The World’s Best Tuna Melt
on May 05, 2020, Updated Apr 23, 2025
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This simple tuna melt is one of our family's favorite sandwiches.
The tuna melt is one of the favorite go-to lunches at home, beloved by all members of my family. The classic tuna melt can be made on basically any type of bread, but I usually do open-faced tuna melts on English muffins.
I am a braggy, unabashed fan of my own tuna fish recipe, which appears in The Mom 100 Cookbook. If you want to switch it up, you could sub in Italian Tuna Salad! I like serving it with Tomato Soup or Minestrone for a super comforting lunch.
Table of Contents
The World’s Best Tuna Melt: Start with great tunafish salad, pile it onto a toasted English muffin, top with cheese and broil for one of the best sandwiches ever.
Ingredients
- English muffins – I love using English muffins because they get nice and crunchy and provide a sturdy base for this sandwich.
- Solid white AND light tuna fish – White tuna has a very subtle flavor and a very firm texture, while light tuna has a rich flavor and a moist texture. The combo of the two makes the perfect tuna, in this tuna lover’s opinion.
- Mayonnaise – Add just enough mayonnaise to make the tuna salad creamy and rich but not wet, which would make the bread soggy.
- Onion – The bite of raw onion is essential to the best tuna melt.
- Celery – A classic tuna ingredient, adding freshness and crunch.
- Sweet relish – A little bit of relish with its sour sweetness is one of my secret ingredients for tuna.
- Dijon mustard – Another slightly unusual ingredient in tuna, but when you see how much it perks up the flavor, you’ll never make tuna without mustard again.
- Salt & pepper – To taste.
- Cheddar cheese – You can substitute any low-moisture, melty cheese that you like.
How to Make a Tuna Melt
- Toast the English muffins: Preheat a toaster oven or the regular oven to 375 degrees. Toast the English muffin halves for about 3 minutes until very lightly browned. Remove and leave the oven on.
- Make the tuna salad: Mix the tuna, mayo, onion, celery, relish, mayo, and mustard in a medium-sized bowl. Add the salt and pepper and blend well.
- Melt the cheese: Divide the tuna over the 4 muffin halves. Top each with 1/4 of the shredded cheese and return to the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese has melted. Serve warm.
Tips and Substitutions
- You can use any kind of mustard here, but I like Dijon for its strong spiciness.
- Make the tuna up to 3 days ahead of time, and assemble and bake the sandwiches whenever you want one.
- You can use chopped pickles, such as cornichons or half sours, instead of the relish.
FAQs
A tuna melt is an open-faced sandwich made up of bread, tuna salad, and melted cheese on top. The bread is traditionally rye bread, but I like to use an English muffin.
The tuna salad has tuna, mayonnaise, sweet relish, celery, onions, and mustard. Plus salt and pepper, of course. Then, a handful of the cheese of your choice gets melted on top.
You can feel free to play around with the cheeses you use to top your melt. Cheddar is always a good choice. A Mexican blend or Monterey Jack are also solid choices. Anything with a low moisture level that melts nicely will work. Turn your oven broiler on high for just a minute toward the end so that the cheese begins to brown, if desired.
Solid white tuna results in a salad that can be too dry unless you add an unconscionable amount of mayonnaise, and using all light tuna can be perceived by kids (and adults) as too fishy. The 50/50 combo results in a tuna fish that is nicely in the middle.
You might find a different balance to your taste or just not have both on hand. That’s perfectly fine. I usually use tuna in water, though if you prefer tuna in oil, you can definitely use that. You could also use part tuna in water and some tuna in oil if you want a richer result. I clearly have many thoughts on canned tuna.
What to Serve With a Tuna Melt
More Tuna Recipes
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The World’s Best Tuna Melt
Ingredients
- 2 English muffins
- 1 (6 1/2-ounce) can solid white tuna fish (drained)
- 1 (6 1/2-ounce) can light tuna fish (drained)
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons minced onion
- 2 tablespoons minced celery
- 2 teaspoons sweet relish
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
Instructions
- Preheat a toaster oven or the regular oven to 375 F. Toast the English muffin halves for about 3 minutes until very lightly browned. Remove and leave the oven on.
- Mix the tuna, mayo, onion, celery, relish, mayo, and mustard in a medium-sized bowl. Add the salt and pepper and blend well.
- Divide the tuna over the 4 muffin halves. Top each with 1/4 of the shredded cheese and return to the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese has melted. Serve warm. If you want to give the tuna melts a minute under the broiler at the end to really make sure the cheese is melty, go for it.
Notes
- Solid white tuna results in a salad that can be too dry unless you add an unconscionable amount of mayonnaise, and using all light tuna can be perceived by kids (and adults) as too fishy. The 50/50 combo results in a tuna fish that is nicely in the middle.
- You can use any kind of mustard here, but I like Dijon for its strong spiciness.
- Make the tuna up to 3 days ahead of time, and assemble and bake the sandwiches whenever you want one.
- You can use chopped pickles, such as cornichons or half sours, instead of the relish.
Super simple with a classic taste. I opt out of the celery (personal preference) ,use green onion instead, on ciabatta bread or sourdough and top it with arugula or spinach. We always come back to this recipe. Thank you
I made them in my air fryer with thick handsliced cheese. Love the dijon in the tuna. Will most definitely make these again
These were delicious tuna melts. We left out the onion and relish but may add it next time. We loved the English muffins, great recipe!