This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy.
The fastest way to cook corned beef and cabbage is right in the Instant Pot! This easy one-pot method gives you tender, juicy corned beef and perfectly cooked cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in a fraction of the time it takes with other methods. Serve it with a little rye bread and horseradish sauce for a delicious St. Patrick’s Day meal!
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- The Instant Pot makes cooking an entire corned beef brisket (with sides!) SO quick and easy. Unlike our slow cooker version that takes 8 hours to cook, this version is ready to eat in less than 2 hours!
- It’s a total one-pot meal, so clean up is a BREEZE. That’s right, your entree AND your sides are all cooked right in the Instant Pot. We’ll cook the veggies separately so they’re perfectly tender and not overcooked, but that just takes a few minutes on High Pressure right at the end.
- The leftovers are great for SO MANY things! Sandwiches, tacos, casserole, hash, soup, or just enjoy heaping helpings of corned beef and cabbage for a couple of days. The meat will keep up to 7 days as long as you refrigerate it in an airtight container.
Key Ingredients
Corned Beef Brisket – You can brine your own brisket, but it’s easiest just to get one that’s already brined for you. Just make sure yours comes with a seasoning packet, or you’ll need to pick up some pickling spices, too.
Baby Potatoes – Picture a potato. OK, now shrink it. There you go! Baby potatoes are essentially typical potatoes, they just haven’t grown fully yet when they’re picked. Thanks to their small size, they cook SUPER quickly in the Instant Pot, and come out perfectly tender and creamy.
Chef’s Tips
- Serve your corned beef and veggies with a little rye bread or Irish soda bread and a side of creamy horseradish sauce. All the flavors go together so nicely and really complete the meal.
- For especially thick (or thin) briskets, you may need to adjust the cooking time. In general, I’d recommend an extra 5 minutes for a brisket that’s thicker than 1 ½ inches, and then another 5 minutes for every ½ inch beyond that.
- Always slice your brisket against the grain, a.k.a. perpendicular to the parallel lines of muscle fiber that runs through the meat. This is true for most meats! Cutting against the grain gives you slices of meat that are nice and tender instead of chewy and tough. The grain can run multiple directions in one brisket, so you may need to adjust how you’re cutting.
More Instant Pot Recipes You Need to Make
- Whole30 Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla-Less Soup (Paleo)
- Instant Pot Pork Roast with Carrots, Potatoes, and Gravy
- Extra Cheesy Instant Pot Egg Bites
- Instant Pot French Onion Soup
- Dreamy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Chicken Paprikash
Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Tongs
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds corned beef brisket with spice packet see Notes
- 1 medium onion quartered
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 4 cups cold water
- 1 pound yellow baby potatoes
- 4 large carrots cut into 2" pieces
- 1 head cabbage cut into 8 wedges
Instructions
- Rinse corned beef well under cold water. Add spice packet, quartered onion, and chopped garlic to Instant Pot, then add rinsed corned beef brisket and pour in 4 cups cold water.
- Secure lid on Instant Pot with valve in "sealing" position. Set to Manual High Pressure for 70 minutes. Cook time will begin once Instant Pot is pressurized.
- After cook time is up, Natural Release pressure for 15 minutes, then carefully Quick Release any remaining pressure and remove lid.
- Transfer corned beef brisket to cutting board to rest. Remove 3 cups liquid from Instant Pot, then add potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.
- Replace lid on Instant Pot with valve in "sealing" position and set to Manual High Pressure for 3 minutes. Once cook time is up, carefully Quick Release pressure and remove lid.
- Slice corned beef, cutting against grain, and serve warm with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage.
- Spice Packet: Corned beef briskets usually come with the spice packet. If yours doesn’t, you can buy the pickling spice separately. You’ll need 1 ½ tablespoons pickling spice.
- For especially thick (or thin) briskets, you may need to adjust the cooking time. In general, I’d recommend an extra 5 minutes for a brisket that’s thicker than 1 ½ inches, and then another 5 minutes for every ½ inch beyond that.
- Always slice your brisket against the grain, a.k.a. perpendicular to the parallel lines of muscle fiber that runs through the meat. The grain can run multiple directions in one brisket, so you may need to adjust how you’re cutting.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @40aprons on Instagram and be sure to leave a review on the blog post!
Never Miss A Meal!
New Recipes Straight To Your Inbox
A curated selection of our most recent recipes, delivered straight to your inbox once a week.
Have made this several times and it is always good
So glad you enjoy this recipe! Thanks for sharing, Sheryl 😊
So good and easy; one of the best I’ve ever made!! Thank you for sharing!
So happy to hear that, Karen! Thanks so much for the review!