corned beef

This slow cooker corned beef and cabbage creates tender, fall-apart chunks of beef thanks to braising it in the crock pot with beer and vegetables for an unbelievably easy and delicious one-pot dinner. Plus! Updated directions for the Instant Pot.

When questioned as to whether corned beef is actually good for you, I say it may not be something to recommend eating each and every day of the year, but I feel it’s totally fine when you eat it just like everything else you should— say it with me— in moderation! And whether corned beef is actually Irish or not? Well you won’t likely find it served at the pub in Ireland, but it IS Irish-American.

One of the very first “adult” dinner parties I had at the apartment I shared with my then boyfriend/now husband was a St. Patrick’s Day party with my friends from college. That night we had green beer, 7-layer dip (so Irish of us!) and played a mean game of Hearts.

My friend Julie aka Wells aka Pepper (because we each had about 19 different nicknames) and I tended the corned beef and discussed the merits of adding beer to the stewed meat or not, comparing notes on cooking on the stove top or baking in the oven, and in general were thrilled that in the end our guests had consumed enough green beer to deem the dinner a raging success.

Since that time I’ve made this meal every single year. Like many of you it’s a tradition you just can’t ignore come March. It’s a ritual. And I’m good with that.

In fact I will cook a whole corned beef just so I can make my favorite Reuben sandwiches loaded with sauerkraut, that delicious sauce and melted cheese piled high on grilled rye bread, because seriously…who can say no to a killer reuben??

I’ve baked my corned beef. I’ve cooked it on the stove top. But the method I seem to go to time and time again is tossing it all in the crock pot or slow cooker (this one is great for cooking on the stove top, too!) for one of the simplest dinners you’ll make all year.continue to the recipe… about Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage