I decided to try making the traditional “Corned Beef and Cabbage” a few years ago, and I thought it would be a good candidate for the Instant Pot. However I couldn’t find an “Instant Pot” recipe on any of my favorite recipe sources so I ended up cobbling one together from various websites. The vegetables, especially the cabbage, ended up kind of mushy but it was still delicious.
Recently as of this writing America’s Test Kitchen published a recipe for the Instant Pot and it turned out to be very similar to the one I had cobbled together. So, this first recipe is the ATK version followed by the my hack job. In general though, the Instant Pot is an outstanding way to make this.
One final note, I use my larger Instant Pot for this; for some reason it takes much longer to vent the preessure which may contribute to overcooking the veggies.
Click here for the America’s Test Kitchen Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe (this is a PDF).
Here's the recipe I cobbled together originally.
Ingredients
1 corned beef brisket, 4 lbs
1 onion, quartered
6 cloves garlic, smashed
1 lb tiny potatoes or cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
1 lb baby carrots or 6 carrots cut into chunks
1 head cabbage, quartered and cored
5 cups water
Instructions
1. Dump water into Instant Pot and add the onion and garlic cloves, and then put the rack into the Instant Pot.
2. If using a brisket with the spices in a separate packet, open the packet and dump it into the water, and rinse off the brisket. If using a brisket with the spices on it, empty the liquid from the bag into the Instant Pot but don't rinse off the brisket. Either way, place the brisket on the rack.
3. Cook for 90 minutes on the Instant Pot "Meat / Stew" setting, or 90 minutes on high pressure. Allow to naturally release for about 20 minutes and then do a manual release (move the vent valve to "vent"). NOTE: This results in a very tender "fall-apart" brisket, if you prefer it more solid then try 75 or 80 minutes - the recipes I found on the Internet varied greatly in cooking times.
4. Remove the brisket and keep warm somehow. Strain the liquid and return about 2 - 3 cups to the Instant Pot. Put the rack back into the pot and layer the potatoes, then carrots, then cabbage. Cook on HIGH pressure for 7 minutes (first time I did this for 10 which was overdone, so I'm trying 7 minutes next time). Do a quick release.
5. Slice the corned beef against the grain and serve with vegetables.