Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is the best way to cook up a delicious Corned Beef Brisket!  It is super tender and flavorful – the best corned beef ever!  Start to finish it takes just two hours and comes out perfectly every time.  This is the most requested Instant Pot meal in our home!  

We love having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day so much we actually end up making it every few months all year long.  This is one of my husband’s favorite meals.  

You don’t have to be Irish to fall in love with savory Corned Beef Brisket and a plate of delicious vegetables.  We always grab a few extra corned beef briskets on sale after St. Patrick’s Day and freeze them.  They last well in the freezer for up to a year!  

Why Instant Pot Corned Beef & Cabbage?

There is a lot of hype about the Instant Pot brand of pressure cookers.  In the last few years we have learned that there are some things we LOVE to make in the pressure cooker (refried beans with smoked ham hocks!) and some things we don’t.  

Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is one of the best things we use our Instant Pot for!  It definitely falls into the “blow me away” category!

The pressure cooker made the most tender corned beef we have ever eaten.  It was so moist and succulent and the flavor was amazing.  Because the vegetables need to cook for a short time and the meat needs to cook for a long time I thought it might be annoying to go through two cycles.

However, it turned out it was very easy to cook the meat and then use the flavorful broth to cook the vegetables.  Usually when we eat corned beef I spread butter on my vegetables but the pressure cooker made them so full of corned beef flavor I could not imagine ruining it with butter.  If you know how much I love butter you will know this is just about crazy talk…

I loved that the corned beef cooked itself without any fuss or stirring.  And having dinner ready in two hours was amazing!  It was so good we had to cook another just a few weeks later.

Cleaning The Instant Pot Ring After Making Corned Beef and Cabbage

After you cook something like corned beef that is strongly flavored make sure to clean your pressure cooker well.  You should remove the ring and clean it too. 

Storing the lid upside down on the pressure cooker with the ring removed will also help to get good air circulation and make sure lingering odors dissipate.

I bought a set of colored rings on Amazon and I use one just for Corned Beef and I save the other one for things that are not strongly flavored.  Nothing is worse than corned beef flavored oatmeal!  

What Is The Best Way to Cook Corned Beef?  

There are five different ways to cook a corned beef dinner.  There are pros and cons to each but we have clear favorites at this point!  

1. Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage – This is the BEST WAY to cook a corned beef brisket that we have tried.  The results are wonderfully tender and the method is hard to mess up.  The biggest con is that not everybody has an Instant Pot.  
2. Sous Vide Corned Beef:  We got a Sous Vide machine a year ago and have yet to make a corned beef in it!  This is a tragedy because I’m guessing this is amazing.  Everything else comes out magically tender in a sous vide so I have high expectations!  
3. Stove Top Corned Beef Dinner:  You can make a top notch corned beef on the stove top!  The big pro here is everybody has a stove and you don’t need special equipment. Grab my recipe here!  
4. Crock Pot Corned Beef Brisket:  If you have the time to simmer a crock pot of corned beef all day this is an easy win.  The brisket does well with low and slow.  
5. Oven Roasted Corned Beef Brisket:  A friend of mine turned me on to this recently!  You don’t need any special equipment and the corned beef gets these really crispy edges which I LOVE.  The seasoning makes little crunchy bits on the top too that give it a lot of pizzazz.  

Suggested Tools for Instant Pot Corned Beef 

Tools In This Post: You can use any pressure cooker for this recipe but I have included instructions specific to the Instant Pot brand pressure cooker.  Most families find this 6 quart to be perfect.  I have the 8 quart.

Putting the spices in an extra large tea strainer like this one keeps them from getting into everything.  I think it is the easiest way to cook Corned Beef.

Leftover Corned Beef makes great sandwiches or hash (a personal favorite).

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3.90 from 19 votes

Instant Pot Corned Beef Dinner

Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is a wonderfully easy meal that is super tender and flavorful. It is the best way to make Corned Beef Brisket! Start to finish it takes just two hours and comes out perfectly every time. My recipe has some secret spices for that perfect corned beef flavor and I walk you through each step of using the Instant Pot so dinner will be easy.

Course dinner

Cuisine American, Irish

Cook Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours

Servings 8

Calories 450kcal

Author Mirlandra Neuneker

Ingredients

• 1 Corned Beef Brisket with juices 3-4 pounds (flat cut preferred)
• 3 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup pickling spice
• 9-12 small red or white potatoes
• 5 carrots
• 1 green cabbage

Instructions

• Put the corned beef into your Instant Pot with the fat side up. Add the water, butter and cinnamon stick.
• Place the pickling spice into a large tea strainer and submerge in the water next to the beef.
• Put the lid on the Instant Pot in the locked position. Make sure your vent is set to “sealing”.
• Select “Manual setting” and then “+” to increase the cooking time to 60 minutes on High Pressure. The display will show “on” after a few seconds and then the pot is coming up to pressure. Eventually the display will start counting down showing you how much time is left.
• When the pot is done cooking flip the vent to the “venting” position to do a quick release. While the steam is escaping, wash the potatoes. Larger potatoes can be cut into halves or quarters. Peel if desired (I don’t.)
• Peel the carrots and cut into 1” chunks. Remove any outer leaves of the cabbage that are damaged and slice the cabbage into 8 wedges.
• When the release is done, open the pot and use a tongs or spatula to remove the beef and set it on a serving plate. Tent loosely with tin foil.
• Remove the strainer of spices (used spices can now be discarded).
• Place the potatoes and carrots into the juice that remains in the pot. Arrange the cabbage wedges over the top.
• Place the lid back unto the Instant Pot in the locked position and flip the vent back to the “sealing” position.
• Press “Manual” and “+” to increase cooking time to 5 minutes on High Pressure. The display will show “on” after a few seconds and then the pot is coming up to pressure. Eventually the display will start counting down showing you how much time is left.
• When the cooking time is up, flip the vent to “venting” position to do a quick release of the steam.
• Serve the vegetables with sliced corned beef. The leftover broth can be spooned over, saved for soup, or used as a hot drink.

Notes

Every brand of corned beef is seasoned a bit differently. Some have loose spices in with the meat and juices. Some brands just include a packet. Cheaper brands often don't include enough spice or they provide poor quality spice packets. I include my own seasonings in this recipe. It sounds like a lot but the result is not overpowering and it is quite savory. The meat will not taste at all like cinnamon, in fact if you don't say anything nobody will ever know you used the stick but it will taste amazing!

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Instant Pot Corned Beef Dinner

Amount Per Serving

Calories 450

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Corned Beef in the Instant Pot is an easy family dinner.  Don’t forget to save this recipe and make it at other times outside of St. Patrick’s Day!

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This post was originally published in March of 2017. It was updated in February of 2020 to include more information!