Why only cook corned beef once a year? It is so darn delicious and simple in the Instant Pot! Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage is going to be your new go to from here on out!
My house is a weird house. Corned Beef is a staple, not just on St. Patrick’s Day! We love it for some reason. I usually stock up my freezer when they go on sale around St. Patrick’s Day then cook them through out the year. My only complaint about cooking yummy corned beef is how LONG it takes both in the crock pot or on the stove.
With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I figured, what better time to conquer Corned Beef and Cabbage in my love (AKA the Instant Pot)! I refuse to be standing over the stove our hovering over the crock pot!
As with everything that goes along with the Instant Pot, it was a bit of a learning process at first to prefect corned beef and cabbage. I originally threw everything in the pot and cooked it on manual for 45 minutes. As you can imagine, my 2.5 pound corned beef was not done and everything else was just mush.
My second attempt went a little better but was still not up to par. I just looked at these like a learning experience and was able to prefect it the third time around.
Instant Pot frozen corned beef and cabbage turns out great! Same timing when using a Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express pot too. Comes out moist and fork tender every single time.
If you’ve had an UH OH moment and suddenly need instructions on how to cook Instant Pot frozen corned beef, we’ve got it. No shame in being forgetful, I do it all the time. After you try this and love it, give out other easy Instant Pot recipes a shot too. (affiliate links present)
You can use any brand of pressure cooker you have. Crockpot Express, Mealthy, Ninja Foodi, they all work just the same basically and all have the high pressure function.
You may have made our Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage in the past, but now it was still rock solid! Don’t worry, you just need about 30 more minutes and it will still be delicious for dinner.
Let’s start with a few basic tips:
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have and use for all recipe creations.
Yes! I did this last year when it was after St. Patrick’s Day and they were crazy cheap. I couldn’t pass them up as one was just $5 which was a third of what they were a few days before. I asked the butcher if you could freeze them and he said he does just that all the time.
SO I bought 5 of them and immediately threw them into my deep freeze. One at a time I took them out throughout the year and tried cooking corned beef and cabbage all different ways. Crock pot corned beef brisket used to be my go to so I made that yet again. Love using potatoes as trivets that way and enjoying them for dinner.
Then I made dutch oven corned beef and that was amazing too. All of those were done once it was defrosted. The last one I decided to do it without that step though. That is what brings us here, so I gave it a whirl and what do you know but it turned out great too.
Whether you have a flat cut or point cut (the first is my personal preference), this will work just as well.
Let’s talk about this type of beef shall we? It may be new to you, it was to me once and I never understood the differences by looking at the packages. I’ll say there IS a big one between the two types offered. One is more expensive but SO worth it so just spend the extra few dollars. Flat cut is the way to go 100%.
One is square and the same thickness basically all the way across. There is more fat on this one too which is a plus. Point is just that, shaped as it sounds. Meaning one end is wider and the other gets thinner until it forms into a thin point. Trimmer, many times there isn’t a lot of fat at all on this cut. You want fat to keep this as moist as possible.
Yes, that is what we are going to show you here. Using a pressure cooker is key to it’s success. High pressure will defrost and break down the connective tissues so it becomes tender. Using beer, water or broth will essentially steam it until this brisket becomes moist and delicious.
One big difference between cooking frozen meat vs. fresh is the increase in timing. Because of this I do not add vegetables with it. Another biggie is the texture of the liquid inside of the bag. *Note, it kinda becomes an icky gelatin like feel once the meat is defrosted if you do choose to freeze and thaw out. Don’t worry, just rinse it.
Since an extra half hour is added I knew the potatoes I once used as trivets would disintegrate. It would be better to make roasted potatoes in air fryer separately. I have made many simple cabbage recipes to pair with this once it’s done but pressure cooker fried cabbage is by far our favorite.
A 3.5 pound corned beef brisket was used for this. Pressure cook timing would be appropriate for a 3-4 lb. size. Don’t throw away the pickling spice packet that comes in the bag, you’ll need that. This is what you’re going to need, it isn’t much;
If you really really wanted to add red potatoes to this I would do it differently than if yours were fresh. Instead of sitting the meat on top, set them on the very top out of the liquid. They will cook slower that way and not fall apart as much.
Full instructions and ingredient amounts listed below in the printable recipe card. There is nutritional information listed there too but I would refer to the back of your package for that since they are all slightly different.
The bigger the fat pad the better flavor your piece will have. That will certainly increase the fat content listed though so you’d need to look at the facts on your specific piece for accuracy.
You can make air fryer cabbage in about 15 minutes or follow our Ninja Foodi cabbage recipes to serve on the side. Slow cooker mashed potatoes is another favorite for sure.
If you want to use these instructions to make frozen Ninja foodi corned beef and cabbage that works too. Like I said, it doesn’t matter what brand name yours has on the front of it. I have done it in all 3 different types I have in my pantry. We may have one slice left over at times. I never get rid of it because it saves so well for the next day.
Once it is cooled slide what is left into a baggie. Only slice what you are going to eat because storing a larger piece will keep it very moist. Slide it into a baggie and keep in the fridge until the next day. Either warm it up with some gravy or you can make something wonderful with it.
Of course corned beef hash is an old fashioned favorite and reminds me of being at my Grandmother’s table during the holidays.
Our family favorite is making leftover corned beef soup. It’s kinda’ like a chowder with vegetables and diced potatoes inside. I will tell you it is so amazing that I have cooked this meat just so that I could dice it up and make this soup as a main meal many times! Do you make anything great with it the next day we should try too?
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Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage Cooking TimesWe will be using Instant Pot
70 minutes in the Instant Pot will produce a wonderful flavor and tender. Yet still firm in texture, which is ideal in my opinion. However, if you want corned beef to be even more tender, go up to 90 minutes, but not more than that.
Why make corned beef in the Instant Pot?
Are you tired of boiling your corned beef and cabbage for 3 hours on the stove top? Then you will be impressed by the hands off approach in this Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe.
Namely, you won’t have to continuously check on your boiling pot throughout the day. In addition, you will not have a messy stove top at the end. Goodbye time-consuming and complex way of cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage! And Hello Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage!
Corned beef is a salt-cured beef brisket, soaked in the flavors brine and seasonings. It’s called corned beef because of the large grained rock salt, called salt corns that are used to preserve it.
Place the brisket in the Instant Pot on the lift-out rack. If there is a fattier side, put that side facing down.
Sprinkle the seasonings evenly on top of the brisket.
Add whole garlic cloves on top of the meat in order to infuse beef with garlic flavor directly. I discarded garlic after pressure cooking, but you can definitely eat that garlic. You can also add garlic in to the water instead of placing it on top of the beef.
- Pour in water around the edges of the Instant Pot, making sure to keep the spices on top of the brisket in place.
- Secure lid, move steam vent to “Sealing” and select “Manual” or “Pressure Cook”.
- Set time to “01:30” (or 90 minutes).
- Select “High Pressure”. The digital display will show “On”.
- Keep in mind that we are starting out with the Instant pot cold. Additionally, we just added 4 cups of water to it and a huge chunk of cold meat. Therefore it will take about 15 minutes for it to come to pressure. So when it stands there doing seemingly nothing for the first 5 minutes – don’t panic because it’s perfectly normal. After about 5 to 10 minutes, you will hear hissing and see steam coming out. Next the red pin will pop out and 2 minutes later you will hear one beep.
- The countdown will start now at “01:30”, while “On” on the Digital Display will disappear! The pressure cooking has began!
- Once done, use Quick Pressure Release method to release pressure.
As you can tell I filled my Instant Pot to the top and you can’t even see any liquid. I used 1 head of green cabbage and quartered it. I didn’t cut the potatoes and cooked them whole.
Ready to celebrate St. Patrick’s day with the Instant Pot version of Corned Beef and Cabbage? The Irish people from the 17th century could not envision how this revolutionary method of making their signature dish would change things for the better for their descendants!
FAQ
Can you put a frozen corned beef in a pressure cooker?
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