This slow cooker corned beef and cabbage is seasoned corned beef cooked with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. A crock pot meal that’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!
Whether you’re looking to celebrate the Irish holiday or simply want a hearty yet easy meal, this crock pot corned beef is a great choice. Complete your holiday meal with a loaf of Irish soda bread and a Shamrock Shake for dessert!
St. Patrick’s Day is the one day a year that many people flock to the grocery store in search of ingredients for a corned beef dinner. This slow cooker corned beef and cabbage only has a few minutes of active prep work, and produces a festive and delicious meal that the whole family will love!
When you make your St. Patrick’s Day feast, try some of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day recipes like a refreshing Irish mule, stuffed cabbage rolls and Irish stew!
Table of Contents
Slow Cooker Corned Beef Ingredients
To make slow cooker corned beef and cabbage you will need a corned beef brisket, carrots, yellow potatoes, green cabbage, butter, garlic, parsley, salt and black pepper. You may want some grainy yellow mustard to serve with the corned beef.
How Do You Make Slow Cooker Corned Beef?
To make this slow cooker corned beef and cabbage recipe, first take the corned beef out of the package and rinse it off. Pat the corned beef dry and place it fat side up in a slow cooker. Pour the spices from the spice packet over the corned beef. Add cut carrots and potatoes to the crock pot. Pour 3 cups of water in the slow cooker. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook it on low for 6 hours. Add your cabbage to the pot and cook it on low for 2 more hours. Remove everything from the crockpot and slice your beef against the grain. Serve the corned beef on a platter with the potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Whip up a little herb butter for the veggies if you like.
Crock Pot Corned Beef Tips
- This slow cooker corned beef recipe really works best on the low heat setting. I know the temptation is there to crank up the heat and have your meal done in half the time, but you run the risk of a tough corned beef if you do that.
- The potatoes and carrots get quite soft from cooking all day in the crock pot. If you prefer your veggies on the firmer side, try adding them halfway through the cooking time.
- Be sure to slice the meat against the grain for the most tender bites of beef.
- You don’t need to add any extra seasoning to your crock pot other than the packet that comes with the corned beef. The meat is plenty salty to flavor the potatoes and vegetables.
Quick Tip
I recommend putting your meat in the crock pot first thing in the morning to ensure perfection by dinner time.
Recipe FAQs
Corned beef is a beef brisket that soaks in brine and then cures with salt and seasonings. This cut of meat has a distinctive pink color from sodium nitrate which is an ingredient in the curing process. Corned beef comes in multiple cuts, and it’s always best to cook corned beef for a long period of time so that it becomes tender. Typical cooking methods include boiling, slow cooking or oven roasting the meat.
The first step to this recipe is to choose your meat. Most stores sell pre-seasoned corned beef, especially in March. There are a few different cuts of corned beef to chose from, including corned beef round roast, flat cut brisket, and point cut brisket.
Flat cut brisket and point cut brisket tend to be the better corned beef options. I used a flat cut brisket for these photos, as you can see by the uniform size and shape of the slices. Point cut brisket is the fattiest cut, but can also sometimes be the most tender. So it’s really up to you which cut you use!
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Flavor Variations
This slow cooker corned beef recipe is fantastic as written; however, you can modify it to suit your taste.
- Garlic Butter: I like to add a little drizzle of garlic and herb butter over the top of the veggies. It adds a nice finishing touch that you typically don’t see with corned beef meals. Simply mix together melted butter with minced garlic, chopped parsley, salt and pepper or add a little Italian seasoning.
- Leftovers: Corned beef makes for great leftovers. You can enjoy it in sandwiches, corned beef hash or in a reuben dip.
- Spicy: Add some heat with crushed red pepper flakes.
- Veggies: You can add other vegetables like large chunks of onions or celery.
This slow cooker corned beef is on our table every St. Patrick’s Day and we always look forward to it!
More St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
Slow Cooker Corned Beef Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 corned beef brisket 3-5 lbs
- 3 carrots peeled and cut into large chunks
- 3/4 lb small yellow potatoes halved
- 1/2 head green cabbage cut into wedges
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- grainy mustard for serving optional
Instructions
- Remove the corned beef from the package. Rinse with cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
- Place the corned beef brisket (fat side up), carrots and potatoes in a slow cooker. Add 3 cups of water to the slow cooker, plus the seasoning packet that comes in the corned beef package.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours.
- Add the cabbage on top of the corned beef and cook on LOW for another 2 hours.
- Remove the cabbage, corned beef, potatoes and carrots from the slow cooker. Slice the corned beef against the grain.
- Place the butter, garlic, parsley and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments or until melted.
- Drizzle the garlic butter over the carrots, potatoes and cabbage. Place the meat, potatoes and vegetables on a platter and serve with mustard on the side if desired.
Notes
- This recipe really works best on the low heat setting. I know the temptation is there to crank up the heat and have your meal done in half the time, but you run the risk of a tough corned beef if you do that.
- I recommend putting your meat in the crock pot first thing in the morning to ensure perfection by dinner time.
- The potatoes and carrots get quite soft from cooking all day in the crock pot. If you prefer your veggies on the firmer side, try adding them halfway through the cooking time.
Hello. I have a 4-qt crock pot. Would it be too small for this recipe? What size brisket should I get for this to work? I would love to try this recipe since it got good reviews. Thanks!
I’d just cut your brisket into a couple of large pieces so it fits in the pot you have, I’ve done that before with great results!
Where can I buy the beef with the packet?
Almost all corned beef comes with a seasoning packet in the bag. That being said, every corned beef is cured and seasoned, so if there’s no packet it’s not really a big deal!
Absolutely stellar. Every year, it seems like we’re trying something different with our CB&C. This year, my wife really wanted the cabbage in the pot (which I’m not usually a fan of). But we did a quick search, and while the meat/veg part sounded normal, we were intrigued by the garlic butter addition.
Variants I used: 1/3 of my cooking liquid was unfiltered apple cider; I used the smallest baby red potatoes I could find and did not cut them; I added potatoes / carrots at 3 hours remaining and cabbage at 2 hours remaining.
It is now in our recipe manager as ‘the recipe’, and I will hunt no more. Thanks for publishing this.
Can. U. Cook corn beef on. High
Yes, cook it for 5-6 hours on high.
Hi! Excited to try this but I’m a little confused about the time. Is the cooking time for the corned beef total of 6 or 8 hrs? I don’t have the cabbage as of yet so will make seperate later but don’t want to dry out the corned beef? Thanks
The corned beef cooks for 8 hours total, it’s a tough cut of meat and needs a lot of time to get tender!
Will this recipe still work without the potatoes and carrots? Would I need to make any adjustments to the amount of water or cook time? Thanks.
Yes it will work and you shouldn’t need to make any adjustments!
I just put the corned beef in the slow cooker but instead of just water, I combined 2 cups beef broth with 1 cup of water. Does this sound okay?
I wouldn’t use beef broth only because the corned beef is salty enough on its own!
This was a fabulous recipe! I scoured the internet looking for a corned beef and cabbage recipe last night. Every one that I came across had “issues” reported by people having attempted the recipes. “Corned beef too dry, too tough, vegetables not done properly, no flavor” etc. I followed this recipe pretty close to the recommendations. I did add a bottle of beer when I added the water to the beef. I also waited for 4 hours to add the vegetables. They came out perfectly! The cabbage went in 2 hours before completion. All cooked on low for 8 hours total. I was worried that the cabbage would never be done in those 2 hours. Nothing to worry about. It was a big hit! Definitely going to be my “go to” corned beef and cabbage recipe! Thank you!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it, thank you for reporting back!
I added my veggies at beginning before I found this recipe. Can I remove them halfway through so as to avoid mushiness? I’m also afraid I won’t have room for the cabbage at fhe end if I do to!
Yes that’s totally fine!
My corned beef is only 2.5 pounds. Would I adjust this recipe’s time in half to 4 hours total?
I would cook it for a minimum of 6 hours still!
This was amazingly easy & delicious. The corned beef cut with a spoon 😊
Thank you for keeping this so simple
So happy to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for coming back to comment!
I’ve never been the cook for our family’s corned beef and cabbage. I found your recipe, trusted it and followed to the “T” and it was a HIT!! Best any of us have ever had! I am so glad I chose your recipe!!! Could not have aske for a better dinner! My husband can’t quit raving!! Would not change a thing!! Thank You!! It is truly a GREAT corned beef & cabbage!
I LOVED this recipe! The extra addition of the garlic butter over the vegetables put it over the top. The meat was so tender and the vegetables were incredibly delicious. I added the vegetables halfway through, as recommended and it was perfect. Otherwise, they would have been mushy. I added parsnips and am so happy I did.
So glad you enjoyed it, thank you for reporting back!
Just made this!! Wonderful all came out perfect the cooking on slow perfect, spent the day on the lake came home it was ready to eat!! The garlic butter drizzle over veggies, wonderful. Thank you for a great recipe. Wouldn’t change a thing.
So glad you enjoyed it, thank you for reporting back!
I made this recipe today, and my husband and I loved it! I will definitely make it again. BTW-this was my first time making corned beef! The meat was so tender and tasty. I added onions, which added another flavor.
So glad you enjoyed it, thank you for reporting back!
Amazing corned beef. However the one I bought didn’t come with the seasoning packet so I had to do my own seasoning with what I had in my kitchen and it was amazing! Definitely will be making again!!!
This is the last corned beef recipe I will ever use. So easy and delicious!
My first time making corned beef and cabbage, followed the directions exactly and it came out perfect. Thank you!
Awesome, the corned beef was fork tender and delicious. My wife is not a big corned beef fan and she loved it. Thanks for posting this recipe.
Cooking right now! The smell is driving my Doggos crazy!!