The classic Tuna Sandwich has been well-loved for generations, and surprisingly, there’s a bit of debate about how to make the best tuna sandwich. We all know what we like, don’t we? This version is full of fresh flavors: dill, lemon, scallion, celery, and a kick of cayenne to give your tuna mayo a boost.
Put canned tuna at the top of your Budget Grocery List to ensure you always have the makings for the best tuna sandwich. Serve this Tuna Sandwich on fresh pumpernickel bread, lettuce, and tomato for a stunning show of colors. It works well in a Lunchtime Meal Prep and is sure to top your list of Easy Dinners to Make.
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Folks have either a great memory of a tuna salad sandwich, or they don’t. I grew up eating classic tuna salad stuffed in a tuna pita pocket with alfalfa sprouts. I loved it — regardless of the ribbing my classmates gave me in the lunch room.
My husband, on the other hand, did not enjoy his childhood tuna salad sandwiches. His aunt Melanie loaded them with sweet pickle relish — not his favorite. Thankfully, he loves my way Tuna Sandwich recipe, so we’re good.
The great thing is that there are so many tasty ways of making tuna salad that you’re bound to find one you love. I hope you’ll try ours!
Why Make This
It’s affordable. While many things have gone up in price, even tuna, canned tuna is still a more affordable, shelf-stable protein. This is one of the most affordable sandwich recipes you can make.
It’s delicious. This tuna salad recipe calls for flaky chunks of albacore tuna, mayo, lemon juice, and just the right seasonings for a mouth-watering sammy that you’ll want to enjoy weekly! Enjoy a sandwich on fresh bread or go for the gusto in a Tuna Melt Sandwich.
It’s quick. You can whip up this tuna salad sandwich in just minutes making it a great quick dinner to serve on busy nights.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make our favorite Tuna Sandwich recipe:
canned tuna – I like to use solid white albacore tuna packed in water, but there are many varieties out there, including yellowfin tuna, and albacore packed in olive oil. Use what you prefer. If you’re not sure what you like, start with solid white in water. Once you make this, be sure to check out our other Easy Fish Recipes. You will love my Tuna Noodle Casserole!
fresh lemon juice – Lemon is always a great complement to fish. If you don’t have fresh lemons, bottled lemon juice is fine. Remember you can freeze lemons.
herbs and spices – You can definitely play around with the herbs and spices you add, but we love to include, salt, dried dill, freshly ground black pepper, and ground cayenne. You can also add a bit of celery seed, if you like.
mayonnaise – Mayo makes a great binder for tuna salad. Homemade mayonnaise is easy and delicious if you want to level up this sandwich. You can also use Greek yogurt if you prefer. You can also substitute Greek Yogurt Tartar Sauce or a Remoulade for the mayo.
onion – I love the freshness that green onion brings, but you can also use finely chopped red onion or brown onion.
celery – Chopped celery is often considered standard for adding crunch, though some people prefer chopped pickles, pickle relish, chopped cucumbers or chopped red bell pepper. Use what you have and explore some new options!
sandwich bread or rolls – To make a tuna sandwich, you’ll need bread or rolls. White or wheat sandwich bread is fine, but pumpernickel or brown bread brings stunning color! Check out our list of Best Sandwich Breads for more options. You can also serve tuna salad in lettuce wraps. Try these Niçoise salad Wraps for a fun variation.
optional – I love to layer cheese, sliced tomato, and lettuce in my tuna sandwiches. Be sure to read the comments for more ideas from our readers!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s how to make this easy Tuna Sandwich recipe:
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, place the tuna. Do not break up too finely, just enough to have small chunks. You want to mix this as little and as lightly as possible.
- Squeeze the lemon juice over the fish.
- Add the mayo, onion, celery, salt, dill weed, pepper and cayenne. Toss lightly to combine, adding extra mayo if needed to bind the ingredients.
- Serve as a sandwich filling or in lettuce wraps.
- Store leftover tuna salad in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to 2 days.
To pack for lunch, consider storing the tuna salad and the bread in separate containers to avoid letting the bread get soggy.
FAQs
There are so many great ways to make a tuna sandwich, there’s a good fit for everyone! Consider a classic mayo-scallion-celery combination or add a little sweet to your savory via sweet pickle relish. Some people add hard cooked eggs or shredded cheese to their tuna sandwiches as well.
Tuna sandwiches can play a part in a healthy diet, particularly if you control how much saturated fat you use (the mayo) and serve it on whole grain bread. Keep in mind that the FDA does have recommendations re: safe consumption of tuna.
Tuna as well as other meat and dairy products should be refrigerated until ready to serve. Discard any tuna salad that has been left at room temperature longer than 2 hours. Be mindful of food stored in the danger zone.
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
The Best Tuna Sandwich Recipe
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- fork
Ingredients
- 2 5-ounce cans albacore tuna drained
- ½ lemon juiced
- 2 to 3 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 2 green onion chopped
- ½ rib celery chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- pinch ground cayenne pepper
- 8 slices sandwich bread or rolls or lettuce leaves
Instructions
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, place the tuna. Do not break up too finely, just enough to have small chunks. You want to mix this as little and as lightly as possible.2 5-ounce cans albacore tuna
- Squeeze the lemon juice over the fish.½ lemon
- Add mayonnaise, green onion, celery, dill weed, salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Toss lightly to combine, adding extra mayo if needed to bind the ingredients.2 to 3 tablespoon mayonnaise, 2 green onion, ½ rib celery, ½ teaspoon dried dill, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon black pepper, pinch ground cayenne pepper
- Serve as a sandwich filling or in lettuce wraps.8 slices sandwich bread
Notes
Nutritional values are approximate and based on ¼ the recipe. Variations: This is just one way to make tuna sandwiches. Feel free to make this your own! You can add any of the following:
- chopped pickles
- pickle relish
- chopped cucumbers
- chopped red bell pepper
- shredded cheese
- chopped hard cooked egg
Nutrition
This post was originally published on April 29, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
M in OH
Your sandwich looks good with the lettuce and tomato. No one in my family eats tuna salad on bread. I like it in a tortilla as a wrap with extra veggies like shredded carrot and chopped red bell pepper. Everyone else scoops it with tortilla chips, one son will scoop with celery sticks – he likes crunchy things. Some in our family add mayo, but mostly we like just tuna, lemon juice, dill relish and some black pepper.
shelley
when i make tuna salad now i use all the above ingredients, only use half and half mayo and thousand island dressing. also, green onions chopped very fine and dill seed. with chopped sweet pickles or dill pickles. either work. also, celery finely chopped or celery seed, whichever i have at the moment. i think the thousand island brings out the flavor.
Deb
My husband would go to his best friends house and his mom made tuna salad with 1/2 mayo and 1/2 mirace whip and celery salt. He also likes celery chopped too. We differ on the pickle part. I like dill and he likes sweet so we spead pickle relish on when we make our sandwich.
Jessica Fisher
What a great compromise!
Jami
This looks great. How many servings is this?
Jessica Fisher
It’s going to vary depending on how much tuna salad you like in your sandwiches. I can usually get 6 to 8 sandwiches out of this.
Stephany Stanley
Ok. I’m late to the party as usual, but here goes…
4 cans tuna drained
Chopped kosher dill pickle about 4 halves
4 or 5 chopped boiled eggs
1 stalk of celery diced fine, carrot if I don’t have celery
1/4 or less finely diced onion
1 handful chopped pecans
Cavenders greek seasoning to taste
3 or 4 tbsp mayo
3 out of 4 kids love it & my husband is peaky & he loves it too.
Jessica Fisher
Never too late! Sounds really interesting!
Jesse
I can help! 😀 Get your solid white albacore at costco! It is very solid 😀 and comes in a larger can. Because I have a family of three I get the cans that are slightly larger than the grocery, but they also have larger cans that I’m betting would feed your family just fine. 🙂 and I’m a slightly sweet tuna sal girl. My husband is all savory however. So I compromise I add half sweet relish and half dill relish and we get on fine.
Jesse
@Jesse, Oh and since I’m allergic to egg whites I use mushrooms cut in the same way my mom started doing it that way for me when I was little and sad because I was different lol.
Dee
Right now we are making simple tuna fish with mayo and dill. It’s great with cheese for tuna melts or to add to a salad.
I do like to add relish or just diced pickles with mayo to tuna.
Carrots, celery, sprouts are fun and tasty to add. Tuna salad is something you can change up so it is never dull
Lorrie
I will certainly try this. Back in Washington, with 6 people in the family, I could buy the cheap tuna on sale for 4 for $1, so I would buy that. I’m lucky if I can find the cheap stuff on sale for 75 cents a can in southern CA. I rarely buy it, but since buying a pressure canner, I’ve been thinking of canning my own tuna. I’m looking for better quality if I have to pay so much anyway. Crazy that I live in a town that was the major source of harvesting and canning tuna. It’s all gone now. 🙁
Jessica
Sounds like you live in San Diego! Do you keep up with CVS? They often have sales on canned tuna.
Esther Robb
I often add curry powder and peas to my tuna salad…it just seems so lacking in color and interest without those little green gems in there.
SheilaB
I agree, no sweet. But when I was little my mom put in very finly chopped celery instead of seed. The dill sounds delish! My only probelm now is that my husband wants it with sweet relish. And so does my son. And when we do have it we steer totally clear of albacore because it has a much higher mercury content (larger tuna fish).
Jessica
@SheilaB, I thought it was all tuna in general that you had to eat in moderation.
Kathy
I want to add a caution about albacore tuna: the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pregnant and nursing mothers, as well as children, limit the consumption of albacore because it contains much more mercury than the chunk light or “pink” tuna . We LOVE the albacore, but I no longer buy it because of the academy’s warning.
Jessica
@Kathy, good point. We limit it and eat it very rarely. But, it good to keep in the loop. Thanks!
Stacy
@Kathy, I was going to mention this, but didn’t want to be a spoil sport. Since it’s already mentioned though…I’ve switched entirely to chunk light just so I don’t have to be concerned about the mercury. It’s not as good, but it’s OK. I also used canned salmon. Canned chicken is also quite nice, or just shreded chicken to make chicken salad, which is what I prefer over tuna (I do like tuna though). I never thought of adding all those herbs. I’ll try it sometime.
Stacy
“shredded,” that is…
Kathy
@Stacy, Stacy: I was a newspaper medical writer for many years; I so don’t worry about being a spoilsport 🙂
I like albacore tuna better also, but it’s not worth the health risks , especially when I can make a pretty good chunk light tuna salad and we are salmon crazy anyway!
Jessica
@Stacy, I don’t think I ever heard that chunk light had less mercury. That’s a new one for me.
Stacy
@Jessica, There are lots of articles on it, but here’s one: http://www.ewg.org/news/limits-urged-eating-tuna . The warnings are mainly for pregnant and nursing women, children, and women who may become pregnant. That said, mercury isn’t good for anyone, so I figure less is better. Certain seafoods are very high. Albacore is high because they’re bigger fish and have had more time to absorb mercury. Chunk light is made from smaller fish who haven’t.
Jessica
Oh, I knew there was a limit on tuna; I just didn’t realize they were differenciating between albacore and other tunas. I think they started issuing the warnings four kids ago. 😉
Jesse
@Kathy, It makes me so sad, The chunk tuna looks and tastes (to me) like it had a run in with a propeller. I will eat albacore but wont feed it to my daughter. chicken salad for her little tummy!
Kathy
@Jesse, Jesse, I feel your pain. I LOVE the albacore, but just never buy it. I would eat it out, though.
AllieZirkle
I’m all about celery salt & curry powder in mine. Yum.