Instant Pot Corned Beef is easy to make and wonderfully tender and juicy with just 3 ingredients. The perfect St. Patrick’s Day dinner!
If you’re looking for more tasty Instant Pot Dinners, try my Instant Pot Meatloaf and Instant Pot Beef Roast.
Sabrina’s Instant Pot Corned Beef Recipe
Corned Beef is a signature dish of Irish immigrants to America. This easy Instant Pot cooking process makes it simple enough to enjoy as an easy dinner recipe. No need to save this flavorful dish just for St. Patrick’s Day!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3 cups beef broth
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 3 pounds corned beef brisket , (with spice packet)
Instructions
- Add the steam rack to your instant pot with the handles facing up.
- Pour beef broth into the pot and add the corned beef.
- Top with minced garlic.
- Season with a spice packet.
- Close, lock the lid, and seal the vent.
- Cook on high for 60 minutes, then naturally release the pressure.
- Remove corned beef from pot, let rest 5 minutes then slice thinly against the grain.
Nutrition
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Sabrina’s Tips
I’m often asked what the best kind of beef to buy for corned beef is. Tough cuts are great for this recipe, since the pressure cooker (or slow cooker) breaks them down into a tender, juicy meal. The traditional cut of beef is the cow’s breast meat, called brisket. Another cut, the rump cap (aka sirloin cap, aka picanha), is also a good cut. Or, the bottom round (aka silverside) found just below the rump is great for homemade Corned Beef. The cooking time is the same for all cuts, making them easy to slice for dinner and for lunch sandwiches.
Table of Contents
About this Recipe
Instant Pot Corned Beef is a hassle-free way to make this classic recipe with only a few minutes of time to prepare all the ingredients. All you have to do is season the Corned Beef, then cook it with a flavorful broth. The beef stock will soak into the Corned Beef during the cook time to make a fork-tender, juicy Corned Beef dinner.
Pairing Suggestions
To make this the perfect Irish meal for St. Patrick’s Day, serve it up with some green cabbage and potatoes. The delicious Roasted Cabbage Recipe and Red Potatoes will make the perfect side dishes. Make some Irish Soda Bread to go with it or make things even easier and purchase some rye bread from the store.
How to Store
- Serve: Don’t leave Instant Pot Corned Beef at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Keep it covered when not in use.
- Store: You can keep any leftover Corned Beef sealed in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- Freeze: Freeze the recipe for up to 3 months. You can let it thaw out in the fridge, then reheat in the oven, stovetop, or air fryer.
Frequently Questions
The name actually has nothing to do with the vegetable we call corn. Before the artificial preservatives used today, beef was once preserved almost exclusively with large kernels, or corns, of salt (sometimes along with smoke). These corns of salt have lent their name to this dish.
Corned Beef is not, strictly speaking, Irish; but is associated with the Irish.
While many cultures around the world have preserved their beef with corns of salt for many centuries, Corned Beef probably associates with Ireland because of the Irish immigrants who moved to the USA a century ago. The Irish have a bacon and cabbage dinner that the immigrants here in the USA, with the easily available brisket cuts, make as Corned Beef and cabbage. This became a meal associated with the Irish and their customs of serving it on Saint Patrick’s Day!
You can make it easily in the instant pot or the Slow Cooker. This linked recipe gives the brisket a desirable crispy crust and can be cooked overnight.
Variations
- Seasoning: You can add to the spice mixture by adding some ingredients along with the seasoning packet. Try adding fresh parsley, red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, or bay leaves.
- Mustard: You can also add some mustard over the top of the Corned Beef before cooking. Whole grain mustard, dijon mustard, or spicy mustard would all taste wonderful.
- Vegetables: Try adding some vegetables to the Instant Pot Corned Beef recipe. Chop up a medium onion to put in for flavor. Yellow onions or red onions would both taste good. You could also add a sliced head of cabbage or baby carrots. Toss them in and continue pressure cooking vegetables along with the brisket.
- Cooking Liquid: For a deeper flavor, try adding some dark beer to the recipe. Use a classic Irish beer like a Guinness or any other dark ale. You could also use apple cider vinegar, apple juice, or ginger ale to add some flavor to the beef stock.
- Reuben Sandwich: Corned Beef is the key ingredient to a Reuben Sandwich. While you can always get deli corn beef from the grocery store, it’s so much better to use freshly cooked corn beef. So, if you have any leftovers, be sure to make a delicious Reuben for lunch the next day. Serve it over rye bread with Swiss cheese, Thousand Island dressing, and sauerkraut.
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Photos used in a previous version of this post:
Hi! Please could you provide a list of what goes into the ‘spice packet’, so I can follow this recipe. I have a 2.5kg silverside that I’d like to use. Thank you and best wishes from Australia :-).
The spice packet should at least contain mustard seeds, peppercorn, and bay leaves. Some spice packets will add coriander seeds, whole cloves, and red pepper flakes.
For a 2.5kg piece of beef, you’ll want 1.5 tablespoons of mustard seeds, 1.5 teaspoons of black peppercorns, .75 teaspoon of anise seeds, 10 whole cloves, 5-6 cardamom pods, 5-6 crushed bay leaves, 1 tablespoon ground coriander seeds, and 1.25 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes.
Toast the mustard, peppercorn, anise, whole cloves and cardamom in a skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until fragrant. Then pulse a few times in a spice grinder, making sure that they stay coarse. Finally add the bay leaves, ground coriander, and crushed red pepper flakes to the spice mixture. Use as you would for this recipe. Thank you for reaching out from across the globe, and please let me know how it turns out!
I have 8 qt IP and a 6.5lb corned beef. How long to cook this giant one?
You don’t specify whether to use the Beef setting on the instapot or the custom setting which can be set to one hour.?
Add the corned beef to the pressure cooking pot. Season over the top with your spice packet and minced garlic. Seal the instant pot, and press the manual setting. Set the cooking time to 60 minutes for the Pressure Cooker Corned Beef. While you cook corned beef in the pressure cooker, you can prep the side dishes and other parts of dinner.
Pressure Release: The pressure release is an important step in instant pot recipes. After the cook time, do a natural release instead of a quick pressure release. The remaining pressure in the pot will leave slowly, giving the meat some time to tenderize.
Super easy recipe meat came out delicious! Would recommend. I cooked Corned Beef by itself.
Is cooking time the same for round corned beef- bought accidentally instead of brisket? Also, will it slice thinly- deli style cooked in pressure cooker?
What a great recipe! You didn’t mention when to add the garlic, I guess it is with the spice packet. Also, can it be frozen for only 3 days?
Thank you
Thanks for catching that! Yes, add it in with the spice packet. It should read that it’ll last up to 3 MONTHS (not days, lol) when in the freezer.