Irish Tacos

By Sam Sifton

Total Time: 30 minutes
Rating: 4(1,660)
Notes: Read community notes

You can certainly eat corned beef with boiled cabbage and carrots, but it can be a great deal more exciting to pile the shredded meat — ruddy pink, salty, fatty and meltingly sweet — into warm flour tortillas, then top it with a bright, crunchy, slightly fiery cabbage slaw. The contrast between the soft and the crisp, the salt and the sweet, is fantastic — particularly if you adorn each taco with a few pickled jalapeños and, perhaps, an additional swipe of mayonnaise. It’s not fusion cooking, nor appropriation. It’s just the fact that everything tastes good on a warm tortilla.

Featured in: What if You Could Make Great Corned Beef?

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings

2 to 2½pounds corned beef (see recipe)
1small head of green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
3carrots, peeled and sliced into julienne
1cup mayonnaise
3tablespoons plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
3tablespoons cider vinegar
Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1½tablespoons hot pepper sauce, or to taste
12 to 16flour tortillas, warmed
Sliced fresh or pickled jalapeños

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Warm the corned beef in its cooking liquid, or wrap it in foil and set on a sheet pan in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes or so.
Step 2
Make the coleslaw: Mix cabbage and carrots together in a large bowl.
Step 3
In a separate bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, yogurt or sour cream, cider vinegar, salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce to taste.
Step 4
Pour half the sauce over the cabbage and carrots and toss to coat thoroughly. Season to taste. Reserve remaining sauce.
Step 5
When the corned beef is hot, remove from liquid or foil and use two forks to shred it. Serve with the warmed tortillas, sliced jalapeños, the slaw, remaining white sauce and some hot pepper sauce.

Ratings

4 out of 5

1,660 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Brian6 years ago

While you guys were arguing about it's authenticity, I went for seconds. Let me know how the anthropology argument works out!

betty skalski6 years ago

a dollop or two of creamed horseradish sauce is the best!!!!

greg6 years ago

Used a no mayo cole slaw - 2 tblespoon Dijon mustard, 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, 1/8 teaspoon celery salt, worked well with the corned beef flavors, would def recommend

Sandra Tiernan6 years ago

Well as an Irish woman, living in Ireland, I use my great grandmothers recipe for cabbage and corned beef. And she I'm sure got the recipe from her mother. No American influence at all. Cabbage and Corned Beef, Paddy's Day Celebrations and Halloween were all here long before he Americans reinvented it and claimed it for their own.

Frederika5 years ago

I wish that the comments could be included in saving the recipe in the file. There are plenty of recommendations that I believe are worth keeping in mind.

MRtk3 years ago

This is fusion cuisine in the best way. People have always learned from one another and used one another's ingredients. Tomatoes in spaghetti sauce, cheese in tacos, chicken in anything that isn't from Indochina, avocado in California sushi (even the name is fusion), red peppers in kimchee, potato pancakes, coffee outside of east Africa, tea outside of southern China. Would that people would realize that sharing is best and we all benefit and then apply this to more than food. :-)

LBK5 years ago

We like corn or flour tortillas, but lean more towards the flour. Especially since my son figured out a great way to do our faves, Whole Foods store-made flour tortillas from the bakery. He folds them, gently inserts in the toaster, extracts with the wooden toast tongs. Warm, slightly browned, formed just right. And best, speedy and no pan.

Karen6 years ago

Since there are only two of us at home, there's always leftover corned beef. This recipe was FANTASTIC!! I only tweaked it a little by adding chopped red onion to the cabbage mixture! I definitely will make this again!

dobes6 years ago

It's Irish-American, same as those who make it. :-)

Deb5 years ago

Irish side dishes. I used to make either Colcannon ( buttery mashed potatoes with cabbage ) or Champ ( buttery mashed potatoes with chopped green onion). One year couldn’t decide so combined them. Also glazed carrots. The glaze is butter, brown sugar and ground ginger.

Peabody5 years ago

There's one in every crowd.

pbscb6 years ago

What a Delicious way to use the leftovers! As we love the heat, we added a dollop of creamy, prepared Horseradish to the mayo sauce. Simple Recipe. Rave Reviews.

john Fitzgerald6 years ago

Yup.The only time i have ever tasted corned beef was on a trip to Boston, mostly out of curiosity, what with it being our national dish that neither myslef or anyone i know had ever seen let alone eaten....friendly leprechaun

Lily6 years ago

Since we had the boiled dinner earlier in the week, 3/17 was celebrated with leftovers. I warmed the meat and tortillas as directed. We piled on the meat, coleslaw, topped it with a slice of Swiss, then added mayo, mixed with wasabi for a little punch.

I reheated the leftover champ mash and mixed it with leftover boiled cabbage chopped. I made that mix into patties, dipped in egg, dusted with panko and gave them a fry. All gone.

I think we like the leftovers more than the original meal.

Richard Koch6 years ago

Now if only corned beef was really Irish. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/dining/corned-beef-and-cabbage-not-so...

Mrs K1 month ago

This is hands down the best recipe for leftover corned beef or planned corned beef dinner. We pick up extra corned beef around St Patrick’s Day just to be able to make this through out the rest of the year. We add scallions and cilantro to the cabbage mix for a little extra punch of flavor. Highly recommend getting a good char on your tortillas as well. Well done Sam, well done!!

Hannah4 months ago

Saw this as I was preparing for St Patrick’s day and picked up an extra corned beef. Threw it in the crockpot with Guinness and enjoyed with the slaw and sauce. They were delightful.

Phud4 months ago

Added apple sticks to the cole slaw for a bit of brightness. And my wife, who doesn't care for corned beef, declared it delicious.

New Fav for St Pat’s Day!4 months ago

I made this for St Patrick’s Day supper, and was a huge hit! Hubby couldn’t get enough and proclaimed that this wins over the traditional corned beef & cabbage dinner. So this will be the new tradition going forward. Made the sauce with a generous addition of hot sauce, we like it spicy, and made quick pickled jalapeños- yummy!

Patricia4 months ago

Used your recipe for corning beef for my Irish family's usual corned beef and cabbage on St Patrick's Day. It was fabulous, so thanks for that! Loved your Irish taco idea and threw those into the mix as well. Our take was corned beef, pickled cabbage, and, since we're New-Mexico-born Irish, green chile. My only complaint is that I have no leftovers for today and I'm really, really craving Irish tacos!

Karla S4 months ago

Since corned beef is a brisket cut, the last few years we have opted to smoke it instead. It adds an amazing flavor to these tacos and we use the leftovers for corned beef hash.

Miselem4 months ago

As a Mexican, this is what we surely will do with this kind of leftovers. I will ad only lemon.. everything tastes better on a warm tortilla and with few drops of lemon juice. Instead jalapeños, habanero chiles with red onion, the same used for cochinita pibil..

cindy9 months ago

Hubby had seconds and thirds - definitely a keeper!

Vermont Becky9 months ago

Taking it even further….smear some hoisin sauce in addition to the mayo sauce on the tortilla. Mexico meets Ireland meets mu shu

Mekr10 months ago

We had Irish tacos at La Condesa in Austin. They were made with rye tortillas. Wis I had the recipe, they were delicious!

Gale S1 year ago

The sauce for these tacos is one of the most versatile sauces published by NYT Cooking. We use it for fish tacos, dressing for a BLT salad and just about any dish that requires mayonnaise. It’s divine with potatoes.

JenniferK1 year ago

The coleslaw/corned beef combo is delish. Use pickled hot cherry peppers (vs. jalapenos) because that's what I had, but I added a fresh jalapeno to the corned beef reheat. Also used warmed corn tacos since we have gluten sensitivities. Will make again -- St. Patrick's Day left overs -- next year.

Mary in CA1 year ago

Leftover homemade corned beef turned into delicious and different tacos! My husband, who has a personal goal to visit every street taco stand in Baja California, loved them. I also made quick pickled jalapenos to go with them. We must figure out how to make these more often rather than only as a post-St Patrick's Day feast. Well done NYT!

Stephanie Anne1 year ago

this was delicious. What a great way to eat corned beef!

Zapes1 year ago

As a US Southwest born descendant of Irish immigrants this recipe makes perfect sense to me. But corn tortillas, please! For fork tender corned beef, put a pre-brined corned beef brisket in the Instant Pot along with pickling spices, a quartered onion, 4 smashed garlic cloves and 4 cups of cold water under pressure for 75 minutes, followed by 15 minutes natural release. Also, I added 8 thinly sliced scallions to the slaw. Erin go braugh.

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