Slow Cooker Corned Beef Brisket

The beginning of March and the city is doing that thing it does in the first week of March — still technically winter, still cold enough for a real coat, but with a quality of afternoon light that has changed, like a lamp turned up a single degree in a room you've been sitting in all day. It's not spring yet. But it is no longer fully winter, and the difference matters.

St. Patrick's Day is in eleven days, which in Southie means the neighborhood is already preparing. Every bar has its green decorations. The grocery stores have corned beef briskets front and center. Maureen is planning the menu — corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, shepherd's pie, and a green jello dessert that Sean Sr. requests every year and the rest of us tolerate because Sean Sr. gets one thing his way without argument and green jello is a harmless choice.

My birthday is also in eleven days. I will be twenty-six. This feels different from twenty-five — twenty-five always felt significant, a quarter century, a milestone you can point at. Twenty-six feels like the year you just are. You are twenty-six. You have a job and a fiancé and a dress in your closet and a wedding in June. You are continuing. Twenty-six feels like progress in a quieter way than twenty-five felt like arrival, and I think I like that better.

I've been making the Irish repertoire this week in preparation — soda bread, which I can make in my sleep, and a test batch of corned beef brisket. Starting it in the slow cooker overnight this time, longer than I've done before. It produces more tenderness. I ate it Thursday at noon standing at the counter and knew I'd found the method. Maureen, when I told her, said, "About time." She has been telling me to use the slow cooker for years.

So here it is — the overnight slow cooker method that changed everything, the one I stood eating at the counter on Thursday and knew was right. Maureen will be insufferable about the fact that she told me so, but she earned it. If you’re doing corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day this year, or for a birthday that happens to fall on the same day, do yourself a favor and start it the night before. You’ll wake up to a house that smells like the holiday already started without you.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 10 hours | Total Time: 10 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 (4-pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet
1 large yellow onion, quartered
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 bottle (12 ounces) dark stout beer
2 cups beef broth
1 pound baby red potatoes, halved
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small head green cabbage, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped, for serving
Whole grain mustard, for serving

Instructions

Layer the aromatics. Place the quartered onion and smashed garlic in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Scatter the peppercorns, mustard seeds, and bay leaves over the onion.
Season and place the brisket. Remove the corned beef from its packaging and pat dry. Rub the included spice packet and the brown sugar over all sides of the brisket. Place it fat-side up on top of the onion layer.
Add the liquid. Pour the stout beer and beef broth around the brisket. The liquid should come about halfway up the meat — add a splash more broth if needed.
Cook overnight. Cover and cook on LOW for 9 to 10 hours (or HIGH for 5 to 6 hours, though low and slow gives the best texture). The brisket is done when it pulls apart easily with a fork.
Add the vegetables. About 2 to 3 hours before the brisket is finished, nestle the potatoes and carrots into the liquid around the meat. Place the cabbage wedges on top. Cover and continue cooking until vegetables are tender.
Rest and slice. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board and dot the top with butter. Tent loosely with foil and rest for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain into 1/4-inch slices.
Serve. Arrange the sliced corned beef on a platter with the vegetables. Spoon a bit of the cooking liquid over the top, sprinkle with fresh parsley, and serve with whole grain mustard on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow Cooker Corned Beef Brisket — The Method Maureen Was Right About All Along