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.
I make corned beef and cabbage every year and occasionally I like to try something different rather than stick with the same recipe. I’m so glad I tried this! The garlic butter drizzle really made the veggies next level. I choose to add the potatoes and carrots halfway through rather than at the beginner so they weren’t so mushy and they were perfect. I will say the corned beef was tougher than normal, which was disappointing, but who knows what happened there. Either way it was delicious, thank you!
This is the first time I have made corned beef for St Patrick’s Day as we usually just go out for it. This was so easy and it was absolutely delicious! I did add the carrots and potatoes half way through cooking. Everything was perfect. Can’t wait to make it again next year!!
Excellent! My husband and I loved it. Added potatoes and carrots at 4 hours like suggested. Followed recipe.
Thank you for sharing. Never cooked corned beef before and was so happy.
We very much enjoyed this recipe. I made a mistake by adding additional flavorings, butter and vegetables along with the roast. Also, 3 cups of water may have had my roast too sunmerged. But, the vegetables were very tasty and although soft, they weren’t too soft. I added the cabbage the last two hours and they were fantastic. If, I were to make this again, which I probably will, I won’t change a thing.
Last year this turned out great. I put the potatoes and carrots in when there was 5 hrs left for cooking time. Used a 7 qt slow cooker (my wife has 4 different sizes…lol). I also added a bay leaf on top of the meat. The cabbage is cooked with a somewhat crunchy texture which is more pleasant to eat than the old “cooked to mush”. My wife and mother-in-law were astonished I cooked it. 🙂
Can red cabbage be used also
Yes but it may turn everything purple!
I have made the boiled or crock pot corned beef and cabbage for my family for over 30 years. It is a family favorite especially for St. Patrick’s Day. Through the years the only mistake I ever made was to rinse off the meat from the package. No harm done…it just helped to reduce the saltiness. Today I am making it in the crock pot for Sunday dinner according to your recipe. The seasoned butter drizzle is brilliant! Thank you for updating this family classic.
Sara, this Vienna Corned Beef is spiced and all in the packing. No spice pack. So if I omit it, do I still rinse the beef? It’s got spices all over it
I’d leave it as is if it has spices on it.
Hi, got 2.3 lb in 4 qt crock. First, ok to use beef broth In lieu of water? Making some pre froze twice baked so gonna use parsnips and carrots. But still only put juice about a 1/3 up meat? Cooks pretty hot so low for 7 hr maybe 8?
I have a 3 1/2lb point cut corned beef and a 6qt oval slow cooker.
I will probably double up the carrots and potatoes.
The recipe calls for 3 Cups of water, in a post you reply to , you say to fill With water half way up the Slow Cooker.
Should the Beef be fully covered by the water?
Thanks.
The meat should just be partially submerged, it does not need to be completely covered.
I made it last year and everyone loved it and so I’ll be making it again ! We ate it for 2 days there was so much!
I can’t wait to make this for St. Patrick’s Day this year! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
This is so good and so easy. If you don’t want to cook any vegetable dish at the side, it is a great idea to double the amount of vegetables. So at the end, you’ll only need this lovely dish, plus some carb (potatoes/rice/bread) for a complete meal.
Made this for the family and it was a hit!
I used to love cooking in my slow cooker!! I am so bummed that I needed to give it away when I moved. This is almost convincing me to buy another one!!
Get the biggest one you can. I use my wife’s 7 qt one and the cabbage barely fits in for the last 2 hrs.
How long would you cook a small 1 pound corn beef?
I’d cook it on low for 6 hours!
Hi Sara, have never had or known of a spice packet that comes with a corned beef. Hense I’m Australian, some things a bit different. What is in the spice packet you get?
It’s typically pickling spice, you can just omit it if needed.
What if I started the recipe on low for about 2 hours but then I want to turn it up to high . Can I do that ?
That should be fine!
If I double up on all the ingredients will I have to double up on the amount of water I put into the crock as well? So I’ve got two almost 5 lb corn beef biscuits and did double all the veggies…..so would I add 6 cups of water instead of 3??
You want the water to reach about halfway up the crock pot, the depth of the water is more important than the amount of cups!
my family laughed their butts off at the thought of half a carrot , one-eighth lb potatoes and one-sixth of a small cabbage each for a 3 – 5 lb corned beef for a family of four. i tripled the veggies and added more pickling spices, but the meat was tender as could be. for a family that loves vegetables, you must add more but the method is terrific. be sure to enclose the spices in a spice bag to keep them out of the cabbage leaves.
My corned beef did not come with a packet. I’m guessing my way through. But I also doubled up on veggies. We love veggies!!