This tender, beer-infused Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Using the pressure cooker function makes it easy and convenient to cook a traditional corned beef dinner in less time. For a recipe without an Instant Pot, try my Beer-Braised Corned Beef.
This reader-favorite recipe was originally published on March 3, 2018. We’ve updated this post in 2022 with additional cooking tips and photos.
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Why Make Corned Beef and Cabbage in the Instant Pot?
Adapting my Beer Braised Corned Beef for the Instant Pot was one of the first things I had in mind when I bought it. We were not disappointed! The pressure cooker corned beef, infused with aromatic pickling spices and lager, was tender, succulent, and full-flavored.
Instant Pot Corned Beef is a one-pot dinner that saves you about an hour of time from start to finish, as compared to braising in the Dutch oven. In comparison to crockpot corned beef recipes, which can take up to 8 hours, it’s substantially quicker.
What You’ll Need to Make Instant Pot Corned Beef
- 4-pound Corned Beef Brisket. You’ll find Corned Beef (salt-cured brisket) in flat and point cuts at the market. You can use either for this recipe, but I most often buy flat cut. (To read about the difference between the cuts check out Brisket: Flat Cut vs. Point Cut from Cuisine at Home.)
- Lager-style Beer. As with my Beer Braised Corned Beef, I prefer to use a lager that isn’t too strong or hops forward. I most often use a bottle of Samuel Smith Pure Brewed Organic Lager or Sam Adams Boston Lager.
- Water. To help pressurize the pot and draw salt out of the corned beef as it cooks.
- Pickling Spice. A classic mixture of whole spices such as cinnamon, peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves, bay leaves, ginger, and coriander. If your corned beef comes with a spice packet, you can substitute it for the pickling spice.
- Yellow Onion and Garlic. Adds additional flavor the braising liquid. Peel and slice the onion, and peel the garlic cloves, leaving them whole.
- Carrots, Potatoes, and Cabbage. Make this a one-pot corned beef and cabbage dinner! I like to use baby carrots and creamer potatoes (red and/or yellow, about the size of golf balls), in addition to a wedged head of green cabbage.
I developed this recipe using a 6-quart Instant Pot; specifically, the 6-quart Duo Plus. I find that using the included handled trivet makes it easier to remove the tender brisket from the insert after cooking.
How to Make A Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner
Prepping the Brisket
Before cooking, rinse the corned beef thoroughly with cool water (2-3 times) to remove excess salt from the surface. I don’t recommend trimming the fat cap before cooking. The fat adds flavor and moisture to the meat, and can be trimmed before serving, if needed.
Add the sliced onions, garlic cloves, pickling spices, and water into your Instant Pot insert. Place the rinsed corned beef (fat side up) onto the trivet that came with your Instant Pot.
Nestle the trivet into the pot, and pour the beer over the brisket. Check the level of the liquid in the insert before sealing the pot; it should reach up the sides of the brisket.
Note: The amount of water you need may vary by your brisket’s dimensions. While the Instant Pot might only need 1 to 1-½ cups of liquid to pressurize, this is not enough to draw the salt out of the meat. Adjust the quantity of water as needed, but don’t exceed the insert’s fill line.
Pressure Cooking the Corned Beef
For a 4-pound corned beef, we like the texture of the meat best when cooked at high pressure for 85 minutes, with a 20-minute natural release. The meat comes out fork-tender, but still sliceable against the grain without falling apart.
Adding about 15 minutes to the cooking process for the Instant Pot to heat up to pressure, the corned beef itself takes about 2 hours total.
We always make a corned beef around 4 pounds to ensure leftovers for sandwiches and corned beef hash, but if you make a much smaller brisket, it will likely need a shorter cooking time. We’ve found 70 minutes at high pressure to be sufficient for 2 pound briskets, with a 15 minute natural release.
Remove the cooked corned beef from the Instant Pot, and strain the cooking liquid, discarding the pickling spices and solids. Place the corned beef in a dish with a bit of the strained cooking liquid and cover with foil to keep the meat warm and juicy.
Cooking the Potatoes, Carrots, and Cabbage Wedges
Adding vegetables to an Instant Pot corned beef dinner is a breeze. I love the flavor that the pressure cooker infuses into the vegetables from the beer-based cooking liquid. I don’t usually get that excited about boiled or steamed cabbage wedges, but I really enjoy the flavor of these.
Add 1-½ cups of the strained cooking liquid back into the Instant Pot insert, layering in the carrots, potatoes, and cabbage wedges. Cook the vegetables on high pressure for 3-4 minutes, with a manual (quick) release.
Serving Your Corned Beef Dinner
When ready to serve, slice the corned beef against the grain into ⅛ to ¼-inch slices. Check Out: Here’s How (and Why) to Slice Meat Against the Grain from Kitchn.
If there is a substantial fat cap on the corned beef, you might want to trim it down or remove it entirely before slicing. This is entirely a matter of personal preference. We like to serve the brisket with some of the fat left on.
When serving, spoon a little bit of the strained cooking liquid over the sliced corned beef on the platter, and offer guests whole grain mustard on the side. I treat the vegetables to a light drizzling of melted butter and sprinkle them with chopped fresh parsley for a pop of color and freshness.
Have leftovers? Try making my Corned Beef Hash and Eggs for breakfast, Reuben Sandwiches, or Deli-Style Corned Beef Sandwiches for lunch!
More of our Favorite St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
- Roasted Cabbage Wedges
- Cabbage and Leek Colcannon
- Stout Beer Braised Short Ribs (Dutch oven or Instant Pot)
- Irish-American Soda Bread
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Corned Beef
Ingredients
- 1 small yellow onion , sliced (use ½ if large)
- 4 cloves garlic , peeled and lightly smashed with the back of a knife
- 2 tablespoons pickling spice
- 2-½ cups water
- 4 pound corned beef brisket , rinsed
- 12 ounces lager-style beer (nothing too bitter)
- 1 pound tiny potatoes (about 1-½ inches in diameter), or red-skinned potatoes cut into 1-½ inch wedges
- 1 head cabbage , cut into 8 wedges
- 1 pound baby carrots
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley , for garnish
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted (optional)
- grainy mustard , for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Combine onion, garlic, pickling spices, and water in the insert of a 6-quart Instant Pot. Place the corned beef brisket, fat side up, on a rack on top of the onions. Pour beer over the brisket.
- Seal lid and set the unit to HIGH pressure for 85 minutes. Let pressure release naturally for 20 minutes, then manually release the remaining pressure.* Remove corned beef and place on a dish or a cutting board, spooning a bit of the cooking liquid over the top. Cover with foil to keep warm.
- Strain cooking liquid and discard solids. Return 1-½ cups of liquid to the Instant Pot and add potatoes, carrots, and cabbage wedges. (Reserve remaining cooking liquid.) Seal lid and set the unit to HIGH pressure for 3-4 minutes, depending on how soft you like your vegetables. Quick release pressure.
- Slice corned beef against the grain. Spoon a little bit of the reserved cooking liquid over the corned beef slices on your platter. Sprinkle parsley over the vegetables, and if desired, drizzle with melted butter. Serve corned beef with mustard.
Marilyn Morgan says
Hi from Anchorage. I can’t take a picture because it all got eaten right away, but I will say it was delicious. The texture was wonderful and the onion / garlic / pickling base made for a beautiful infusion. And my main beef with corned beef is that it’s too salty, but this was not at all! We served it with a wonderful beet mustard that we made from this cookbook (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Preservation-Pantry/Sarah-Marshall/9781682450062) and it was perfect. Thank you for sharing your experience and expertise. I don’t enjoy most food blogs (too gushy and verbose) but I do like yours.
Gayle says
I made this using Yuengling Black & Tan beer and added rutabagas. It was delicious! As a few other people have mentioned, I rinsed the meat first to tone down the saltiness. I did veggies after the meat finished cooking, using Yukon gold potatoes cut into quarters, regular sized carrots peeled and chunked, celery and the rutabagas – all on 12 minutes with quick release pressure. My mother, my son, and I all thoroughly enjoyed it! The cabbage was outstanding- my favorite part! The meat was also fantastic, but hard to mess up a corned brisket, in my opinion.
Denise Noriega says
Hello! Have you ever tried it with a frozen corned beef?!
Striped Spatula Team says
Hi Denise, we haven’t tried this with a frozen brisket, so we can’t speak from experience on it! Given the thickness, we’d be inclined to fully defrost it before cooking it in the Instant Pot.
Ryan says
Best IP corned beef & veggies recipe I’ve made. Tried plenty and this is the one I’ll use from now on. Others were cooked at 90 minutes, found it was too long and meat shredded. Others had 4 cups liquid & was too much and caused a mess with QR when veggies were done. To combat salt, I rinsed and patted dry a 3.75lb corned beef. Used Guinness without any mess or letting it go flat. Added more spices as suggested, 2 bay leaves, pinch of cloves, cinnamon stick, and a pinch of allspice. Perfect! Thank you!
Kelley says
This Instant pot recipe is the absolute best! My daughter said it was the best corned-beef she’s ever had! We went to three different restaurants on St. Patrick’s Day and none of us were satisfied… so I made it for them last night! The only thing I changed was adding three large chunks of chorizo to the onion, garlic and water broth, spicing it up PERFECTLY! I will never make it any other way again.
Jeanine A. Moore says
Made this and it was fantastic! Will be making it again. My husband who is Irish loved it. The meat was easily sliced, did not fall apart and it wasn’t dry at all. The veggies were cooked just right. I used whole carrots cut into 2inch pieces. I also added rutabaga cut into 1 I have pieces. Small red potatoes. Cabbage cut into 6 pieces. All were perfectly cooked.
Kathy says
Hello All,
I just made this recipe this afternoon and everything turned out great! I’ll be making this again,,,
Kathy G
Staci says
Made this last night and it was excellent. My husband adores cabbage so I actually bought a second corned beef. I saved the sauce for leftovers and can’t wait to have them this afternoon.
Curious, what pickling spice do you use?
Striped Spatula Team says
We’re so glad you and your husband liked the recipe, Staci! We really liked the cabbage prepared this way – it seemed so much more flavorful than stovetop. Amanda generally uses the pickling spice from Savory Spice Shop. (savoryspiceshop.com), though she also uses McCormick’s when she hasn’t been able to get to the spice shop. We love how fresh the spices are at Savory and that they’ll jar them fresh for you!
Malea Willmarth says
I made this tonight and we loved it, the meat was very tender and cooking the vegetables separate was awesome- my husband said wow the carrots taste like carrots and the cabbage was delicious! We were previously making it all in the crock pot and everything tasted the same. Great recipe, will definitely make this a new tradition! Thanks!
BB says
Fantastic, turned out great!
Eileen says
Made this tonight for St. Patty’s Day! It was incredibly delicious and came out perfect! The only change I made was to cut full size carrots vs use baby carrots. I love that the recipe calls for using a 4 lb corned beef to have leftovers! So easy and fast in the Instant Pot! The best Corned beef we have ever had! Thank you ????
Kandy says
Wow, best corned beef ever. We only had the pickling spice package that was included with the meat, and we did not have any beer, so I used 14 oz of high quality beef stock. I am so accustomed to mixing it all together in a slow cooker or a roasting pan….happy to say that this was so much better!
Kandy says
I also used the remaining liquid as a based for my vegetable soup, which is alsready finished and cooling. Left just a small amount for reheating the corned beef.
Striped Spatula Team says
We’re thrilled to know that you enjoyed the recipe, Kandy! We, too, were so pleasantly surprised by the results in the Instant Pot. So tender! Love the sound of a bowl of vegetable soup on a cold day, too!
Kip says
Had this today and it turned out perfect. Must have read a half dozen recipes before deciding on this one. Used 1 bottle Guiness Stout. Had 3 cups of liquid left over that I had to throw out. Next time I wonder how cooking some of it down on the sauté function would work. I did the 80 minutes and 20 NPR and it could be cut without shredding but was tender. Perfect.
Thank you.
Striped Spatula Team says
Hi Kip, we’re so glad to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! Personally, we wouldn’t recommend reducing the cooking liquid on the sauté function, as it’s quite salty and that flavor will become even more concentrated. We like to save some of the leftover cooking liquid in a container to use when reheating leftovers on the stove for sandwiches—-a little added to a sauté pan with the sliced meat helps it steam up juicy! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Loopy says
This looks incredible. Thank you for the detailed write up. I will give it a shot tomorrow.
A question on the beer foaming, could you use a beer that has been flattened (poured into glasses until it stops bubbling)?
Striped Spatula Team says
This is a great question, and one that our taste testers wondered about as we were working through the recipe with our various briskets. While we didn’t pour it into a glass, the beer that was poured into the instant pot for the video did sit in there for a good bit of time and flatten before we continued with the recipe (just from the time it takes to stop and adjust lighting and camera settings for the different shots in a video). Even so, we still got a bit of liquid from the valve on the release. We think it has a lot to do with the quantity of liquid in the pot (unfortunately, with a smaller quantity, we found the beef almost inedibly salty). If you try pouring the beer in a glass first we’d love to know the results!
Loopy says
Thank you,
The corned beef got rave reviews. It not only looked fantastic but it was delicious. The leftovers were even wonderful on a sandwich a day later.
Flattening the beer seems to have worked. I poured the bottle into a 4 cup measuring cup, from about a foot above the measuring cup. I waited for the foam to go mostly away and then poured into a 16 oz cup, going back and forth until it stopped foaming for the most part. It took about 10 transfers of the beer.
I couldn’t stay to watch it cook, so I put the instant pot in the sink just in case, and set it on a 3 hour delay. There was no evidence of any overflow in the sink or anywhere on the instant pot.
For what it is worth, I used a bottle of Moose Drool brown beer from the Big Sky Brewing Company. It scores a 26 on the IBU scale, which goes from a low of 5 to a puckerng 120.
Tami Tilkin says
OMG, this was hands down the best corned beef I have ever made. Thank you so much for the recipe! A couple of quick notes: I used Abita Amber beer. When I removed the corned beef from the Instant Pot, I covered it, and let it rest for a few minutes. While it was resting, I preheated my oven to broil, and prepared a glaze of: 2 T. melted butter, 1/3 c. brown sugar, 1 T. mustard, 1/3 c. ketchup, and 3 T. cider vinegar. I removed the fat cap from the corned beef, and put it on a cookie sheet covered with non-stick foil. I rubbed the glaze all over, and broiled for a minute or two, drizzled some more glaze, and broiled it again for a couple of minutes, repeated a third time, and then let it rest for 10 minutes or so before slicing. Besides the fact that this was the most mouth-watering, tender, corned beef I have ever eaten, I could have just made a meal of the veggies, which were *perfect* (pressure set at 4″, quick release).
Tina says
Those are all great notes on cooking this in an instant pot. I can see how it would cut down on the cooking time. It looks amazing in the pictures and I can just tell it’s fork tender, I’m a little biased because I love Irish recipes. This reminds me of when Dad would cook this on Sundays. I have very fond memories of this recipe, thank you for sharing!
Jennifer says
This looks absolutely delicious! I loved all of your tips for releasing the pressure. That part is super confusing when you first start experimenting with the Instant Pot. Cooking the vegetables in those juices must give it incredible flavor. I can not wait to eat this on St. Patrick’s Day!
Monica says
This looks amazing, and I just love your photos of the process and ingredients. I feel like I’m right there in the kitchen with you, even though I can only dream of that! :)
Sarah says
This was such an interesting read! I love how well you’ve tested the Instant Pot version vs the braised version- it makes total sense that you’d need to increase the spices and decrease the liquid, since I’m sure less liquid evaporates while cooking. And you really performed a miracle with those photos- I’ve never seen corned beef look so gorgeous!
Leslie Haasch says
Man oh man… corned beef is one of those things I save to eat once or twice a year, but just looking at these pictures makes me want to add it to the rotation more often!