Smoked Corned Beef with Irish Whiskey Sauce takes this traditional St. Patrick’s Day entree over the rainbow! Serve with sauteed cabbage & Irish Soda Bread.
Get your Irish on this St. Patrick’s Day by working a little leprechaun magic with your smoker. Take traditional corned beef over the rainbow and strike gold by smoking this traditional dish and bringing out new and amazing flavors with an Irish whiskey sauce.
Smoked Corned Beef
Equipment
- Wood chips or small sticks from pruning fruit trees, soaked in water for about 5 minutes
- Your favorite smoker. I use a Big Green Egg.
Ingredients
Smoked Corned Beef Brisket
- 1 4-5 pound corned beef brisket
- 1 Tbs. pickling spices
- Olive oil for brushing the brisket
Irish Whiskey Sauce
- 1 cup Irish whiskey Jamison or 2 Gingers are good brands
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup orange juice (not concentrate) or the juice of 1 orange
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp each whole cloves and whole allspice
- 1 Tbs cornstarch
Instructions
Smoked Corned Beef Brisket
- Soak wood chips for smoking in water for about 10 minutes. This keeps them from burning up right away.
- Heat your smoker to 250°. Place a baking stone or cookie sheet on the rack in your smoker.
- Rinse and pat dry the corned beef brisket. Brush it well with olive oil and press the pickling spices onto the meat.
- Then place the brisket on a V-shaped cooking rack (the one that comes with the Big Green Egg) or any other cooking rack that will allow the smoke to surround the meat as it cooks.
- Cook for about 1½ hours per pound of meat.
- When the brisket is finished, let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.
- Then slice and serve drizzled with Irish Whiskey Sauce.
Irish Whiskey Sauce
- In a small sauce pan, add the whiskey, water, orange juice, and sugar.
- Add the whole cloves and allspice in an herb/spice strainer to the liquid.
- Sinner on medium heat until the liquid is reduced by about half.
- In a small bowl, add the cornstarch and whisk in about ½ cup of the liquid from the saucepan. Then pour the cornstarch mixture back into the saucepan and whisk to combine. This will slightly thicken the sauce.
- Whisk the sauce constantly as it simmers until it thickens and clarifies.
- Drizzle it over sliced Smoked Corned Beef Brisket and serve.
Notes
What is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is a beef brisket cured in a salt brine spiced with pickling spices. There is no corn used in the process. The word “corn” in the name refers to the large grains of rock salt used in the curing process that are called “corns”. It’s the main ingredient in the Reuben sandwich and in Corned Beef Hash served for breakfast and topped with a fried egg.
Usually, corned beef is prepared by either boiling it or roasting it in the oven. This St. Patrick’s Day, I’m serving my corned beef brisket smoked on our Big Green Egg. Smoking brings out the amazing salty, spicy flavors of corned beef while adding the richness of a smoky undertone. Irish Whiskey Sauce completes Smoked Corned Beef by balancing the smokey saltiness with spicy sweetness. This entree is perfectly accompanied by sauteed cabbage, Irish Soda Bread, and buttered boiled redskin potatoes.
Readying Your Smoker for Smoked Corned Beef with Irish Whiskey Glaze
We have an apple orchard and that means an abundance of applewood for smoking meats. I always save the small branches after pruning the trees in the very early spring for flavoring meats in our smoker.
For my smoker, I soak the branches that are about half-inch in diameter in water overnight before smoking meat. Soaking them in water makes the branches smoke slowly rather than burn quickly in our Big Green Egg. For your smoker, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for preparing wood chips for smoking. Apple and cherry wood chips create a sweet smoke that nicely balances the salty spiciness of corned beef.
Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for preparing wood chips for use in your smoker.
I learned from my friends in the UP of Michigan: Never let snow get in the way of cooking on the grill.
Serve Smoked Corned Beef with Irish Whiskey Sauce with sauteed cabbage, buttered boiled redskin potatoes, and Irish Soda Bread. The grand finale to this amazing Irish dinner is Strawberry Shortcake – a beloved dessert on the Emerald Isle.
