Make this Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage for a classic St. Patrick’s day dinner! Our recipe uses white wine to make the corned beef super tender and flavorful. Cabbage wedges and potatoes are tucked into the liquid as the corned beef cooks so you have a dinner all in one!
We love easy crock pot recipes! Also try our Crock Pot Sausage and Peppers for the most tender, juicy sausage or these Overnight Slow Cooker Ribs – both perfect for parties!
Why You’ll Love This Slow Cooker Corned Beef Recipe
Making corned beef and cabbage in a slow cooker is a great way to make a holiday dinner easy. Even if you’re not making this corned beef dinner for St. Patrick’s Day, and easy to make dinner is always welcome.
- Easy To Make and Prepare: This is truly a dump and go slow cooker recipe. No browning or extra steps, everything goes into the slow cooker. You do need to add the potatoes and corned beef later on, but that only takes a minute.
- Super Tender: As with most crock pot recipes, this corned beef turns out super tender and flavorful. You don’t even need a knife!
- The BEST Flavor: Our corned beef recipe uses a couple of different ingredients that we think makes it taste the best. White wine and chicken broth help to mellow out the flavor of the corned beef and keep it juicy and tender.
What Is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is made from a piece of beef called a brisket. Brisket is a tougher cut of meat so it’s typically braised or smoked, used in slow cooker recipes, or in this case brined.
Corned beef is made though a long curing process that uses large pieces of rock salt, otherwise known as corns. The “corns” are mixed with a liquid marinade called a brine. Then the corned beef can be cooked using your method of choice, producing a very tender cut of meat.
How To Make Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
These step by step photos will show you how easy it is to make this corned beef and cabbage recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card for complete instructions.
- Prepare and Season: Remove the brisket from the packaging. Rinse and pat the brisket dry with paper towels and place into your slow cooker. Sprinkle the seasoning packet on top and then add water, chicken broth and wine.
- Add Potatoes and Cabbage: After 3 hours, add the potatoes and cabbage into the slow cooker, tucking into the liquid. Cook for another 4-5 hours until tender.
You can also try our Roasted Cabbage Recipe if you like a firmer cabbage side dish, with a bit more flavor.
Tips For Success
A few tips to make sure that this corned beef and cabbage dinner turns out perfectly!
- Allow enough cooking time: Depending on the size of the corned beef that you start with, this recipe can take anywhere from 8-10 hours. If after 8 your corned beef still isn’t fork tender, just add another hour to the cooking time.
- Rinse the brisket: Make sure to rinse the meat before adding it to your slow cooker. This will remove a lot of the brine, making the corned beef more flavorful and less salty.
- Slice against the grain: To make sure you end up with fork tender slices, slice the meat against the grain.
Sides To Serve With Corned Beef
Even though this corned beef recipe comes with potatoes and cabbage, we do usually add some extras. Especially if we’re making this dinner for St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday or party usually calls for extra sides.
Of course, our homemade Irish Soda Bread is a must with lots of butter. We also love serving this Sweet Cornbread recipe, too. You can even tuck some carrots into the slow cooker with the cabbage and potatoes, or try these Bacon Wrapped Carrots. Besides the potatoes we have in this dinner, you can also add a big bowl of Mashed Potatoes, too because the more potatoes the better.
What To Make With Leftover Corned Beef
Leftover corned beef? We’ve got you. Any of these leftover recipes are going to be a hit. We actually find ourselves making larger pieces of corned beef than we need just to make these delicious leftover recipes.
- Corned Beef Hash
- Corned Beef Fried Rice
- Cheesy Corned Beef Tater Tots
- Creamy Corned Beef and Potato Chowder
- Corned Beef Stuffed Potatoes
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Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 Servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeSlow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage is a delicious dinner for St. Patrick’s day or for any meal. Super tender corned beef flavored with a secret ingredient that makes it stand out from the rest!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 –3 pound corned beef with pickling spices
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth (can also use all water, the broth will add more flavor)
- 1 1/2 cups – 2 cups water
- 1 1/2 pounds yellow or red potatoes, cut into halves or fourths
- 1 small head of white cabbage
Instructions
- Rinse the corned beef and pat dry with paper towels. Add the corned beef to a crock pot. Sprinkle the pickling spices included in the package on top of the corned beef.
- Pour the wine and chicken broth into the slow cooker, then add water to come about two-thirds up the side of the corned beef. Make sure the liquid only covers about two-thirds of the meat or it will boil instead of braise.
- Cook on low for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, add the potatoes and cabbage to the slow cooker, tucking down into the liquid as much as possible.
- Cook for another 4-5 hours and then check to make sure the corned beef is tender. Remove the corned beef to a cutting board and slice. A 3 pound corned beef should be done in 8 hours, a larger corned beef will take longer.
- Place the cabbage and potatoes onto a platter along with the sliced corned beef.
Recipe Notes
Store: Store leftover corned beef in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheat: Reheat the corned beef in the microwave until warmed through. Alternately, you can warm the corned beef in the oven at 350 degrees.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American / Irish
A 9 lb corned beef is cooked the same amount of time in the crockpot as a 4-5 lb corned beef?
I’m not sure what you mean, the recipe is written for a 3 pound corned beef.
Great recipe, reliably makes rich, tender corned beef.
Thanks Nathanial!
Will it turn out bland if I rinse the meat first and only use the water?
Probably? That’s why we added lots of good flavors in our recipe!
No..it’s just fine. If you wanna rinse it. Go ahead usually I rinse any blood from the meat before I cook it. however in attempt to savor the pre-seasond. / Marinated *corned beef* flavor initially as I was browning the meat I had that I decided I didn’t like the way the way the pickling (brine) and peppercorns that originally came with the meat smelled, so in the middle of browning it I had to add water n use the sprayer on my sink to rinse and start over. With simply just the EVOO I used for oil, salt and pepper and chopped garlic while browning both sides.
Iv only made this once before and I only used water and It came out absolutely wonderful,
In fact I was under the impression I didn’t like corned beef but made it for the bf and to my surprise.
Even just using water
On the high setting all the onion and half a cabbage I added to water, it completely dissolved and created a VERY tasty broth. I just wished I had a little extra cabbage to add for heartyness.
if you don’t have wine can I use 1 cup of broth instead
Yep that will work!
I want to add carrots and onions When?
I would add them after the first 4 hours.
Will adding beef or chicken broth to corn beef make it salty???
Not for our taste, but you can add water instead or low sodium broth if you like.
Can I use a frozen brisket and cook a little longer?
I don’t have instructions for cooking from frozen, but you can try!
We used a pinot grigio when we made this last year and it turned out perfectly!
Sounds great Peter, thanks for letting us know!
What type of white wine is best for this recipe ?
Any kind of white wine you like to drink, a dry one preferably over a sweet one but whatever you have will work!
Why does the water halfway up make such a difference? (Isn’t the bottom part kinda boiling since it is submerged?)
I look forward to trying your recipe. I just discovered your site on Pinterest! (And I happen to have a corned beef in the fridge.)
It’s the difference between braising and boiling. Braising is roasting a piece of meat in a some sort of liquid, but only enough to create steam to cook the meat. You get a lot more flavor than if you boil the meat.
Fat side up or down??
Details please
It really doesn’t matter for this recipe!
Tried this out last week and it came out great! Will definitely be making this for St. Patty’s day!
Awesome, thanks for letting us know Tricia!