Name: Corned Beef & Cabbage Skillet
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 4 slices bacon; 4 tbsp salted butter; 1 medium head green cabbage (cored & thinly sliced); 2 cans corned beef; 1/4 cup water; freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)

Jump to Recipe

This corned beef and cabbage skillet takes the traditional flavors of the St. Patrick’s Day favorite and cuts down the cook and prep time to about 30 minutes. You can enjoy this hearty meal any night!

This post may contain affiliate links. As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my full Disclosure Policy for details.

My family loves corned beef and cabbage.

It is one of their favorite meals even when it’s nowhere near St. Patty’s Day.

This skillet adaptation of that famous meal is perfect for fans of corned beef.

It’s a simple recipe that you can easily modify with onions, beer, or potatoes.

One bite and you’ll know you made the right choice to make this for dinner tonight.

Ingredients

Bacon – Bacon needs no explanation. Use your favorite kind, hickory, mesquite, regular, thick cut. It’s bacon. You can’t go wrong.
Salted butter – You could use unsalted butter if you want to but you will have to add more salt.
Head green cabbage – You’ll need to core and slice/shred the cabbage. You can cheat this if your store sells shredded cabbage.
Corned beef – You’ll need two cans for a party of 6 or more, or 1 can for less than 6 people.
Water – For add flavor, you can use chicken broth or your favorite lager or beer.
Freshly cracked black pepper – You can add as much, or little, as you want.

How to make

When you make this skillet version of the classic, it takes a lot less work and time to prepare than a traditional dinner so you can make it any night of the week.

First, sauté the bacon in a heavy bottomed, deep skillet turning them as needed.

Once they are crispy, remove the strips to a waiting plate topped with a layer of paper towels to soak up the grease.

Keep the grease in the skillet and turn the burner to medium-low heat and add the butter.

Once the butter’s melted, add the shredded cabbage and gently toss to evenly coat it in the buttery mixture.

corned beef and cabbage skillet served in a light blue skillet

Next, add the water, chicken broth, or lager to the skillet and stir.

Sprinkle on the black pepper and stir into the cabbage.

Add as much or as little as you like.

After the black pepper is added, cover the skillet, raise the heat to medium, and let everything simmer for about 10 minutes or until the cabbage has caramelized.

As the cabbage cooks, place the corned beef onto a cutting board and chop into chunks.

You don’t need to make them uniform, they will break up in the skillet anyway.

When the cabbage and beef are ready, add it to the skillet and continue cooking another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally to crisp the corned beef.

Remove from heat.

Finally, roughly chop the crisped bacon and sprinkle it over the top of each serving.

Serve hot and enjoy!

corned beef & cabbage served in a white bowl with a silver fork on the side

Serving and storing

This skillet meal is best served fresh and hot from the stove top.

I like to serve the skillet with crusty bread or rolls to help sop up all the flavor on the plate.

Another favorite is to serve with a crispy hash brown patty.

If you need to store leftovers, place in an air tight container and place in the fridge.

It should save for about 3 to 4 days.

To reheat, you can gently warm it over low heat in a skillet on the stove or place a bowl in the microwave until it is warmed through.

Tips and tricks

If you plan to serve less than 6 people, keep the rest of the recipe the same but only use 1 can of corned beef instead of 2.
White onions add great extra flavor.
Swap the water for chicken broth or a good beer or lager for extra flavor.
You can also add cooked, diced potatoes for a more meat and potatoes kind of vibe. You could also serve with boiled or baked potatoes or even (my personal favorite) crispy hash brown patties.

Other Irish Inspired Recipes

My family loves this easy corned beef and cabbage skillet.

You can make this tonight for your hungry family who has been looking forward to corned beef all year long.

Looking for other Irish inspired recipes for St. Patrick’s Day?

Try these:

Need some dessert to round out your meal?

Try this Jameson whiskey infused bread pudding or these sweet Bailey’s Irish cream chocolate truffles.

If you’ve tried this CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE SKILLET or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!