beef And Cabbage
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Mar. 15, 2024
This Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage is a great all-in-one meal. It’s easy, flavorful, and amazingly fork-tender – perfect for St. Patrick’s Day or any family gathering.
In This Article
- Why This Recipe Stands Out
- What Is Corned Beef?
- Key Recipe Ingredients
- Substitutions And Variations
- Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions
- How To Prep Ahead
- What To Serve With Slow Cooker Corned Beef And Cabbage
- Commonly Asked Questions
- Did you make this?
- Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe
- More To Cook And Eat
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Why This Recipe Stands Out
Corned Beef and Cabbage is a classic, hearty, stick-to-your-bones kind of meal. Here’s why we love making this traditional Irish dish:
- Slow Cooker: We love slow cooker meals that make dinner easy and stress-free, especially when they’re a one-pot, complete meal like this one is.
- Ultra Flavorful: The low-and-slow method the Crockpot uses to cook the corned beef brings out amazing flavors and makes for a super tender cut of meat.
- Easy: This recipe is so easy to make – even down to the spices. Just throw everything in the Crockpot and let it do its magic!
- Beef: If you’ve spent any time around here, you’ll know we love hearty beef recipes that leave you sitting back in your seat, blissfully satisfied. Corned beef, especially, makes for an amazing meal!
What Is Corned Beef?
Corned Beef is beef brisket that has gone through the preservation process. The meat is preserved by adding pink curing salt (which gives it its vibrant color) and different spices. This process also leaves corned beef super tender and flavorful making it the star of popular dishes like Reuben Sandwiches and this slow cooker corned beef.
Key Recipe Ingredients
- Corned Beef – Look for a 4 lb. fresh corned beef brisket, trimmed, with its own separate little spice pack.
- Carrots – As usual, we think easier is better. So we like using baby carrots instead of slicing big carrots.
- Cabbage – We find one head of fresh cabbage is perfect for this corned beef. Although it may seem like a lot of cabbage, it cooks down to a fraction of the original volume. When we sauté cabbage, it shrinks by quite a bit.
- Potatoes – Try getting fingerling potatoes or baby red/gold potatoes. Their small size and inherent tenderness will let you skip any peeling and excess slicing.
- Beer – You’ll need one 6 oz. can of beer; almost any type should work here.
Substitutions And Variations
Take a look at these simple substitutions for Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage:
- Cabbage: Although green cabbage is more traditional, you could absolutely swap it with red cabbage with equally delicious results.
- Parsnips: If you like parsnips, feel free to add these to your corned beef for an added boost of flavor.
- Beef: If you aren’t a fan of corned beef, but sill want to get in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit, try replacing the corned beef with beef brisket. Take a look at this Easy Slow Cooker Smoked Brisket recipe for some tips and tricks on making it.
Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions
- Place carrots and onion in the bottom of slow cooker; place corned beef on top.
- Add beef broth, beer, garlic, peppercorns, and the seasoning packet to the slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 10 hours.
- Add potatoes and cabbage and cook for another 2 hours. Enjoy!
For full list of ingredients and instructions, see recipe card below.
How To Prep Ahead
Believe it or not, there are a few ways you can actually make the prep for this meal even easier than it already is. Check out these simple prep-ahead strategies:
- Slice Veggies: Feel free to slice the cabbage and onions several days in advance. Just store them in separate containers in the fridge until ready to use.
- Halve Potatoes: If you want to cut your potatoes ahead of time, a simple trick is to submerge them in a bowl of water and keep it in the fridge. Just note that it’s best to do this only 1 day in advance.
- Load Slow Cooker – Sometimes we like to just throw everything in the slow cooker the night before and keep it in the fridge. That way, we just need to take it out and plug it in the next morning. (Just don’t add the potatoes or cabbage as those go in later).
What To Serve With Slow Cooker Corned Beef And Cabbage
Potatoes
- Feel free to skip the potatoes in the slow cooker and serve your corned beef with mashed potatoes instead. We love this super easy Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes recipe.
- For a truly sensational potato side, check out this recipe for Creamy Baked Mashed Potatoes.
Bread
- Try serving these Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls with corned beef and cabbage. Warning: They’ll dissapear fast!
- These Honey Cornbread Muffins also go amazingly with this dish.
Desserts
- If you’re serving slow cooker corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day, we highly recommend this Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake for dessert.
- We also think this Chocolate Dump Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting would make an amazing end to this meal.
Commonly Asked Questions
Corned beef and cabbage will stay good in an airtight container in the fridge for around 3 days. After that, you can throw it in the freezer and it will stay fresh for up to 3 months.
While you technically can cook corned beef on high for less time, we highly recommend the full 10-12 hours on low. It makes such a huge difference in the intensity of the flavors and the tenderness of the beef.
Both potatoes and cabbage cook much faster than the other ingredients. So, if we were to put them in right away with everything else, they would get mushy and partially disintegrate. So, we toss them in with 2 hours left so they end up tender but firm.
Beer does a really good job of tenderizing the brisket (which can be a tougher cut of meat if not cooked right). It also adds an amazing depth of flavor. Don’t worry about the alcohol; it completely cooks out.
If you have a meat thermometer, you’ll know it’s done when the internal temperature reaches at least 145 F. Otherwise, the best way to tell that it’s ready is when it’s fork tender. Note that corned beef will still be pink after it’s cooked due to the brine.
Did you make this?
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Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
- ½ lb baby carrots
- 1 whole onion, peeled and sliced thin
- 4 lb corned beef brisket, trimmed, with spice pack
- 4 cups beef broth, regular or low sodium
- 6 oz beer
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1 TB whole peppercorns
- 7 whole fingerling potatoes or baby red/gold potatoes, halved
- 1 head cabbage, sliced
Instructions
- In a large slow cooker, place baby carrots and onion into the bottom. Place corned beef on the veggies.
- Pour in the beef broth over the meat/veggies. Add the beer, garlic, and peppercorns. Sprinkle on the contents of spice pack that came with your corned beef.
- Cover and cook on low for 10 hours. Then add potatoes and cabbage; submerge them in the liquid as fully as possible, and cook 2 more hours on low, for a total of 12 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
Equipment
Notes
- The 12-hour cook time will result in a corned beef that is fork-tender and can easily be pulled apart. If you prefer a firmer texture that you can slice, cook for a total of 9 hours instead of 12.
- Ensure that all ingredients are submerged in liquid so even the cabbage gains incredible flavor.
- Don’t forget: add the potatoes and cabbage only during your last 2 hours of cooking; this is important to prevent them from becoming mushy and too overdone.
- For an amazingly delicious St. Patrick’s Day dessert, check out this Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake.
Nutrition (per serving)
More To Cook And Eat
- Irish Guinness Beef Stew – This stew is unrivaled in tenderness and flavor due to the help of a not-so-secret ingredient.
- Tender Braised Beef Brisket – This recipe offers maximum flavor with minimum effort. The beef brisket turns out tender, succulent, and richly flavorful.
- Slow Cooker Pot Roast – We love making this super tender pot roast on busy weeknights. It’s always a hit!
- Crockpot Beef Stroganoff – Tender, juicy Crockpot Beef Stroganoff tastes like it’s much harder to make than it actually is.