Tuna Newberg
A thick, creamy tuna sauce served warm over rice. For a dinner that comes together fast, requires minimal cooking, and makes everyone happy, look no further than Tuna Newberg.
Ingredients
- 20-25 oz canned tuna, drained (two 12 oz cans or five 5 oz cans)
- 1 medium sweet onion (chopped, diced, or minced)
- 3 cups milk
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano (plus more for topping)
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Cook rice according to package directions. Make the tuna newberg sauce while the rice cooks.
- Heat pan over medium heat. Add oil, then reduce heat to medium low. Sweat onions, stirring occasionally, until translucent (5-7 minutes). This is a very gentle process, you don’t want to burn or brown the onion.
- Add the tuna to the skillet. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, breaking up larger chunks of tuna.
- In a 4 cup liquid measuring cup combine milk, mayo, flour, paprika, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Whisk well to combine.
- Return skillet to medium heat and pour in the milk mixture. Bring to a low simmer, stirring frequently to prevent tuna from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Reduce heat to low and continue simmering, covered, for 15-20 minutes, and then uncovered 10-20 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- Serve in bowls over rice. Sprinkle with additional oregano or paprika to garnish.
RECIPE NOTES
- Leftovers: Reheat in a microwave or eat cold on rice cakes.
- I've written this recipe with the ingredients and ingredient quantities that I always use, but I encourage you to think of them as guidelines more than rules. It's hard to mess this up, so don't sweat it if you don't have everything in just the right amounts.
- Variations:
- Don't like large pieces of onion? Do a small dice instead of a large chop. Use a quarter of an onion instead of half. You do you. A sweet onion is ideal, but if you only have a white onion on hand, you'll be fine.
- Don't like paprika or basil? Don't use them! They're gone. Add them at the end as a garnish if you want to but someone else eating with you doesn't.
- Really like paprika and basil? Add some to the onions in the pan before you add the tuna AND to the milk mixture, instead of just to the milk mixture.
- Don't like mayo? I once had a friend make this recipe using feta cheese instead of mayo and he said it worked great. Yeah! I know! It sounds weird. I can't personally say whether or not it was delicious, but he said he liked it.
- Want more tuna for a thicker sauce? Use 3 large cans. Want less tuna? Use 2 large cans (12 oz) and 1 regular-sized can (5 oz). Grocery store had a deal on 5 oz cans? Use 6 or 7 of them instead of buying the big ones.
- Want a spicy tuna newberg? Finish with a pinch of cayenne, or some crushed red pepper flakes at the end.