Celebrate St. Patrick's Day or cozy up on a cold winter evening with a flavorful meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage! Just dump the ingredients in one pot and let the beef, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage slowly roast for an easy and comforting dinner -- with just 10 minutes of prep.
Oh, and it can also be prepared in the slow cooker!
I'm pulling out some of my favorite shortcuts and quick tricks to simplify a classic pot roast and offer you an easy meal that cooks in just one dish! Your protein, your veggies, and your starches are all included in this Irish feast!
And oh my goodness...the tender, juicy, fall-apart corned beef and cabbage practically melts in your mouth...
Why Do We Eat Corned Beef and Cabbage on St Patrick's Day?
Believe it or not, corned beef and cabbage isn't the national dish of Ireland and it's not even that popular a dish at all, so why do we go crazy for it in the US?
The thing is this dish has been an Irish-American tradition for a long time now and it apparently dates back, way back to when the Irish migrated to the US.
For them, corned beef reminded them of home so it would be eaten regularly and from there the tradition started.
It's a cozy and comforting meal and for me, the best way to celebrate St Patrick's Day!
What You Need To Make It
- White pearl onions - I used a bag of frozen onions
- Carrots - baby carrots or regular cut into small chunks
- Potatoes - baby gold potatoes work great
- Cabbage - just 1 small heat cut into wedges
- Beef Broth or Guinness - the beer will give a richer and deeper flavor
- Corned beef brisket - with the spice packet for seasoning
- Brown sugar - for rubing the brisket
How to Make Corned Beef and Cabbage
I've cut out almost all of the prep work for this meal, but I do like to slice my baby gold potatoes in half before adding them to the dish.
A bag of baby carrots goes on top of the potatoes,
and a small head of cabbage is cored and chopped into about 8 wedges.
The cabbage goes into the Dutch oven, along with a bag of frozen white pearl onions. I don't even bother to thaw the onions! Just dump-and-bake, right?!
You'll need just a little bit of liquid in the pot as well, so you can choose between Guinness beer (if you're looking for a deeper, richer flavor) or some low-sodium beef broth.
I know that half a cup of liquid doesn't seem like much, but the vegetables and the meat will release a lot of liquid and steam as they cook, so you shouldn't need much more than that!
Then it's time for the corned beef part of this Corned Beef and Cabbage meal!
To save time, and to save you from purchasing too many extra ingredients that you might not otherwise use again, I go with the packaged corned beef brisket that comes in a brine with a spice packet. You can find them in just about any grocery store -- even my little rural Food Lion has them in stock!
If you prefer to buy a plain brisket instead, that's fine too -- you'll just need to season and brine it yourself.
With the packaged corned beef brisket, your only job is to trim the fat off of the meat, sprinkle it with the seasoning packet, and add a bit of brown sugar. You can do it! Remember...I'm keeping it easy here...
Rub the seasoning into the meat, and then place the meat on top of your veggies in the Dutch oven.
It looks very full, but trust me: the veggies will cook down a lot!
Put a lid on top, roast it in the oven for about 3 hours, and the end result will be a tender, juicy, and incredibly flavorful meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage!
Top Tip: You can also prepare this meal in a slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 10-12 hours, or on HIGH for 5-6 hours.
The End Result
The potatoes and carrots are perfectly tender, the onions add extra flavor to the dish, and the cabbage just absorbs all of the great seasoning from the beef. It smells amazing while it cooks, and your house feels cozy and warm!
If you know a meat-and-potato lovin' man, then this is the way to his Irish heart. And boy, those veggies are so darn good, too...I'm pretty sure I could polish off the batch just on my own!
How to Use Leftovers
One final note before I let you scoot: if you're cooking for just one or two, don't shy away from this dish. You'll want those leftovers!
He's a delicious recipe for Dump-and-Bake Reuben Casserole that takes advantage of the extra corned beef, and I can attest to the fact that it's also perfect when tucked inside a Reuben sandwich for lunch. Enjoy!
More Fun Recipes For St Patrick's Day
- Dump and Bake Reuben Casserole
- Guinness Flank Steak
- Healthy Shamrock Shake
- 4-Ingredient Spring Pasta
Dump-and-Bake Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 bag 14.4 ounces frozen white pearl onions
- 1 lb. baby carrots
- 24 ounces baby gold potatoes halved
- 1 small head cabbage cored and cut into about 8 wedges
- ½ cup beef broth or Guinness beer
- 1 4-lb. corned beef brisket with spice packet
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and onions (in that order) in the bottom of a large Dutch oven. Pour beef broth or beer over top.
- Trim fat from meat.
- Rub beef with seasonings from the spice packet and with brown sugar. Place on top of the vegetables in the Dutch oven.
- Cover and bake for about 3 hours (or longer, if using a larger piece of meat).
- Transfer meat to a cutting board and allow to rest for about 5-10. Thinly slice against the grain. Serve vegetables with a slotted spoon.
Love the easy prep on this dish, with a winter as cold as this one, these are the kind of dishes I need, I will opt for the Guinness beer instead of the beef broth 🙂 thank you for the awesome recipe 🙂
Thanks, Albert! The Guinness is always a good idea!
I can't believe this recipe doesn't have any ratings yet. My wife and I did this last night and loved it!. It was so easy to make and everything came out great. We used red potatoes and a yellow onion instead and all of the vegetables came out incredibly soft and the corned beef was absolutely perfect. I wasn't sure how it would all turn out, I thought maybe some veggies would be too mushy, but it was all soft and delicious
I didn't have any stout beer, so we used a porter. Not sure how that affected the flavor, but it was still delicious.
Next time I think I'm going to scrape off a lot of the seasoning from the corned beef into the veggies after it's all done and stir it up to add some more flavor to them.
Thank you very much, I'll be trying more of the dump and bake recipes. Being fairly lazy and having a one year old, I thoroughly appreciate the easy dinners.
* It doesn't appear that the site is letting me select a rating, hopefully that isn't discouraging people from writing reviews.
5 stars for sure
Thank you so much, Elliott! I'm glad that you enjoyed it as much as we do!
I can’t wait to make this!!
I just made this yesterday for a family gathering. I only had potatoes and carrots and used the beef broth, and cooked two 2.5 lb. corned beefs together in the same large oval Dutch oven. My family practically swooned over the corned beef, declaring it to be the "best we ever had". I thought I had made enough to have leftovers for hash, but all the meat was polished off at dinner (and even then they wanted more). Thanks for a SUPER recipe - it will be the only way I make corned beef from now on!!
This recipe turned out great. I used the Guinness stout and followed exactly except put some Dijon mustard on the meat prior to adding the season packet and brown sugar. Thank you for an easy tasty recipe.
Thanks, Sheri! 🙂
I will try this tonight only, Loved it.
Looking Very delicious and healthy! A must-try for every food buff. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe was so simple and easy and the vegetables were perfectly done. I added some parsnips, too.
I believe I will make corned beef and cabbage more frequently with this recipe.
I bet the parsnips were a perfect addition, Lucy! Thanks for taking the time to leave me a note. 🙂
How long in oven for 2.60lb brisket? And how much broth or beer for this size?
Hey, Rachel! I would still use about 1/2 cup of broth. It's no big deal if you have some extra in the pot when it's done. The 2.6 lb. brisket will probably need about 2 1/2 hours, but that's just an estimate. A cut like that does really well cooking it low and slow, so it will just get nice and tender as it bakes. 🙂
I just put mine in the oven! I made a mustard brown sugar rub! Added the beer of course! I’m always looking for different recipes.
Thank you!
Awesome! Enjoy, Toby. Happy St. Patty's Day! 🙂
This is the corned beef and cabbage recipe I've been looking for!! And I've tried lots. It was delicious. I used whole, small multi colored potatoes, the Guinness beer, and no brown sugar. Mine did not take as long to bake but was a bit smaller. Let the meat reach 160 degrees. Veggies were perfect.
Wonderful! Thank you, Judy! 🙂
This was an excellent recipe. The brown sugar slightly caramelized the vegetables and everything was cooked to perfection. Highly recommend this largely hands off one dish meal
Thank you! I'm so glad that it was a hit!
I can’t wait to make this!!
Whoops! I forgot to trim the fat and used a whole can of PBR. And I'm not sure how long to bake a 4lb brisket. Did I mess it up?
Hi, Suyong! No, you didn't mess anything up. The extra liquid in the pot will result in more liquid in the pot at the end, but it should still be fine. The recipe is for a 4-lb. brisket, so you'll want to cook at 350 for about 3 hours. Enjoy!