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!
Follow Me
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.
This turned out very well, but the flavor was absent from the veggies because it was water based. ight go with a broth or beer next time. Thank you!
My husband and sons raved about this meal. I’ve been making corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker for years, but there were several aspects of this recipe that made such a positive difference. Those were: rinsing the corned beef before slow cooking, adding the potatoes and carrots at the half-way point, adding the cabbage two hours before the end of cooking time, not using the entire head of cabbage, and adding the garlic batter sauce to the veggies. Thanks for the delicious recipe, Sara.
Excellent we added a beer to the crock pot while cooking grandma always used a beer. The garlic butter for the veggies was delicious.
Corned beef and cabbage is one of my husbands favorite meals, this St. Patrick’s day I decided to try to make it myself and hopefully even better than how he has prepared it before. He LOVED this recipe! The meat was so tender. Thank you!
This recipe was delicious and easy. I cooked my flat corned beef as directed for 8 hours on low. The veggies were added half way since that was the only time available. Everything came out perfect. Thank you.
Amazing! The best corned beef and cabbage I’ve had!
My first time cooking corned beef and it came out so good. I used the flat cut, added the potatoes and carrots at the halfway point, then the cabbage with two hours to go. Everything was delicious, especially the vegetables with the garlic herb butter. Thank you for this recipe and all the tips.
I’m using this recipe, and am looking forward to an amazing St Patty’s Day dinner. I did add turnips, in addition to the other veggies.
Thanks for sharing your awesome recipes.
Craig
I followed your recipe exactly. It was really easy and perfect!!
My brisket did not come with a seasoning packet . What can I use to season it?
It’s fine to omit it, most likely the corned beef is pre-seasoned. Or you can use a teaspoon of pickling spice.
I want to put this in the crock pot for St. Patrick’s day, but won’t be home at the 6 hour mark to add the cabbage- can I add it while it is being kept on warm or cook it separately?
Thanks!
It’s fine to cook the cabbage separately!
What is the desired temperature tp assure safety of cooked meat?
Beef should be cooked to at least 145 degrees F, but in this case you’re going to want to cook it past that temperature because corned beef is a very tough cut of meat and requires a long cooking time to tenderize.
I’m interested in trying your recipe looks delicious. I was curious if store shelf beefstock or beef broth could be substituted for the water. Thanks.
Yes but you’d want to use low sodium broth, corned beef is very salty which is why I don’t cook it in broth!
I use beer instead of the water
What kind of beer do you use?
Guinness stout! 1 bottle
So I will be trying the beer (Coors Light-which is basically water anyway) in place of the water. This recipe sounds amazing!! I can’t wait to make it on Thursday. I’m not a fan of cabbage, but hopefully this recipe makes it taste yummy to me.
I have used Coors Light before, as well as Guinness Stout! Both taste great, it’s just a slight difference, with Guinness adding a bit hartier flavor. Happy St. Patrick”s Day!
Guinness the only way to go🍀🇮🇪
I’ve made the corned beef a few times using this recipe… It comes out amazing I do put the cabbage in later and the carrots go in about halfway and it comes out amazing… Definitely five stars from me
This recipe made the best corned beef ! Thanks for the recipe
As i read and see all the recipe i cant help but go home and try them, i love them all.
Easy & was amazing again this year! Thanks from Tampa, Florida
Hi! I couldn’t find a 4 lb brisket so I purchased two separate briskets that are around 2 lbs each.
They do not fit side by side in my slow cooker- could I stack them and once they shrink a bit, try and put then side by side?
I used your recipe last year and it was amazing- hence the reason I’m trying to do it with more meat this year!
Yes that should work fine!
Made this on St. Patrick’s day. Best corned beef we ever had! Butter sauce amazing.
Getting started a little late, can I cook on high for an hour and then turn down on low for 7 hours?
You can try that but I don’t recommend it as it really needs the low cooking temperature to get tender.