Best Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe

I’m telling you, corned beef and cabbage is so easy to make at home. I’m doing it twice—on the stove and in the slow cooker. Below, I’ll walk you through both methods exactly as I described them, starting with the stovetop version because I can’t wait to show you just how easy it is. The best part about this recipe is it only has four ingredients!

Stovetop Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients

• Corned beef brisket (about three and a half pounds, with spice packet included)
• • Cut five carrots into large pieces.
• Cabbage (core removed, cut into big chunks)
• Potatoes (small red potatoes; small ones added whole, larger ones cut in half)
• a little bit of butter
• black pepper
• a little fresh parsley
• a little bit of yellow mustard

Instructions

1. There’s no need to rinse this off—we’re just going to remove it from the package, place it in our pot, cover it with water, and add the spice packet. The spice packet is just simply a combination of mustard seeds, peppercorns, bay leaves, and maybe some dill seeds.
2. We’re going to cover the pot and bring it to a boil, and then we’ll just reduce it and simmer it for a while until the meat is tender. This one is about three and a half pounds, so we’re going to go, you know, just under maybe two and a half, three hours, just letting it simmer while we go about our business.
3. So it’s been about two and a half hours, and I’m about ready to add in my carrots and potatoes. I’ve got five carrots—I’m just cutting them into large pieces—and then I’m using some small red potatoes. You can add the small ones in whole; if they’re a little bit larger, just cut them in half.
4. Then we’re just going to add these to the pot with the corned beef. We’re going to let them cook until they are mostly tender.
5. Once I had the veggies, I left them uncovered and let some of that liquid kind of concentrate those flavors, and we’re just going to cook these until they’re almost tender, and then we’ll add our cabbage in.
6. I want to remove the core and then cut it into large chunks. My kids happen to love braised cabbage, so we constantly do this.
7. All right, here we go—that’s it. However, I tried very hard to just follow the recipe, and you can stop here. I’m just going to flavor it up just a little, how I do when I cook it by itself—I’m just going to top it with a little bit of butter and black pepper.
8. I’m going to cover the chicken so it cooks evenly. This is only going to take about 15 more minutes, and we’ll serve it up.
9. The time has come—look at that. Okay, I’m going to remove the meat; I’m going to let it rest. Okay, I’m going to kind of tint it very lightly just to keep it warm and keep my veggies covered.
10. I’m going to remove some of the fat from the top just so you can see the way the grain runs—it’s going this way, so I’m going to slice against it. Steamy and juicy—my husband is going to be so happy.
11. I finish it off with a little fresh parsley, just like I do when anything has been slow-cooked, and a little bit of yellow mustard.
12. Let’s go in for the perfect bite—a little dip in the mustard, a little bite of cabbage. [Applause] There are only four ingredients!

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Slow-cooker corned beef and cabbage

Ingredients

• • Corned beef brisket (included with a spice packet)
• onion
• carrot
• potatoes
• Cabbage (cut into chunks smaller than the stovetop version, or a bag of shredded coleslaw mix)
• some water
• a beer

Instructions

1. • For the slow cooker, the preparation is slightly different but still equally straightforward. The onion, carrot, and potatoes will go in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. We’re going to add in some water and our beef, then we’re going to pour in a beer and add that spice packet.
3. Cover and crank it up to high for about eight hours.
4. Whenever the meat is tender in the slow cooker, we’re going to add our cabbage and go for about another 45 minutes or so. The smaller you cut your cabbage, the faster it’s going to cook, so I’m going to cut these chunks just a little bit smaller than the ones I put on the stove. You could even make this effortless and just pick up a bag of shredded coleslaw mix.
5. And with the cabbage, let’s check this guy out—I’m going to turn off the crock pot, and I’m going to remove it just like I did the one from the pot. Can I let him rest for about 10 to 15 minutes? This will ensure that the veggies stay nice and warm.
6. And we’ll do the same thing—look at that. You would never think meat that just simmers or kind of boils in water basically could be this flavorful, but it is.
7. Let’s give her a taste—here we go. This is so good.

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