Best Baked Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe

Enjoy this traditional Baked Corned Beef recipe this St. Patrick’s Day! By slowly roasting salty and sour corned beef with a head of cabbage and some earthy leeks, potatoes, and carrots, all of their flavors meld and balance perfectly, creating a fork-tender baked corned beef recipe. A sweet, smoky bourbon glaze ties everything together with a delicate sweetness. 

When you bake corned beef, it develops a crispy crust on the outside that gives way to tender, juicy and flavorful meat on the inside, plus its hands off! Love that!

I enjoy giving precise details in my recipe posts to lead my readers through any questions. If you’re just here for the printable recipe, use the Jump to Recipe to head straight there!

A Traditional Irish Meal

This St. Patrick’s day, blow everyone away with some tender, oven-roasted corned beef, and cabbage.

My recipe is inspired by an old James Beard Irish corned beef and cabbage recipe, with a few fundamental changes: a slow simmer in a large Dutch oven at a low temperature in stout beer, and I’ve reduced the sugar and bourbon in this gorgeous brown sugar and bourbon glaze. 

On its own, this meat is salty and sour. By slowly roasting with a delicious stout beer, all of the deep, rich flavors of the meat are brought to the surface. It’s served with soft, sweet vegetables and coated in my rich, warm bourbon glaze. Yum! 

How to make Baked Corned Beef

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 1 – Important Rinse Corned Beef

Rinse the meat and pat dry with paper towels. Do not worry about rinsing away the flavor, the meat is fully infused with flavor by this point and this way you rinse some of the extra salt. 

Place fat side up in the covered pot you’ll use for baking, 5-8 quarts in size — I use my Dutch Oven for thorough, even heating. You can also use an oven safe pot with a lid.

Step 2 – Add Seasoning and Liquids

First, open the Guinness, or your choice of stout, and pour over the corned beef adding cold water until it is covered two-thirds of the way.

Second, add the black pepper peppercorns or seasoning packet to the pot. If baking with leeks or carrots, add them now if you don’t mind super soft carrots, or wait and add them with the potatoes. You will not need excess salt for the meat or the veggies; it is salty enough.

And finally, cover the pot, and cook for 4 hours. Remove the meat and place it in a baking dish.

Step 3 – Add carrots and potatoes

Third add the carrots and potatoes to the beer mixture, cover, and bake for another 45 minutes. After the veggies have softened, add the cabbage*. You can also roast the greens separately in the oven or in a covered pot on the stovetop.

Increase the oven temperature to 400° F (204° C) while you prepare the bourbon glaze.

Step 4 | How to Make Bourbon Brown Sugar Glaze

Add all of the glaze ingredients to a saucepan and whisk together. Heat the mixture on low and slowly simmer, stirring regularly until it has reduced to a thicker, glossy glaze. 

Lastly, brush the glaze over the meat, coating it thoroughly. Bake for 30 minutes, basting or spooning the sauce over the meat every 10 minutes. 

Finally, remove the meat from the oven and tent it with aluminum foil on a cutting board, allowing it to rest. After 10-15 minutes, slice into half-inch, thick slices, cut against the meat’s grain, and transfer to a serving dish; nestle the carrots, potatoes, and cabbage around the beef.

Pour the remaining glaze overtop and serve the baked corned beef with cabbage and roasted veggies. The veggies are incredibly delicious when brushed with melted browned butter (or regular melted butter) before serving.

Be sure to check out my post on Traditional St. Patrick’s Day Food or this comforting Skillet Shepherd’s Pie that’ll warm you up from the inside out. And for dessert, serve Guinness Chocolate Cake and this traditional Irish coffee cocktail.

Variations

• Skip the Alcohol – Substitute the stout with mushroom, chicken, or beef broth. The complex flavor of bourbon is harder to replicate, but you could use ginger beer or more apple cider if preferred. 
• You can replace the peppercorns in this recipe with the seasoning packet that comes with the meat. 
• Add More Veggies – Plenty of other delicious vegetables, with oven-roasted corned beef and cabbage — turnips, onions, green beans, and brussels sprouts are excellent choices!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Corned beef?

And why is it called corned beef? This article from The Smithsonian is fascinating with the history and origin of corned beef, which in fact was first started in England.

However; the Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667 prohibiting the export of live beef from Ireland to England. The British actually came up with the term corned beef or salted beef describing the size of the salt crystals used to cure the beef — they were corn kernel sized; corn beef or corned beef was formed, this was in the 17th century.

History of Irish Corned Beef

“With the large quantities of cattle and high quality of salt, Irish corned beef was the best on the market. It didn’t take long for Ireland to be supplying Europe and the Americas with its wares. However; this was much different than the corned beef we enjoy today.

The Irish immigrants almost solely bought their meat from kosher butchers. And what we think of today as Irish corned beef is actually Jewish corned beef thrown into a pot with cabbage and potatoes. The Jewish population in New York City at the time were relatively new immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe.

The corned beef they made was from brisket, a kosher cut of meat from the front of the cow. Since brisket is a tougher cut, the salting and cooking processes transformed the meat into the extremely tender, flavorful corned beef we know of today.” Smithsonian

This is one of the many reasons I love food blogging and I love history, the history behind traditional dishes is fascinating to me. I encourage you to read the entire article as it chronicles much of the history behind this famous St. Patrick’s day dish.

Storage

Store leftover corned beef in an airtight container refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to 3 months. To rewarm, you can quickly fry slices of corned beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Use leftovers to make a Reuben sandwich, give these fun variations from fellow bloggers a try, like this Rachel Sandwich (use leftover corned beef instead of the turkey), which is so good on toasted rye bread.

Try this classic Reuben sandwich or this delicious Cream of Reuben Soup using leftover corned beef!

Baked Corn Beef Recipe

This is the best-corned beef recipe for the whole family, served with horseradish, hot sweet honey mustard, Dijon mustard, or regular whole grain mustard.

Don’t just save this tasty recipe for St. Patty’s day either; fill the whole house with the tempting flavors, corned beef, and cabbage dinner.

How long to bake corned beef according to weight

The general rule of thumb when slow-cooking corned beef in the oven is about an hour per pound of corned beef brisket; however, use a meat thermometer once it hits 145° F (63° C), and it’s done! But let it rest!

• 1 pound – 1 hour
• 1 ½ pounds – 1. 5 hours
• 2 pounds – 2 hours
• You get the idea!

More recipes you will love:

• Bourbon Glazed Ham (Coca Cola Ham)
• Bangers and Mash with Milk Stout Gravy {Sausage and Mashed Potatoes}
• Traditional Shortbread Recipe
• Lucky Charms Bars
• Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup
• Instant Pot Rustic Mashed Potatoes {Stovetop & Crockpot too}