An easy Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe, made with all the traditional fixings, comes out so tender and delicious!
INSTANT POT CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE
Growing up, I remember my dad making Corned Beef and Cabbage every year on St Patrick’s Day. Funny enough, my mom is the one with the Irish heritage, but I only have memories of my dad making it and as a kid, I did not appreciate the effort enough. But as an adult I love tender corned beef and cabbage – esp around St. Pat’s!
Traditionally, Corned Beef and Cabbage is a boil of corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. The traditional boil method takes anywhere from 2 1/2-3 hours, and then you can broil the corned beef brisket for a few minutes, and honestly, as a Florida girl, I just have zero desire to have anything on the stovetop or oven that long.
But I still want to celebrate and that’s where my Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker) comes in handy for this recipe! Let the Instant Pot do its thing while you do something else and your kitchen doesn’t get hot. Yes, Corned Beef and Cabbage in your Instant Pot is the way to go!
I like to turn leftover corned beef into a corned beef hash the next day or reuben stuffed potatoes!
ingredients to make corned beef in the instant pot
You only need a few ingredients to make a tender, flavorful corned beef and cabbage dinner in your electric pressure cooker. I like to add onions, garlic and beef broth as aromatics to lend extra flavor.
If you’re following a low-carb lifestyle, you can omit the potatoes and carrots.
HOW LONG DOES CORNED BEEF TAKE IN THE INSTANT POT
Depending on the texture you prefer, your corned beef brisket should take anywhere from 90-120 minutes, which will save you at least an hour or more using the Instant Pot. And bonus: no need to turn on the stove or oven!
- The cook-time for pressure cooker corned beef and cabbage in an electric pressure cooker (like your Instant Pot) is 70-90 minutes, depending on the size of your brisket.
- Your pressure cooker needs time to build, well pressure, which will take 8-10 minutes.
- And then you will allow the pressure cooker to naturally release for 5 minutes.
Let’s talk texture:
- sliced: If you cook a 3-4 lb Corned Beef in the Instant Pot and you want it tender, but still pliable and easy-to-slice, set on manual high for 75 minutes.
- shredded: If you cook a 3-4 lb Corned Beef in the Instant Pot and you want a more shredded texture, set on manual high for 90 minutes.
After your corned beef is ready, you’ll then add in your carrots, potatoes and cabbage (in that order) for 3-minutes on HIGH.
I don’t recommend cooking the vegetables with the corned beef as they will turn out very mushy and generally not edible.
I think the reason I didn’t enjoy Corned Beef and Cabbage much as a kid, was because the corned beef always tasted SO salty to me – which makes sense considering it’s a cut of beef that’s been cured with salt for days. I highly suggest rinsing your corned beef brisket before cooking in your pressure cooker for a more balanced flavor.
Serve this Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner on a platter and let everyone dig in! I like to serve with stone ground mustard and horseradish sauce on the side for dipping – enjoy!
other instant pot recipes you need
Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 pound corned beef brisket, plus pickling spice packet,
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 pound baby potatoes, sometimes called "new" potatoes - omit for keto
- 4 large carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces - omit for keto
- 1 medium green cabbage, cut into 2-inch wedges
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- whole grain mustard, to serve - optional
- horseradish sauce - optional
- fresh parsley, chopped - optional
Instructions
- Rinse brisket with cold water and thoroughly pat dry.
- Place trivet into a 6 or 8 quart electric pressure cooker. Place sliced onions into pressure cooker, and place brisket on top of the onion mixture. Top with garlic and pickling spices. Pour in 2 cups of beef broth.
- Select manual/pressure cook setting on high pressure. Set cook time for 70-90 minutes (see note below).
- Once cook time has elapsed, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes. Then do a quick release of any remaining pressure – there will be some steam left when you quick release.
- Remove brisket from the Instant Pot and place on serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
- Reserve 2 cups cooking liquid in the Instant Pot, discard the remaining liquid.
- Add baby potatoes and carrots and top with cabbage. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Thinly slice corned beef against the grain and serve with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired and serve with stone ground mustard.
Notes
- If you cook a 3-4 lb Corned Beef in the Instant Pot and you want it tender, but still pliable and easy-to-slice, set on manual high for 75 minutes.
- If you cook a 3-4 lb Corned Beef in the Instant Pot and you want a more shredded texture, set on manual high for 90 minutes.
Nutrition
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Everything turned out great, easy recipr
Happy to hear it, Elizabeth!
My brisket was 2.3 lbs so I reduced the cooking time to 70 minutes instead of 75 as stated in the Notes. The corned beef came out a little tough! What can I do to the leftover slices of corned beef to make them more tender?
Hi Marie! Two ways you can tenderize the leftovers: in a skillet you can warm on med-low with a splash of broth or water and cover for 15-20 minutes. That should create enough steam and heat to help break it down a bit more. You can also use the Instant Pot again for 5 minutes and let the steam release naturally for 5 minutes. If you go this way, I’d make sure to use the trivet and 1 cup liquid to build enough pressure. If the leftovers are sliced, they should still be fine on the trivet. Please let me know how the leftovers go – would love to hear what you did!
What if I didn’t put enough liquid?
Hi Samantha, how much liquid did you use?
Delicious and easy!
Thanks for the review, Thad. Glad you liked!
Is there a horseradish dip that you recommend? Thank you.
Hi Susan, I like the Inglehoffer Cream Style Horseradish, which is the same brand mustard I like for this corned beef – you should be able to find at any grocery store. If you’re looking for a homemade horseradish, I don’t have a recipe but if that’s something you’re looking for, feel free to reply and I’ll try to make one this winter for the blog!
Hi Susan, if you’re planning to make this corned beef and cabbage again this year, I now have a horseradish dip you might want! https://www.casadecrews.com/easy-horseradish-sauce/ – cheers!
Made this on St. Patrick’s Day 2025 and my wife and I LOVED it. I’ve done CB&C in my 6 qt. Instant Pot before, but it involved cooking all ingredients at once and it ended up like cabbage soup. THIS RECIPE keeps the meat separated from the liquid and preserves the distinct flavors of the vegetables and allows you to easily choose whether to add the cooking liquid to any or all of the food as you plate it. We will definitely use this recipe again.
Thank you for the review, Ron! I am so glad it worked out for you!
This was a great guide for cooking corned beef in the IP. My only questions in following the recipe were:
1. Where do you use the 2 cups of reserved liquid?
and 2. Do you remove the grate before cooking the vegetables?
I did remove the grate, and I did add the 2 c. liquid back to the pot before cooking the veggies.
Everything turned out great! but missing these details might throw someone who isn’t super familiar with cooking with an IP.
Thanks for the recipe!
I tried this, and it was delish. The person who said 2 cups of broth was not enough must have had a huge roast. You have to adjust the liquids to the size of your roast.
Delicious, but I started making this about 15 minutes too late because the time listed is not what the directions tell you. There is a note, but I was budgeting based on the time allotted.
I’ve always made my corned beef in the slow cooker but I got a late start this year and found this recipe. Must say – this may be the best Corned Beef and cabbage meal I’ve ever made. (X onions – never been onion fan so opted those out) Well done Nichole!! Now I don’t want to have to wait until next year for my St Pattys Day treat. Everything was perfection!
Erin, your review made my day. So glad you enjoyed it!
What happens to the onions? Are they kept in all the way through and cooked with the other vegetables??
Hi, the onions are more of an aromatic for the meat and veggies and you can either discard at the end or spoon over with the broth when serving!
Making this today as written 🤞
Hope you enjoy!
Recipe looks fab -Do you remove the trivet before placing the veggies?
Hi Barb. Leave the trivet in for the veggies so they don’t steam directly in the broth. Hope you enjoy!
Oops. Wish me luck i didn’t leave the trivet or cut down on the broth
Thank you for the easy to follow recipe. I enjoyed how simple it was to prepare (saw what I did there) and how tasty it is. Much appreciate it.
I spent my free time listening to music and chatting with the wife. Thank you!
Love that you had free time while this recipe did its thing, Daniel! Thanks for your review
This was my first time making corned beef, myself! It’s my husband’s favourite meal, so he’s generally the one who makes it. He was having a bad week and I wanted to cheer him up. I’m so glad that I used this recipe! He said that it turned out excellent and he liked it better than what he normally does. We’ll be using this recipe from now on! Thank you so much.
Also, I was reading the other reviews, and I saw someone say that 2 cups of broth wasn’t enough – it was the perfect amount, so I don’t understand that. I still had more than enough liquid leftover to cook my vegetables.
Delicious and very simple!
Jamie, You’ve made my day with your comment! Thank you for the feedback and I’m glad it was husband-approved (and that you had plenty of broth left!)
2 cups of liquid was nowhere near enough. The broth burned in the bottom of my pot. I’m so glad that the meat was sitting on a trivet otherwise it would’ve been ruined. That withstand the meat still tasted OK and was tender.
Hi, Nancy. Oh no! I’m sorry to hear your pot burned. I’ve never had that happen and two cups is enough when I make this recipe every year. Curious if there was still liquid in the pot when it was done cooking? The only thing I can think of is if the seal wasn’t closed completely and the pot was unable to build enough pressure? Glad the meat was still enjoyable!
2 cups should be plenty in an instant pot. I’ve never had an issue.
Sorry to hear that. This happened to me once with a first IP recipe. After thinking it through I determined the vent was not sealed
Nichole, This recipe for insta pot is GOLDEN! Bring retired I am responsible for the dinner meal . Cooking dinners my wife grew up enjoying is my primary goal and your corned beef recipe was a major hit. I prefer to cook it so that we can slice the beef for Ruben sandwiches. Thank you again. Lancev
Lance, SO glad to hear it was a hit at home! Thank you for making Rubens for your wife with this corned beef recipe! Had to stop and read your comment to my family as it made us all smile. I make Ruben stuffed potatoes with this meat, but will need to make the sandwich soon!
Very good recipe. I’ve been cooking corn beef for my family for years. It was delicious. I love my instant pot and I love your recipe. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed Terri!
It’s a wonderful recipe and was very complete! Thank you 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you, Heather! So glad you enjoyed!
The recipe is missing a lot of key points like how .any potatoes and what do you do with the mustard along with much more. It would be nice to get a full recipe.
Hi, V. The recipe states how many potatoes are suggested for this recipe (one pound) in the recipe card. The mustard also states it is an optional side for dipping (and is also shown in the images and video as a side for dipping – it is not part of the recipe to make the corned beef in the Instant Pot.) Thanks.
There is Always at least 1 ! I think you did a great job, Thank you very much !!!
Ps. It was delicious 😋
Thank you, Bridgette! So glad it was delicious!