When you are trying to keep food costs down, you find all sorts of ways to use up leftovers. I am sure our hash started as leftovers from St. Patrick’s Day Corned beef and cabbage. I remember also serving Rueben sandwiches a few times too, to use up leftovers, but they were never part of our regular menu. Trying to slice home cooked corned beef that is super tender is also super fragile. There ends up being more scraps for hash then meat for sandwiches. As an option, creating a Rueben wrap might be a solution around this.
Cooling the corned beef after cooking is recommended to make it easier to slice and dice. I like to make it the day before and let it cool in the refrigerator overnight to make it easier to handle. This way the fat solidifies, and it is easier to remove the fat you don’t want. For sandwiches I like to use the leaner pieces of meat and use the marbled fattier pieces for hash.
The recipe we used at the restaurant was inspired by Michael Symons “Corned Beef Hash” recipe from the book Carnivore. I replaced the jalapenos with green peppers, to stick with the St Patrick’s day theme and add a bit of color. You can use the original jalapenos if you like or whatever peppers you have on hand.
The original recipe called for boiling the potatoes. At the restaurant we roasted the potatoes; I think it adds more flavor. We also had a lot of roasted potatoes on hand that we used for our breakfast potatoes, so we could use these up when we had them left over.
We also baked our corned beef in the oven rather than boiling it as many people do. I think this too adds more flavor as it allows the fat to render more slowly and permeate the meat.
While we used whole briskets at the restaurant, smaller more manageable pieces are available in grocery stores. I used Grobbel’s Corned Beef. Click here for instructions for preparing corned beef in the oven,
At the restaurant we prepared the hash ahead of time and then portioned and refrigerated the hash until it was needed. You can also freeze the hash to use later. Pull the hash from the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator overnight before heating.
The recipe below is my revised version for making four portions at home. Instead of roasting the potatoes, I bake them and cool them before dicing. I found that I like the texture this creates in the hash.
You can eat the hash by itself or top it with eggs and add a buttermilk biscuit for the Original Otto’s Place Cafe & Lounge experience.
Corned Beef Hash
Equipment
- digital scale
- large frying pan
- sharp knife for dicing
- cutting board
Ingredients
- 16 oz potatoes, baked, 1/4-inch dice
- 8 oz corned beef, 1/4-inch dice
- 4 oz red or green peppers, 1/4-inch dice
- 2 oz onions, 1/4-inch dice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/4 tsp Lawry's Seasoned Salt, or table salt
- 1/4 tsp Penzeys Florida Seasoned Pepper, or black pepper
Instructions
- Cook the corned beef according to the package directions. You want to make sure that it is fork tender.
- Remove the corned beef from the oven and cool in the refrigerator overnight, or until it is cool enough to handle and dice without crumbling the pieces.
- Bake your potatoes in the oven, or microwave which ever you prefer. Slice and cool in the refrigerator along with the corned beef.
- When the corned beef and potatoes are cooled dice them in a 1/4-inch dice.
- Dice the peppers and onions in a 1/4-inch dice too.
- When you have all the ingredients ready to go, heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add the diced potatoes, corned beef, peppers, and onions and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook until the peppers and onions are soft, stirring occasionally so that the bottom doesn't burn, but develops nice brown crusty pieces.
- Some people like their hash extra crispy, cook until it is the desired texture you prefer, watching carefully so you do not burn the hash.