As I mentioned in my weekly prep blog, I consider myself quite the Reuben connoisseur. I love the grilled rye bread, pickled cabbage, swiss cheese, salt-cured beef and that creamy thousand island dressing. In my opinion, the key to a great Reuben is cheesy goodness and melt in your mouth beef brisket because no one wants a chewy or tough bite. I will admit that I’ve been guilty of tough corned beef, but the instant pot creates perfection every time. So flavorful, delicious and it falls apart as soon as you pull it out of the Instant Pot.

I use a ‘flat’ cut corned beef brisket. Yes, the ‘flat’ cut is leaner which can be tough, but in the Instant Pot, it’s perfection. The ‘point’ cut has more fat, which I tend to avoid because I’m not a fan of the fatty pieces. The ‘flat’ cut also slices up nicely.

For this recipe, I use orange peel because recently my brother mentioned an Irish family added it and how delicious it was. They cooked their corned beef the traditional way, low and slow boil, and added orange peel which intrigued me. I decided I would try this addition for my Super Bowl Reuben Wonton Bites and boy was I pleasantly surprised. The citrus peel cuts some of the saltiness and adds fantastic citrus notes to the corned beef.

I also use the spice package included with Corned Beef. You can certainly add your own spice, but this package is fill of goodness; peppercorn, bay leaves, allspice, ginger, coriander, cloves, nutmeg and mustard seed.

Between the Instant Pot, the spice blend and the orange peel; I’ve got a easy peasy recipe that’s pretty delicious and I hope you’ll agree 👍

Corned Beef

10 minutes prep

~2 hours cook time (pressure builds in the pot for 15ish minutes, 90 minutes cook, 15ish minutes natural release)

Ingredients

• 1 Flat Cut Corned Beef
• 2 onions, skins removed and sliced in half
• The peels from 1 orange
• 5 cloves of garlic
• The spice bag included with your Corned Beef
• 1 light beer, you could also use a Stout or Porter for the St Patty’s festivities!

Instructions

1. Prepare your ingredients.
2. Place all ingredients in your Instant Pot.
3. Seal the lid.
4. Set the Instant Pot to Meat and 90 minutes.
5. Once the Corned Beef is finished allow the Instant Pot to naturally release the pressure, ~15-20 minutes.

6. Remove from the hot liquid and allow to cool slightly before shredded or slicing.

I love shredding the corned beef for my Reuben Wonton Bites and it’s best to do that while warm. Just add a bit of the cooking liquid to the beef before refrigeration and it will retain all the goodness.