The Easiest Corned Beef & Cabbage Ever!

I wasn’t Irish until three years ago when I married my husband who is SUPER Irish. I acquired a full on Irish last name and decided to embrace St. Patrick’s day as much as he and his family does – oh wait…I’ve always embraced one aspect of St. Patty’s day…the drinking haha. Come on! I live in Chicago and went to a university that makes its own holiday for this holiday!! You can’t blame me.

One his family’s all time super Irish traditions is making corned beef and cabbage. At first, I was like wha? Really? We are going to eat that? But then I realized corned beef is what’s on a REUBEN! So, I started thinking about the leftovers; however, this meal isn’t just about the leftovers. Surprisingly enough, corned beef stands on its own! The potatoes that come out of here are the sh*t along with the cabbage actually being quite tasty. Corned beef is also super easy to make. As long as you have a big pot and some time…you can pretty  much get it right. So lets check it out!

Easy Corned Beef & Cabbage:

You will need a huge stockpot – mine is a Le Creuset 16 Qt. pot. It is legit huge, but it’s worth it. I use it all the time, especially when making homemade chicken noodle soup. We had people coming over and really wanted leftovers so we cooked about 12 lbs of corned beef. Our favorite brand is Vienna beef. Then you some cabbage – we did two heads due to the amount of people coming over. Finally, a bag of yukon gold potatoes. This was a 3 lb bag for your reference.

Place your corned beef into the stockpot and cover completely with water. Make sure you get all the seasonings out of the package in the pot.

Bring the beef to a boil. After you bring it to a boil, let simmer with the lid tilted slightly to allow air to flow out. You will let it simmer for approximately 50 mins per pound for the biggest chunk. So we had three big pieces of corned beef. Our biggest of the three weighed 4 lbs; therefore, we let the cook corned beef for approximately 4 hours.

When there is about an hour left, dice and add your potatoes.

When there is about 30 mins left remove the outer leaves from your cabbage, core it, roughly chop it up and toss it in.

After the allotted cooking time is done, the corned beef should be firm to touch or easily pulled apart depending on your preference. Remove the corned beef and place on a cutting board. Strain the cabbage and potatoes, place in a dish to serve. Slice the corned beef. We cooked ours for awhile so it just kind of pulled apart…so tasty!

Serve immediately while everything is still warm and enjoy with your favorite Irish beer!

Easy Corned Beef & Cabbage:

Servings: this was 12 lbs of corned beef and fed 6 adults day of with 6 servings of leftovers so approximately 12 servings

Equipment:

• Large stockpot (mine is the 16 quarts Le Creuset you can find here)
• Cutting board
• Knife
• Tongs
• Strainer

Ingredients:

• Corned beef – we did 12 lbs – each package is usually 3 – 4 lbs
• 2 cabbages
• 3 lbs of potatoes

Instructions:

1. Remove corned beef and all the seasonings from the package into the large stockpot
2. Fill the stockpot with water until corned beef is completely covered
3. Cover pot and bring to a boil
4. Once the corned beef is boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for approximately 50 mins per pound of the largest cut you have (ours was 4 lbs, we cooked our corned beef for 4 hours)
5. With one hour left, dice up your potatoes into chunks and throw them in the put
6. When there is 30 mins left, remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, core it, roughly chop it and add it into the pot
7. Once the corned beef is done (it will be firm to touch or you can pull it or break it apart easily), remove and place on a cutting board
8. Strain the cabbage and potatoes – place in a dish to serve
9. Cut the corned beef
10. Serve and enjoy!

This is a very simple, easy corned beef and cabbage recipe that you can pass down forever, even if you aren’t Irish. It’s always fun to participate on St. Patty’s, so grab a Guinness, cook up your corned beef, and have a blast!

Peace out,

Wet Hair, Don’t Care