Skip the boiling and bake your next corned beef brisket with a deliciously simple mustard and brown sugar topping for a versatile, filling meal that may become your new go-to.
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Oven baked corned beef brisket
Corned beef isn’t just for Saint Patrick’s Day or your favorite old-school deli. It’s easy to make incredible meals from this underrated cut and style of meat right at home with just two other ingredients.
What makes baked corned beef with brown sugar so good?
Contrast is the magic of this recipe. Corned beef is typically quite salty, seasoned with a pungent mix of spices. It pairs beautifully with the complex sweetness of brown sugar and the distinctive tangy sharpness of Dijon, which slowly marinate the meat while it bakes.
Meanwhile, the low and slow cooking process breaks down the meat’s connective tissue, turning the otherwise tough cut into mouthwatering, fork-tender beef.
Why you should try this recipe
Forget about complicated recipes with tons of ingredients — you don’t need them to create big flavors. With just a few ingredients and a few easy steps, you’ll be ready to chow down. It’s also wonderfully versatile.
Enjoy it hot and fresh from the oven, or slice it and stick it in the fridge for delicious sandwiches. You can even dice it up and toss it in a potato salad or an omelet/egg scramble.
Ingredients
Just three simple ingredients are necessary to create the best corned beef:
- Corned beef brisket
- Dijon Mustard
- Brown Sugar
If you don’t have brown sugar, you can substitute Turbinado sugar for a similar effect. With such a straightforward recipe, it’s vital to use the best quality ingredients possible.
How do you pick out the perfect corned beef?
Finding the perfect corned beef brisket for your needs depends on how many people you’re trying to feed and your desired composition of the meat.
Generally, corned beef is sold in three forms: the whole brisket, a thick cut, and a thin cut. The thick cut pieces include more fat (and, therefore, flavor) and make roughly four to six servings. The thinner part (the “flat cut”) is leaner and smaller overall, perfect for two to four people.
Whole briskets offer both cuts unseparated for a more substantial and varied piece of meat.
How to make corned beef brisket
Making this dijon-brown sugar corned beef could hardly be easier, and takes just ten minutes of active cooking:
- Preheat your oven to 375°F.
- Remove the corned beef from the package, rinse it, and pat it dry. Discard the spice packet if there is one. Place it in a large baking dish on a sheet of aluminum foil, fat side up.
- Spread the mustard over the top of the corned beef.
- Sprinkle brown sugar over it.
- Wrap it in foil.
- Add water to the pan until it’s about a third full.
- Wrap the pan in foil and bake until it reaches at least 145°F inside, about two and a half hours.
- Unwrap the foil and broil for 2-3 minutes to crisp the exterior.
- Place it on a cutting board and let it rest for at least 10 minutes.
- Slice it and serve.
Those looking for juicy yet fork-tender corned beef can leave it in the oven for up to four hours total, until the internal temperature has reached 195°F. An instant-read meat thermometer is a vital tool for making sure your corned beef is ready to go.
How to serve baked corned beef
After removing it from the oven, allow the corned beef to rest for a few minutes, which lets the juices distribute within the meat more evenly and the cooking process to complete. Then, slice it against the grain into pieces of your desired size and thickness.
If you’re enjoying corned beef as a main, you may want thicker pieces, while those preparing the meat for sandwiches will likely want thinner slices.
What goes well with corned beef with mustard and brown sugar
Corned beef goes well with a variety of tasty sides. One that’s most closely associated with corned beef is cabbage, typically sauteed or stewed. Roasted vegetables, carrots, mashed potatoes, or roasted red potatoes are also excellent companions. For a deli-style spin, add a pickle or some sauerkraut.
You can also use it to make corned beef hash and Reuben sandwiches including a tasty corned beef breakfast sandwich.
How to store leftovers
If you’ve got some leftover corned beef, you’ll be happy to know it stores pretty well. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then place it in an airtight container. Store the corned beef in the refrigerator and use it within three to four days.
If you want to preserve baked corned beef for longer, you can wrap it in foil or plastic wrap and store it in a freezer-safe bag or container. It’ll be at its best for two to three months.
How to reheat
While this corned beef is delicious cold or at room temperature, it’s also easy to reheat in the microwave or the oven. The former method is quicker, requiring just a few minutes to heat up. However, using a 350°F oven preserves the best texture, even if it can take ten minutes or more. Frozen corned beef should be fully thawed in the fridge before reheating.
Looking for more Irish recipes? Try these!
- Champ Potatoes Recipe
- Colcannon
- Guinness Dipping Sauce
- Instant Pot Irish Stew
- Irish Coddle
- Irish Coffee
- Shamrock Shake
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Be sure to check out these restaurant copycat recipes and copycat seafood recipes.
Baked Corned Beef with Mustard and Brown Sugar
Ingredients
- 5 pounds corned beef brisket
- 1/2 cup Dijon mustard use more if needed
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Thoroughly rinse the corned beef and discard the seasoning packet. Pat the meat dry.
- Place the corned beef fat-side up on a large piece of aluminum foil. Spread the mustard over the corned beef and sprinkle with brown sugar. Wrap the aluminum foil tightly around the meat.
- Pour water into a roasting pan until it reaches a depth of 1/2 inch. Place the wrapped corn beef into the pan and roast in the preheated oven for about 2 1/2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 145°F. For super tender corned beef, cook for an additional 1 or 2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 195°F.
- Carefully open the top of the aluminum foil to expose the brisket and turn the oven to broil. Broil just long enough for the mustard crust to brown.
Have made it several times now and it’s delicious! How would swerve brown sugar work for this?
I don’t know, I have never tried making it with Swerve.
I’ve been making this recipe for over 30 years with a sauce that takes it over the top. I can’t give exact measurements as I don’t measure anything but: mix about 1 to 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard and maybe 1 tablespoon of horseradish with 8 oz container of sour cream. I mix it up in the morning and keep it in the refrigerator until dinner is served. Don’t heat it up, just slather the sauce on your corned beef and enjoy!
Hi Steph, i like the taste of the Corned Beef Seasoning but I want to try the oven method. I want to try half with the mustard and half with the seasoning to see which one i like best!! Do you think if i put the seasoning in a coffee grinder and make it a powder i could put it on the corned beef and baked it or would you put it in the the bucket with water and leave it in the refrigerator over night ? Thank You Very Much!!!
I am sorry I have not tried that before, I would just toss the seasonings under the meat in the dish and cook it.
I am cooking this tonight, do I put the lid on roaster pan while the meat is cooking in the foil, or leave the lid off?
You do not need to put the roaster lid on the pan while with meat is cooking in the foil.
So, do you wrap it in foil or put in a pan with water? Fat side up or fat side down?
Please place the meat fat side up on a piece of foil, then add the mustard and brown sugar. Wrap it with foil. Place it into a pan, then add the water to the pan.
Do you think Turbinado sugar would work as a replacement for brown sugar?
Yes I do.
I have made this several times. Have it in the oven now. My husband is NOT a fan of corned beef but he loves this recipe. Will never go back to boiled again. This recipe is a winner.
I am so glad you liked it!
I followed the instructions given…..I wanted to cook it in a crock pot but I went with how the recipe was written. It was so tough it wasn’t edible. 🤦🏼♀️ Needs to cook longer at a much lower temp I believe.
I am really sorry it didn’t work out for you. The cooking time should depend upon on the weight of the corned beef. I will update the recipe with some cooking time suggestions.
The recipe says far side up and you put fat side down!?
You should put the fat side up, I made a mistake.
Hey Stephanie, This dish looks delicious! At end of this month, I am gonna throw a party and that time I will surely try this recipe out. My friends like the Corned Beef. Hope they would love it. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Something I’ve been doing for the last several years is reverse-brining my corned beefs for 24 hours before cooking. Where regular brining is a way to get salt into the meat, reverse brining pulls out the salt. I place the meat in a plastic container filled with fresh water and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning I change the water. With the excess salt removed, you can taste the flavor of the meat much better. This trick works equally well with ham steaks.
This is a great idea, I will try this on my next one.
I love the idea of the reverse brine!