Easy Instant Pot Corned Beef Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Why is my corned beef not tender enough in the instant pot? ›

If your Instant Pot corned beef is tough, it's probably because it was not pressure-cooked long enough. Usually, 90 minutes of pressure cooking time does the trick.

Slow cooking with a crock pot or using an instant pot is a fantastic way to cook corned beef, resulting in melt-in-your-mouth, tender meat throughout. You can make a delicious, hearty meal with simple ingredients and a crock pot or instant pot. Your whole family will enjoy it.

1. Not Rinsing the Meat Before Cooking. If you cook the meat straight from the plastic packaging or pulled the meat right away from the brine solution in the fridge without rinsing, you just might be in for a saltier meal than you bargained for.

If you want your corned beef in a fraction of the time it normally takes, I highly recommend cooking it in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker. A 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 corned beef will be perfectly tender in just 60 – 90 minutes as opposed to several hours in the slow cooker or on the stove top.

If it's still tough, you will need to cook it longer. The pressure cooking process breaks down tough meat, making it tender. Put the lid back on, seal the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for another 10 to 20 minutes.

Information. Corned beef is made from one of several less tender cuts of beef like the brisket, rump, or round. Therefore, it requires long, moist cooking. Corned beef is safe once the internal temperature has reached at least 145 °F, with a three minute rest time, but cooking it longer will make it fork-tender.

Even cooking: Ensuring that the corned beef is fully submerged in water helps to cook it evenly. This is because water is a better conductor of heat than air, so the meat will cook more quickly and evenly when submerged in liquid [2].

Place the brined corned beef in a large pot or Dutch oven along with the liquid and spices that accompanied it in the package. Pour in enough water to cover the beef, then bring the water to a boil on the stovetop. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cover the pot.

Because corned beef comes from brisket, a tough cut of meat. You need its connective tissue to break down so you can have tender results. Some like to braise their corned beef in an all-water liquid, with various spices and salt; others add beer to the mix to further tenderize the meat.

Place the corned beef fat-side up in a roasting pan with a rack or use an oven-safe rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. If you don't have either, set the corned beef on top of a bed of chopped onions so it's elevated from the pan.

Is it better to boil or bake corned beef? ›

While boiled dinner is all well and good, I much prefer baked corned beef for its more succulent flavor and texture and its hands-off vibe. This recipe: Takes five minutes of hands-on time.

It's easy to make in the oven, or in a slow cooker, after a 5 day brine in the fridge. The corned beef seasoning adds so much flavor to this traditional recipe, and a low, slow cook in beef broth makes this corned beef brisket juicy, tender and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

Touted as the do-it-all appliance for good reason, an Instant Pot is a multi-function pressure cooker that easily doubles as a slow cooker. The difference between pressure cooking and slow cooking is substantial, so we love that one appliance can do both, along with a slew of other cooking methods.

Not filling the pot with enough water.

One of the keys to getting there is the amount of water in the pot. From start to finish, when there's not ample liquid to cover the meat, your dreams of tender corned beef might be crushed with a tough, chewy result.

There's another aspect of pressure cookers to consider too. Steam penetrates food easily under pressure. So connective tissues in cubes of beef for soups or stews soften in 15 minutes or less, and a pot roast will be medium-rare in 30 minutes.

But if your beef ends up tough, dry, and unappealing, now that's not something to look forward to. To prevent a chewy beef steak, you need to avoid using too much high-pressure heat.

Because corned beef comes from brisket, a tough cut of meat. You need its connective tissue to break down so you can have tender results. Some like to braise their corned beef in an all-water liquid, with various spices and salt; others add beer to the mix to further tenderize the meat.

The moist heat in a pressure cooker tends to turn connective tissue into gelatin. You need to let the meat cool down for a few minutes after cooking, to give time for moisture to be reabsorbed, before releasing the pressure. Otherwise, the meat will likely be tough.