A few recipes come to mind when we think of St. Patrick’s Day. Corned Beef, Irish Soda Bread, and Irish Stew are some of the best recipes to make this holiday. If you are Irish, I bet you have a grandma who has a cookbook with all the best-kept Irish recipes. Have you always wanted to know how she makes those delicious meals, or are you looking for a new way to make those traditional dishes?

Follow this guide for the best Irish dishes, desserts, and dinners. If you love these recipes as much as we do, then save this post for years to come, so that you can cherish these dishes year after year. Let’s get cookin’! 

1. Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage 

It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day if we didn’t eat Corned Beef and Cabbage. Did you know that it technically isn’t considered a traditional Irish dish? That’s right, Corned Beef and Cabbage originates as a part of Irish-American culture. Lucky for us we are in Racine, and not Dublin, so we are safe to continue making this dinner. Looking for the perfect recipe, but want to speed up the process? Check out ours down below. 

The recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen and The Food Network. Click the link to see the recipe from the original source.

Level: Easy 

Prep: 30 mins 

Cook time: 10-15min

Yield: 4-6 (If serving 6, use two cans of corned beef) 

Ingredients: 

• 4 slices bacon
• 4 tablespoons butter 
• 1 head green cabbage, coarsely chopped 
• Salt (to taste) 
• Ground pepper (to taste) 
• 1 can corned beef 

Directions: 

• Cook bacon in a large pot over medium heat. Cook bacon to a crisp. Remove bacon from the pot and set aside. 
• Melt butter in the pan with the bacon grease. Add the coarsely chopped cabbage to the pan. Stir the ingredients so that the cabbage is coated in the butter and bacon grease. Add ⅓ cup of water to the pan. Add salt and pepper. Cover the pot with a lid and cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. 
• While it cooks, cut the bacon into small pieces. 
• Remove the lid from the pot, and scatter chunks of corned beef from the can, on top of the cabbage. Add bacon on top of the cooked cabbage too. 
• Cook the cabbage and corned beef until it is cooked to the desired temperature. 
• Enjoy and serve.

2. Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread is a quick and easy recipe to make. This recipe is one that never gets old and has been around for many years. This recipe started off as a simple bread only containing the most basic ingredients such as flour, baking soda, and soured milk.

The X shape cut into the top of the loaf has symbolism. The X is recognizable on top of the loaf. Those native to Ireland say that before baking, a cross symbol was cut into the top of the bread to ward off the devil and protect the household. This bread is pretty perishable and that’s what made it special in Ireland. You can expect to eat your Irish bread with your meal, just like natives did. 

Today most people love to make Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day. We don’t want you to miss out on this savory bread, so here is your chance to make it. We all know it wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without a loaf.

This recipe is courtesy of the Food Network and Ina Garten.

Level: Easy 

Prep: 20 min. 

Cook time: 55 min.

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt 
• 4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter 
  (Dice into ½ inch cubes)
• 1 ¾ cups cold buttermilk, shaken 
• 1 extra large egg, lightly beaten 
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 
• 1 cup dried currants 

Directions: 

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 
• Line a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. 
• Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl. 
• Mix ingredients with an electric mixer on medium speed.
• Add butter to bowl, and mix on low speed until mixed evenly. 
• With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg and orange zest together in a measuring cup. 
• Turn the mixer to low speed, slowly add the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest mixture to the bowl.
• Combine currants with 1 tablespoon of flour to the dough mixture. Note: It will be very wet. 
• Get a cutting board and cover it with flour. 
• Pour the dough mixture on the board. Knead the bread for a few minutes until it shapes into a round loaf. 
• Take a knife and lightly cut an X shape into the top of the dough.
• Transfer dough onto cookie sheet. 
• Bake for 45-55 minutes.
• Use a toothpick, poke it into the loaf, if no residue is left on the toothpick when it is pulled out then the bread is done baking. 
• Transfer loaf of bread to a cooling rack. Serve & enjoy! 

3. Irish Stew

The most traditional Irish meal that we can think of is Irish Stew.

Irish Stew is a hearty meal that goes great with Irish Soda Bread. This stew consists of lamb meat and cooked vegetables. This stew is a meat lover’s dream and a perfect stew to make to ring in St. Patrick’s Day. We’ve found a recipe from Food Network courtesy of Giana Ferguson and we are sure that you’ll love it as much as we do. Check out the original recipe here.

Level: Intermediate

Prep: 35 min. 

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings 

Irish Stew

Ingredients: 

• 2 to 3 lbs lamb chops (not less than 1 inch thick)
• 5 medium sized carrots 
• 5 medium sized onions 
• 8 potatoes 
• 3 to 3 ¾ cups lamb stock 
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme 
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon roux 

Garnish: 

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly chopped parsley 
• 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon freshly chopped chives 

Roux: 

• 1 stick butter 
• Scant 1 cup flour 

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Cut the lamb chops in half and trim excess fat. Set aside.
• Render the excess fat in a pan on low heat. Discard these pieces after.
• Peel onions. If they are large, cut them into small chunks. If they are small, leave them whole.
• Peel carrots. Cut into large chunks.  
• Place the meat into the pan with the fat. Cook until lightly brown. 
• Once cooked, remove meat and transfer to a casserole pan. 
• Toss the onions and carrots in the fat on low heat. 
• Within the casserole pan, build up layers of meat, onion, and carrot. Spread out evenly and layer with salt & ground pepper. 
• Turn the low heat off. Deglaze the pan by pouring the lamb stock into the pan. Pour these contents into the casserole pan. 
• Peel potatoes. Place the potatoes on top of the stew. By doing this, the potatoes will steam while the stew cooks. Season the potatoes. 
• Add a sprig of thyme and bring to a boil on top of the stove, cover, then transfer to the oven. Cook until stew is done, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. 
• Once the stew is cooked, pour off the cooking liquids. 
• Degrease and reheat in another saucepan. Thicken this with roux. 
• Taste and add parsley and chives. 
• Pour mixture over stew. 
• Bring it back to boil and serve from the pot. 

Directions for Roux:

• Melt butter on low heat in a saucepan. 
• Stir occasionally for about 2 minutes. 
• Use as needed or store in a cool place. 

Note: Roux will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. 

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t complete without these three dishes. Whether you are Irish or not, anyone can enjoy these recipes on St. Patrick’s Day.

If you love these recipes, share them with a friend or add these recipes to your cookbook. If you’ve been using a different recipe to make one of these meals, consider trying something new from our post. It’s Saint Patrick’s Day so you just might get lucky and fall in love with one of these three. 

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