With St. Patrick’s day on the rise I got a little excited and started to dream about hearty, delicious corned beef. This of course also brought on thoughts of the little Lucy Charms guy with all of his sinister cuteness. He is always running from those kids that just want some lucky charms. Maybe it’s because he knows about refined carbohydrates and unreasonably copious amounts of sugar and actually wants the children to live past the age of 40. It’s a hard life for a little leprechaun just trying to keep deadly mass manufactured “foods” from children.
I could be making up this entire scenario in my head but I’m not entirely sure. But the part about the mass manufactured evil in a box known as lucky charms is true. That I know. Not trying to slander the company that makes lucky charms, I just really dislike their product. And the fact that they even produce it. And advertise it. Come to think of it I dislike a lot of those companies out there. But hey, that’s just my opinion. I just think it’s kind of messed up the way they advertise to kids making their food seem to be perfectly okay when it isn’t even fit for human consumption and is going to end up killing kids in the long run and parents have no way of knowing because they look so “innocent”.
Anyway regardless of my ranting, lets get back on track here. Corned beef is something that is really special when you brine it yourself but you can save yourself a lot of time by buying one thats already brine. Sadly a lot of the pre-brined briskets out there have undesirable ingredients, but luckily US Wellness Meats has a pre brined corned beef brisket that is brined to perfection. It does have a little bit of xylitol in it which I was skeptical about, but it is so minuscule that it shouldn’t have any affect on anyone and it’s made from birch wood and not gross corn. If you don’t want to do that you could always brine your own and you can do it without sugar.
Doing the brining yourself can be a bit of a hassle but is incredibly self satisfying just knowing you let that bad boy brine for 4 or 5 days and then you get to eat it. Something about waiting that long makes it taste so much better, not including the fact that you brined it. Although I will admit that I did opt to go for the pre-brined brisket first. I know, I know, so lazy, but how often can you actually find a pre-brined brisket that is grass fed and sugar free without having to do it yourself.
Regardless of what you choose to do doing the brisket some justice in a slow cooker with some aromatics is quite a satisfying and warming meal that is perfectly suited for a gorgeous and easy Saint Patricks Day dinner.
- 2½ lb corned beef brisket
- ½ medium onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 cup chicken or beef stock
- 1 head of green cabbage
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Chop onion, carrot and celery stalk coarsely and place in the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Pour chicken stock over onion, carrot, and celery and place corned beef brisket on top of veggies in the slow cooker.
- Place top on slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. (I did 6 hours) That's it!
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees
- Slice Head of cabbage into 8 wedges and place on rimmed baking sheet.
- Brush both sides with avocado oil and sprinkle salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste on both sides.
- Place cabbage wedges into oven for 25-30 minutes flipping halfway through until you get nice crispy brown edges.
Know how I can tell how delicious this is? Simply because it looks absolutely nothing like the crap they sell in the stores!
And I could not agree with you more about evil, sugar-laden, carbohydrate full “breakfast” cereal they pawn off on unsuspecting children. It’s infuriating what the government does to fill their pockets with money, isn’t it? I’d call them a bunch of exactly what they are if I were speaking to you in a few years! For now, lets just call them jokers, shall we?
Another awesome recipe! Thanks so much for sharing 😉
I’ve never tried roasted cabbage. I bet it’s delicious. Your pictures are gorgeous!
Thank you so much! I highly recommend trying it, it’s ridiculously good and so are the left overs.
My husband’s favorite breakfast ever is corned beef hash. I corned 16lb of brisket last year and froze half of it which I will be digging out of the freezer very soon. I used this recipe for the brining which is perfect: http://crankingkitchen.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/paleo-corned-beef-brisket-hash/.
It also provides instructions to turn your divine creation into hash which I highly recommend doing. Last year was my first time brining it myself, and like you said, it’s so satisfying. The results were absolutely phenomenal. The second time I did it, I actually added a little beet juice I had in the fridge to the brine to give it the pink effect since the recipe doesn’t use saltpeter. Love love love your blog!
Love roasted cabbage (and add a mustard vinaigrette). I’m not a big meat eater, but once a year I make corned beef. So glad it’s once a year. This is one of my family’s favorite dishes!
This looks really good! I loved your scenario about the Lucky Charms guy, and your rant is right on the mark! My daughter has never had refined sugar so therefore has never eaten the inedible…she was never after his Lucky Charms (though she always enjoyed watching the cute little commercials)!
Thanks Joshua!
Jami
This looks amazing & so easy thank you for sharing! One question, did you brown the meat before adding it to the slow cooker? I don’t see that instruction but the pictures look like you might have so I’m just double checking thanks!
For the pictures in this I did not. For some reason you don’t necessarily need to brown it for this, it manages to caramelize in the slow cooker as it cooks. But you could brown it before putting it in if you want to.
I will be using your recipe for the brined brisket I bought for tomorrow’s St Patty’s Day dinner. I noticed that your meal doesn’t include any potatoes. I always thought that traditional Irish dinner must include a potato dish?
Not that I know of. It’s the corned beef and the cabbage combo that is really traditional. I don’t use potatoes because I don’t really eat potatoes at the moment. I don’t see anything horrible with them though.
Loved this traditional Irish meal. My family loves roasted cabbage! I also sprinkled a little lemon juice on top!
My friends and I like to do a little tradition we call “Family Dinner”. We try to do it every week or two – and we always have a theme. Everyone brings a dish and it’s usually held at my house since I have the big dinner room table. We’ve done Italian night, Fair Food Night (NOT PALEO!), Spanish night, etc. This week is going to be St. Patty’s Day food (even though it was Sunday) and I’m going to make this! My dish is usually paleo or at least low-carb. I’ve even made low-carb pasta on Italian night and no one could tell it was low-carb. Great recipes!
Do you have a recipe you could recommend for brining your own brisket?
Nice recipe. Should I rinse the brined brisket before cooking?
Some recipes say to and others don’t.
Any guidance would be helpful!