Use Smoked Tuna In Your Favorite Dishes For An Instant Upgrade

Canned tuna is a deliciously affordable pantry basic that's good for so much more than your lunch sandwich. Stuffed into hard-cooked eggs, layered atop crispy rice bites, and even as the base for a gourmet meal, there are dozens of ways to use this versatile protein. But we're here to bring you another glow-up that will make your recipes shine: smoked tuna, which is available in the canned fish section of well-stocked grocers.

To prepare for smoking, the fish is cured with salt, sugar, and spices before it undergoes its session in the smoker. The cure firms up the fish, creating a different texture than unsmoked tuna. You'll find smoked tuna keeps a more distinctive shape rather than reducing to the creamy salad texture of other canned tuna. The combination of smoke and cure seasonings will add savory umami flavors to the tuna, elevating the fish beyond its everyday taste.

Once you've stocked your pantry with smoked tuna, it's time to put it to good use. We'd recommend you try a simple taste right out of the can to get an idea of how much seasoning your brand has included. When you've got a handle on the flavor, you can try a classic tuna sandwich, a tuna melt, or even a tuna casserole with the smoked version. Swapping out regular canned tuna for the same amount of smoked tuna is a good plan.

We love salmon rillettes, and smoked tuna rillettes would be a wonderful recipe substitution for an easy party appetizer, using half-smoked tuna and half-regular canned tuna as the fish component in the dish. Another great app idea is smoked tuna dip. 

We'd also recommend a smoky version of spaghetti tonno e burro, an elegant Italian weeknight dinner you can make right from the pantry, or a tuna-topped salad. And tuna patties would benefit from a smoked tuna upgrade as well.