Our Best St. Patrick’s Day Recipes

By Food & Wine and Margaret Eby
Updated March 02, 2020
Credit: Caitlin Bensel
From Irish-American classics like corned beef hash, to traditional Irish standbys like soda bread, we’ve got all the St. Patrick’s day recipes you’re looking for.
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Irish Lamb and Turnip Stew

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Chef April Bloomfield finishes this simple stew with lots of fresh parsley and mint. This hearty stew will feed your St. Patrick's Day party crowd--and you can make it up to three days ahead of time.

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Slow Cooker Corned Beef with Cabbage, Carrots and Potatoes

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Corned beef is one of the most popular dishes to eat on St. Patrick’s Day and originated during the days when refrigeration didn’t exist and foods were likely pickled or cured to preserve them.

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Guinness Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

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This dessert, created by pastry chef Cory Barrett, is an ode to Michael Symon’s father, Dennis, who loves beer, pretzels and chocolate. The ice cream has a strong, malty Guinness flavor that goes supremely well with the salty, milk chocolate-covered pretzels.

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Braised Lamb with Herb-Scented Jus

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This tender braised leg of lamb might be served at a private dinner party. Chef David Mawhinny then sandwiches any extra meat and meat juices with pickled vegetables and focaccia for lunch.

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Gaelic Punch

Credit: Tina Rupp
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For hot punches, young Irish whiskeys work best. Heat intensifies the tannic edge of older whiskeys; young ones stay smooth.

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Irish Brown Bread

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Even though this bread is dense, hearty and complex-tasting, it requires no yeast and therefore no rising time. Cathal Armstrong says he likes it best “fresh from the oven and with lots of Kerrygold butter.”

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Smoked Salmon Toasts with Mustard Butter

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Sour cream or cream cheese may be the usual spread with salty smoked salmon, but chef David Tanis thinks softened butter makes a tasty alternative. (Think of ham-and-butter sandwiches.) To give the butter a zippy bite, he stirs in lemon zest and both Dijon and grainy mustards.

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Whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes

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These potatoes from master chef Thomas Keller have a wonderfully fluffy texture because they’re passed through a ricer or food mill to make them especially airy. But they’re also nicely rich, thanks to generous amounts of butter and heavy cream.

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Corned Beef Hash with Fried Eggs

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Corned beef hash is more Irish-American fare than traditional Irish food, but this version, complete with crispy, lacey-edge fried eggs, is perfect for a hearty breakfast or brunch.

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Salmon-and-Spinach Cakes

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Add a twist to your salmon supper with these easy to whip up patties. Dill, spinach, and jalapeno come together with onion, potato, sour cream, and salmon for a filling fish dinner.

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Garlic-and-Herb-Crusted Leg of Lamb

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This leg of lamb is perfectly juicy in the center, with a fantastic crust. The recipe is so easy that it’s ideal for a dinner party, as well as for Easter.

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Orange-Cranberry Scones with Turbinado Sugar

Credit: Tina Rupp
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Cooks are discovering that agave nectar, Indian jaggery and other natural sweeteners have nuanced flavors that white sugar doesn’t; plus, unprocessed sweeteners may be richer in minerals and less likely to cause spikes in blood-sugar levels. In Mani Niall’s cookbook, Sweet!, he champions these ingredients. His pleasantly dense cranberry-studded scones, for instance, get a toffeelike flavor from light brown turbinado sugar, which has large, crunchy crystals. Sugar in the Raw is a good brand.

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Creamy Leek and Potato Soup

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This hearty, comforting soup takes less than an hour to make, and you probably have most of the ingredients already on hand—just pick up some leeks, potatoes, and cream.

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Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Fennel

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Harvested by hand from the waters off Essex, England, Maldon sea salt crystals have a great crunch and a remarkably subtle, briny flavor. Uncomplicated foods, such as baked potatoes show it off to its best advantage.

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Roasted Chicken Legs with Potatoes and Kale

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For this one-pan dish, Grace Parisi roasts chicken legs on a bed of potatoes and kale so the meaty juices keep the vegetables moist.

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Guinness-Glazed Halibut

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“Guinness has this great molasses flavor that intensifies when you cook it down,” Melissa Clark says. “It adds richness to the fish without adding fat.”

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Irish Soda Bread

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A trip to Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland inspired Susie Tompkins Buell to make this dense and hearty soda bread. It’s perfect used in a sandwich with fromage blanc, smoked salmon, watercress and thinly sliced red onion.

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Guiness-Glazed Ham

Credit: Caitlin Bensel
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Galway Chef JP McMahon uses a combination of light brown sugar and Ireland’s most famous stout to create a malted, sweet-but-balanced glaze that ham soaks up.

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Irish Lamb Pies With Herbs

Credit: Caitlin Bensel
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These savory hand pies are filled with lamb that’s been cooked with thyme, rosemary, and sage, making for something close to a gorgeous, self-contained, handheld pot pie.

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By Food & Wine and Margaret Eby