Makes 6-8 servings.
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 3-4 pounds corned beef brisket, uncooked, with spice packet
- 2 1/2-3 cups water
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2-3 pounds red potatoes, quartered
- 1-2 pounds baby carrots
- 1 medium head green cabbage, cut into wedges
- Parsley, chopped (optional garnish)
Place onion in bottom of slow cooker. Set corned beef on top, and sprinkle with seasoning packet.
Pour water into slow cooker around beef. Add garlic and bay leaves. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours.
After the first 3 hours of cooking, add potatoes and carrots, nestling them around the brisket.
About 1-2 hours before serving, add cabbage wedges.
Remove bay leaves. Remove corned beef from slow cooker, letting it rest 10-15 minutes before slicing against the grain. Serve with potatoes, carrots and cabbage, and garnish with parsley for an additional pop of green — it’s St. Patrick’s Day, after all!
I am mostly Irish. And yet, it took my husband’s Italian (hence Cia, pronounced “chia”) and German family to teach me how to properly observe St. Patrick’s Day.
In my childhood, March 17 meant maybe a green shirt but little fanfare otherwise — and certainly no brisket simmering in the kitchen.
That changed after I married into a family that treated St. Patrick’s Day as a reason to party. My husband’s maternal grandparents were married on March 17, giving the holiday a bit of extra meaning and a standing invitation to gather.
That’s when corned beef and cabbage entered my culinary world: savory beef paired with tender potatoes, sweet carrots and mellow cabbage. It’s comfort food at its best. Even better, it’s one of the easiest meals to make. Toss everything in the slow cooker, let time do the work, and before long, you’ve got a celebration all ready to serve.
If you’re looking for a few more Irish-ish ideas (well, they contain corned beef, cabbage or potatoes) to round out your March menu, turn to page 34. And if corned beef and cabbage is new to you — or just overdue — what follows is the simple, hands-off version that shows up on our table every year.
A few notes to start: The vegetables don’t need to be exact. If they fit in the slow cooker, they belong. Potatoes and carrots can go in earlier, but add the cabbage near the end to keep it from overcooking. This recipe doubles easily if you’re feeding a crowd, so I’ll often set up two slow cookers. (One corned beef may look generous going in, but it shrinks as it cooks.)
The good news? Leftovers are always welcome. Consider them your pot o’ gold at the end of the slow cooker.
Slåinte,
Jennifer Christman Cia