This is the only time I will ever tell you not to salt the heck out of your meat before searing! The brine has thoroughly salted this hunk of beef, so don’t add more. Make sure you get a nice brown edge on each side, don’t skimp on that Maillard crispy goodness! Okay so maybe my mom was the only one who claimed on the morning of every St. Patrick’s Day that leprechauns had come in the night and magicked our milk an intense shade of green. Let me tell you, it is quite a shock early in the morning to pour greenness all over your Honey Bunches of Oats instead of whiteness. (We always used cardboard cartons of milk, not see-through jugs, so it really was surprising enough to accidentally knock your entire bowl of now-green cereal off the table.) My mom was very into eating St. Patrick’s Day food on the holiday. Don’t be deceived by the large pictures of Corned Beef on this post. That is not St. Patrick’s Day food, according to my mom. Instead she would serve broccoli, green mashed potatoes, and even green beef gravy. Beef gravy of course starts out brown, so adding copious amounts of green dye to it merely achieves a color that should not be discussed in pleasant company. The best St. Patrick’s Day meal ever though was the year she managed to dye even the pork chops green. No I am not kidding. My mom makes these awesome Saucy Pork Chops that are a family classic; we have been using the recipe forever, it’s straight outta Better Homes and Gardens I think. You cook the chops in a special sauce on the stove. The main ingredient of this sauce is ketchup. Do you remember back in the day when they started marketing green ketchup? Oh yes, she did. If you thought it was impossible to dye meat green, think again. It still tasted fabulous, of course; I just had to close my eyes for every bite. I think that was the year I stopped believing that leprechauns were causing the mischief. Only my mom would be crazy enough for such antics. Corned beef can go very wrong though, have you been there? Often it is too tough (if boiled too quickly!), too salty, or just plain boring from lack of flavor. And don’t even get me started on disgustingly overcooked carrots, cabbage, and potatoes. SAY NO. I’m here to show you all the steps to get the PERFECT tender, juicy Corned Beef, with veggies on the side that are appetizingly fresh instead of droopy sad brown. But first let’s go back to the basics: Toss it in your crock pot with a bit of beef broth, some whole grain mustard, bay leaves, garlic, onions, thyme, peppercorns, all the good stuff. Now is the time to add in that spice packet if it wasn’t mixed in with your brine. Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram Please don’t ruin your vegetables Now listen here. Don’t go adding your carrots in right away. CAN you add your carrots in the beginning along with your corned beef? I mean, sure, if you like over-cooked-to-the-point-of-disintegrating carrots that are a sad vestige of their former selves. I prefer to taste and chew my carrots, personally. Carrots are delicate okay? Give them some respect. They only need 2 hours in the crock pot, 3 hours max. I am absolutely drawing the line with the cabbage though. You MUST add the cabbage at the end of the cook time, and only for a max of 1 hour. And if you really know what’s good for you, saute your cabbage in butter first. Yes, a whole stick-aroo. I mean, you COULD just add straight up raw cabbage to your slow cooker and it would soften just fine. Edible enough. But you are passing up the opportunity to cook your cabbage in a stick of butter, here. Don’t be a fool. It makes the cabbage so rich and flavorful. I love the little browned edges. Technically, you could stop after the sauteing step and just serve your buttery cabbage straight from the pan, skipping a soak in the crock pot altogether. But I actually love adding it in. The cabbage takes on the briny, corned beefy flavor, even from just 30-60 minutes in the pot. It’s absolutely delicious. Be aware that it will turn your cabbage rather yellow. Cabbage is a little more green and pretty if you stop at sautéing in butter, but you miss all the beefy flavor. I saved out some of the sauteed-only cabbage for the final photos, just being upfront about looks and presentation! And now one last thing: Potatoes don’t belong in a Crock pot. Ever. I said what I said you guys. Just as I explain in my favorite Fall-Apart Pot Roast and Carrots recipe, potatoes were meant for higher planes. If you like brown, mushy, over saturated potatoes, by all means, add them to your crock pot (alongside the carrots.) However, if you like crisp, brown, and tender potatoes, take the time to roast them in the oven. I’m sorry I’m being so bossy. But potatoes deserve better. Take a stand. Add the carrots to one corner of the platter, cabbage to another, roasted potatoes in another. Discard all the broth and the cooked garlic and onions. I mean you can eat them if you want but I don’t think they are great; they have already served their purpose of enhancing flavor. (This is just me though, don’t let some food blogger tell you what to do!) After the meat has rested, slice it thinly against the grain and place in the middle of all the veggies. Sprinkle with some freshly chopped parsley or chives, and serve with a bowl of spicy Horseradish sauce. These few simple steps make this meal look totally irresistible, instead of like sad steamy brown mush. Just bein real here my friends. It’s going to taste amazing no matter how you serve it of course! Can you see the lines running along the meat? Cut it the other way. It’s a lot easier to see the grain of the meat in a photo when it’s raw, so here is another photo of searing the meat: Cutting against the grain is an essential step in achieving incredibly tender meat. You should get slices of meat with a crosshatch pattern, not long lines. You are saving your jaw from chewing through long strips of muscle by neatly cutting them with a knife beforehand. Slice thinly to get super tender, fall apart corned beef! As far as sides though, Corned Beef and Cabbage just isn’t right without the carrots and (roasted) potatoes. It’s kind of a meal all on its own! Serve it with a nice big green salad and call it good. Here are some other ideas if you want to skip adding potatoes and carrots to the corned beef:
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes Gruyere-Crisped Potatoes Au Gratin Sauteed Carrots & Shallots Apple Cider Roasted Carrots
And you can never go wrong with a side of bread!
Irish Soda Bread is of course a classic! Buttery Dinner Rolls Parker House Rolls
Leftover ideas! If you make corned beef, you HAVE to make a Reuben Sandwich. It’s a classic! You can also try
Reuben-Stuffed Crescent Rolls or Reuben-Stuffed Twice Baked Potatoes!
If you just want to warm a single serving in the microwave, sprinkle the meat with a small bit of water and warm it at 50% power til heated through. I recommend sauteeing the cabbage in a nonstick pan on the stove with a bit of butter or nonstick spray. Corned beef makes for excellent leftover lunches. It’s also never a bad idea to repurpose: add meat and veggies to a saute pan and crack an egg on top. Yum!
