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Corned beef casserole is a great use for leftover corned beef or venison. Add noodles, cabbage, peas, cheese and breadcrumbs and it’s a winner. If you really want to sex things up, make your own cream of “chicken” soup with homemade stock. But you don’t have to.
Obviously you can use canned cream of chicken soup, but I dislike canned “cream of” soups, so I always make my own. They’re not difficult.
I first saw recipes for corned beef casserole in a wonderfully odd book called the Pine to Prairie Cookbook. The book is loaded with recipes from regular folks from Minnesota and North Dakota, and while there are doozies in there, the corned beef casserole looked genuinely good.
At least in structure and concept. This recipe is my own rendition, adjusted to work with both wild and farmed ingredients.
Now there is a thing called a Reuben casserole, which is similar to this, but not the same. Basically that dish is a Reuben sandwich deconstructed and put into a casserole dish. Seems a little weird to me, especially the idea of cooked thousand island dressing.
Another style of corned beef casserole is explicitly for St. Patrick’s Day. That one has corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Obvi, right?
This one is a hybrid, more Midwestern. I use broken up corned venison, which is basically the same as corned beef, fresh cabbage sauteed with onion in butter, frozen peas, wide German egg noodles, cheese, rye breadcrumbs and a homemade “cream of” soup.
Homemade ‘Cream of’ Soup
OK, yes, you can use canned cream of chicken or cream of celery for this corned beef casserole. I won’t hate you, and it does save time. But homemade is so much better.
Basically a “cream of” soup is either a bisque or veloute. A wha? OK, so a veloute is a French mother sauce. It’s typically a flour-and-butter roux to which stock is added, then finished with a little cream. You can add other elements to it, as well. In this case mustard.
Making it is as simple as making a roux, slowly pouring in stock, in this case chicken or grouse or pheasant or quail stock, bringing it to a simmer, mixing in some Dijon mustard, then adding a little cream at the end.
This becomes the sauce for the corned beef casserole.
Building a Corned Beef Casserole
Like most casseroles or hotdishes, you build them in blocks, mix together, then bake.
In this case, you saute chopped cabbage and onion in butter, add to this frozen peas and broken up corned beef or venison, mix with partially cooked egg noddles and shredded cheese, then stir in the sauce.
Pack into a casserole, top with more cheese and buttered breadcrumbs, then bake.
I really like rye breadcrumbs here because rye likes corned beef. A lot. But regular breadcrumbs are fine.
Serving and Storing
Serve your corned beef casserole with a green salad, or some lightly cooked vegetables, like sauteed carrots or greens. Keep it light.
Once made, the casserole keeps a week in the fridge and it can be frozen. I like to reheat small portions in a covered pan on the stovetop set on medium-low, or you can reheat the whole dish in a 350°F oven for about 30 minutes.
Looking for more casseroles? I got ’em. Try my tater tot venison hotdish, my Italian style casserole, or my sauerkraut casserole, which is basically German lasagna.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.
Corned Beef Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 ounces wide egg noodles
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 small head of cabbage, chopped (or 1/2 large head)
- 1 white or yellow onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried savory or thyme
- 2 pounds corned beef or venison, chopped or shredded
- 1 cup frozen peas
HOMEMADE CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP
- 2 tablespoons butter (40 grams)
- 2 tablespoons flour, heaping (35 grams)
- 1/3 cup white wine (75 ml)
- 2 cups chicken, grouse, pheasant or quail stock (400 ml)
- 2 tablespoons Dijon or other smooth mustard
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (50 ml)
TO FINISH
- 1/2 pound shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, rye if possible
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a large casserole dish (9×13), with butter or lard. Boil the egg noodles in salty water until they are about half done, so flexible but still a little crunchy at the center. Drain and set aside.
- While the noodles are cooking, saute the cabbage and onion in the 3 tablespoons of butter until translucent, soft and just barely starting to brown. Turn off the heat and mix in the corned beef, savory or thyme, and the frozen peas. Mix all this in with the half-cooked noodles.
CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP
- To make the soup that will serve as the sauce, cook the 2 tablespoons of butter with the flour over medium heat, stirring very often, until it turns a "dirty blonde" color, about 5 minutes. Keep an eye out while you are stirring — you don't want it to burn.
- Pour in the white wine and stir. The mixture ill seize up. Pour in a little of the stock at a time, stirring constantly so it incorporates. Keep doing this with all the stock. Bring this to a simmer, and ladle off a little into a cup. Mix this with the mustard into a slurry.
- After the sauce has cooked about 5 minutes, add the slurry back into the pot and stir well. The mustard will want to separate, so whisk or stir until it incorporates. Cook this another minute or two, the turn off the heat and stir in the cream. Add salt to taste.
TO FINISH
- Mix the sauce and half the cheese in with the meat-noddle-cabbage mixture, then pack it into the casserole dish.
- Mix the melted butter with the breadcrumbs and stir well until incorporated. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of the casserole, then the buttered breadcrumbs. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Let it set out of the oven for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Corned beef was on sale for St. Patrick’s Day, so I made this recipe for a potluck lunch. It was excellent and got gobbled up. Here are my comments/tweaks:
1. I shredded the cooked corned beef in my Cusinart, and it saved the effort of chopping it. It also made it very easy to work with and mix with everything else
2. But the beef was a bit bland, so I had to add a lot of salt
3. I used storebought chicken broth, but I did use Hank’s method of making a roux and adding white wine and mustard. Let me tell you, the Dijon and wine combo was dynamite!
4. Finally, I increased the amount of herbs – my wife doesn’t like thyme, so I used Herbes de Provence (which includes thyme, but in a lesser quantity). It really perked up the flavor. My herbs were older, so it’s quite possible they had lost some flavor and that was the reason why I had to kick it up. But DEFINITELY taste the misture before baking to adjust for salt and herbs.
We used Gruyere cheese instead of cheddar and it was divine. Another Wonderful recipe!
Thank you Hank
Sounds like a wonderful way to use up the left over corned beef I’ll be making this week. Thanks for another great recipe, Hank!
Hank,
Another great recipe
Saturday I made your Sauerkraut casserole – it was delicious!
Have a good week!
Tad