This Instant Pot Corned Beef recipe is an easy way to create a delicious St. Patrick’s Day feast. With the touch of a few buttons, your pressure cooker will create tender corned beef with perfectly cooked cabbage, potatoes, and carrots.

Check out my entire collection of St. Patrick’s Day recipes for more menu inspiration.

Corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes in a white serving dish.

I’ve cooked corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day every year of my adult life using pretty much every conceivable method. That is a lot of corned beef! Each method has it’s own merits and they are all worth trying. Some work better than others depending on whether St. Patrick’s Day falls on a busy weekday or lazy Sunday.

What is the Best Method for Cooking Corned Beef?
Ingredient Notes
Corned Beef Brisket vs. Corned Beef Round
What Kind of Beer is Best for Cooking Corned Beef?
How to Make Instant Pot Corned Beef
Serving Suggestions

What is the Best Method for Cooking Corned Beef?

If you are out of the house for most of the day, my Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage is a great choice. Or, if you have time to babysit a pot on the stove, there’s my tried and true Guinness Corned Beef.

But, if you’ve got a couple of hours to devote to your St. Patrick’s Day meal, I don’t think you can beat the ease and the tender result of preparing your corned beef in the Instant Pot. The process of pressure cooking infuses the corned beef with flavor from the cooking liquid in a way that just doesn’t happen with other methods.

Slices of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes on a white plate with a beer in the background.

Regardless of the method, there are a few things to know about cooking corned beef that I’ll cover here. If you’ve got an Instant Pot, I hope you’ll give this pressure cooking method a try.

Ingredient Notes

A Shenson corned beef round on wood board with a head of cabbage and a bowl of potatoes and carrots.

Liquid: A combination of Guinness beer and low-sodium beef broth.
Vegetables: Yellow or white onion, minced garlic, carrots, mini gold or red potatoes (sometimes labeled as petite or baby potatoes), and a head of green cabbage.
Corned beef: A 3- to 4 pound corned beef brisket or round with the pickling spice packet.
For serving: Butter, salt and freshly ground black pepper, fresh parsley, and whole grain mustard for dipping.

Corned Beef Brisket vs. Corned Beef Round

You may see both of these cuts at your local grocery store and be unsure which to buy. Here’s the rundown on these two cuts of corned beef.

Corned Beef Brisket

The brisket is a flatter cut than the round with a much thicker layer of fat running across the top. It’s a tough cut that comes from the breast portion of the cow. The additional fat in the brisket results in a very moist, tender corned beef. Briskets can be a “flat” or “point” cut. But, you’ll more commonly run across the flat cut at most grocery store chains.

You can easily tell if you’ve got a flat or a point cut brisket just by looking at it. The flat cut brisket is somewhat squared off and a more even thickness from end to end than the point. The point will be just that – it is a bit thicker and will come to a point. It also has more fat running through it than the flat.

Corned Beef Round

The corned beef round is a thicker, leaner cut that comes from the rear of the cow. It typically has a very light layer of fat (see the images below). The slices of the round will be larger while the flatter brisket will have narrower slices. It cooks up very moist and tender, but I believe the additional fat on the brisket gives it a bit of an edge. It’s a small difference in my opinion and I love both cuts.

Which Cut is Best?

There is no one answer to which cut is best. It all boils down (ha!) to personal preference. Try the different cuts to find what you like best.

I purchased the Shenson brand corned beef round pictured in this post at Costco. This is the cut I’ve seen in stock at both my old California and my new Oregon Costco locations. But, briskets are widely available at most grocery stores.

A bottle of Guinness beef on a wood board with a corned beef in the background.

What Kind of Beer is Best for Cooking Corned Beef?

A dark beer with a rich, complex flavor like Guinness Draught. It will greatly improve the flavor of your corned beef and the resulting cooking liquid. In turn, that tasty cooking liquid is also going to impart great flavor to your cabbage, carrots and potatoes.

Another brand of stout beer will do the trick. But, for St. Patrick’s Day, I feel compelled to go with an Irish beer. It’s always Guinness Draught in this house.

How to Make Instant Pot Corned Beef

Two images of broth, beer, and onions in an Instant Pot then a corned beef is added.

Cut an onion into chunks and add it to the insert of a 6- to 8-quart Instant Pot. Add the low-sodium beef broth and garlic.
Place the brisket on top of the onions, fat side up.

Beer pouring over corned beef in an Instant Pot and spices on top of the corned beef.

Pour a bottle of Guinness over the top of the corned beef.
Sprinkle the packet of pickling spices that came in the package over the top.

Close and lock the lid and set your pressure cooker to cook on high pressure for 1 hour and 25 minutes. When the cooking time is complete, allow the Instant Pot to do a natural release for 10 minutes and then manually release the remaining pressure.

Transfer the corned beef to a cutting board and tent it with a piece of foil to keep it warm.
Use a slotted spoon to remove and discard the onions, leaving the cooking liquid behind in the Instant Pot.

Two images of potatoes and carrots and chunks of cabbage in an Instant Pot.

Add the potatoes and carrots to the cooking liquid.
Finally, place the wedges of cabbage on top. Close and lock the lid. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook on high for 5 minutes. Immediately release the pressure and transfer the cabbage, potatoes, and carrots to a serving platter or bowl.

Sliced corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots on a white plate with bottles of Guinness beef in the background.

Serving Suggestions

Vegetables: Toss the cooked carrots and potatoes and cabbage wedges with a few pats of butter. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. And, wake up the veggies a bit with some chopped fresh parsley. Take care not to use too much salt so that the veggies will nicely balance the salty corned beef.
On the Side: A little grainy mustard on the side is a delicious for dipping. A loaf of crusty bread and a few bottles of Guinness will make this the perfect meal for St. Patrick’s Day.

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This post was originally published on March 4, 2020 and has been updated with new text.

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