I’m all about those quick, throw-together meals that are light, healthy, and taste amazing at the moment. These super simple Tuna Patties (a.k.a. Tuna Cakes) hit the spot every time. They’re effortless to make, delicious over a bed of greens, and the perfect excuse to make all my favorite sauces for dipping.😉
All recipes are rigorously tested in our Nashville Test Kitchen to ensure they are easy, affordable, and delicious.
“These are the best! I’ve made them twice now. I used seasoned panko bread crumbs and taco seasoning as my seasoning blend. I would have never thought tuna patties could be so delicious.”
Dawn
These tuna patties are just like a burger but are made with canned tuna. In addition to the tuna, I also add an egg and breadcrumbs to hold them together and some seasoning for extra flavor. I then flatten the mixture into a patty and fry it until deliciously golden brown. The best part about tuna patties is that you can season them in so many different ways, so it’s one of those easy meals you can make over and over without getting tired of them. With that in mind, I’ve shared my favorite seasoning options at the end to give you some ideas!
Tuna Patties
Servings 4 pattiesIngredients
- 2 green onions, chopped ($0.19)
- 2 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional) ($0.10)
- 1 12oz. can chunk light tuna in water, drained ($2.18)
- 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.18)
- 1 large egg ($0.74)
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise ($0.10)
- 1.5 tsp lemon juice ($0.02)
- 1 tsp seasoning salt* ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
Instructions
- Roughly chop the parsley and green onions. Drain the canned tuna well.
- Place the tuna, green onion, parsley, breadcrumbs, eggs, mayonnaise, seasoning salt, and lemon juice in a bowl. Mix the ingredients together just until evenly combined. Avoid over mixing.
- Divide the mixture into four equal portions, then shape each portion into a patty.
- Heat a large skillet over medium. Once hot, add the cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the tuna patties and cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and slightly crisp.
- Serve warm over a bed of greens or stuffed into a pita!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
How to Make Tuna Patties Step-by-Step Photos
Roughly chop about 2 Tbsp of parsley and two green onions. I like to chop the green onions for this rather than just slice them, so they mix in a little better. Drain one 12oz. can of chunk light tuna in water, well.
Add the drained tuna, parsley, and green onion to a bowl along with ½ cup plain breadcrumbs, one large egg, 2 Tbsp mayonnaise, 1.5 tsp lemon juice, and 1 tsp seasoning salt.
Mix the ingredients together just until evenly combined (don’t overmix). I use my hands for this job!
This is the seasoning I use, but you can use any seasoning salt, or any other seasoning blend you like. Just make sure to add extra salt if your seasoning blend does not contain any.
Divide the patty mixture into four equal portions then shape each one into a patty. Heat a large skillet over medium. Once hot, add a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface. Add the tuna patties to the hot skillet.
Cook the tuna patties for about five minutes on each side, or until deliciously golden brown. Serve with your favorite sides and some sauce (my favorite is comeback sauce!) Enjoy.
How to Season Tuna Cakes
I used one of my favorite go-to seasonings for my tuna cakes, Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning, which is basically Creole-flavored seasoning salt. So, if you can’t find Tony’s or you just want to go a different route, you could use a different store-bought seasoning salt, like Lawry’s, or another seasoning blend like Old Bay Seasoning. Just keep in mind that if your seasoning blend doesn’t contain salt you’ll want to add a little extra to your patty mixture.
However, I highly recommend you play around with whatever seasonings you have in your pantry! You can use homemade taco seasoning, curry powder, lemon pepper seasoning, burger seasoning, or any mix of herbs and spices you like.
How to Serve Tuna Patties
My favorite way to serve tuna patties is on a bed of greens, like a salad, with a little of my comeback sauce. But you could also stuff the tuna cakes into a pita with some tomatoes and greens, and a little tartar sauce. Or, you could make mini cakes and serve them with toothpicks and a sauce for dipping as a party appetizer!
more Sauce Options
I’ve already mentioned that I served my tuna patties with comeback sauce, but if you don’t like that sauce or just want to try a different option, there are several other sauces that would be great with these tuna patties. If you’re looking for something light and simple, even just a squeeze of fresh lemon juice would be awesome. Other sauces to try include sriracha mayo, ranch dressing, yogurt dill sauce, chili sauce, or creamy Caesar dressing.
Try These Other Tuna Recipes
Our Tuna Patties recipe was originally published 6/20/22. It was retested, reworked, and republished to be better than ever 2/21/25.
Delicious!! The family loved them!!!
Mix tuna with mashed potatoes instead of bread crumbs! Dip in panko and fry.
Easy and delicious!
Ratio of tuna to bread crumbs is way too low. Like eating fried bread. I may try it again but with more tuna/less bread crumbs.
These were insane. I had no idea canned tuna could taste so good. Mind is blown. And so easy and quick to make, too!
Highly recommend – these tasted really good and were super easy. I didn’t have normal breadcrumbs, so I used panko, and they turned out great!
Great tip Oliver.
These were the best tuna patties I’ve ever made. My 2 cans of tuna were more than
12 oz. so I added an extra egg and an additional tablespoon of mayonnaise to hold it all together nicely. The result was perfect and I will definitely make these again. Thanks for the recipe.
These are the best! I’ve made them twice now. I used seasoned panko bread crumbs and taco seasoning as my seasoning blend. I would have never thought tuna patties could be so delicious.
I’m making these tonight for the freezer (I live alone and sometimes I’m too lazy to cook. Ha!)
I saw in another comment that these can be frozen – would that be before or after cooking? And should they be thawed first?
Can’t wait to try these!
Loved these, so simple to make and very tasty! We had these with rice and sweet chilli sauce tonight, but will definitely be making them again to try different accompaniments!
This was wonderful! I wanted to find recipes for boring tuna and came across this recipe. Super awesome and easy to make. Delicious 😊
1 tsp of Old Bay ?
Adapted this to use canned chicken and powdered ranch seasoning that I had in my cabinet. Delicious!
(What misguided keto attempt led me to have canned chicken?!?!).
Anyway, another great BB pantry meal to keep in my back pocket.
I want to meal prep these for lunch for the week and don’t have an option to reheat with anything besides a microwave. Will these be good that way?
We haven’t tried it, but as your options are limited, it’s worth a shot.
Lemon pepper…
For some reason, I am nervous about the result of cooking with tuna. But, these are amazing! What a great, simple, adaptable budget friendly recipe!