This Air Fryer Tuna Melt can be made with your fave tuna salad or my quick no-chop recipe! Either way, it makes a delicious, cheddar cheesy, melty sandwich you can cook in your air fryer in only 8 minutes!
Ingredients
For No-Chop Tuna Salad (3 servings):
2 (5-ounce) cans of tuna fish packed in water, drained
1/3 cup mayonnaise (I use avocado oil mayo)
2 tablespoons dill pickle relish, drained
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
(optional) 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
For Air Fryer Tuna Melt (per sandwich):
2 slices sandwich bread
1–2 tablespoons mayonnaise or room temperature butter
1 1/2–2 slices cheddar cheese
1/2 cup tuna salad (from above or your fave!)
Instructions
Make tuna salad: Add all tuna salad ingredients to a bowl and stir until combined. More details and full recipe for Lazy No-Chop Tuna Salad here! You can also use your own tuna salad recipe.
Assemble sandwich: First, cover one side of bread with the mayo or room temp butter. Place that piece of bread into the air fryer, mayo side down. Next, put the cheese slices on the bread, taking care that the cheese doesn’t go over the edges of the bread. Add 1/2 cup of tuna salad on top of the cheese and use a spoon to push it out to each edge of the bread. Finally, take the last pieces of bread and coat one side in mayonnaise, just like the other side. Add that piece of bread to the top of the sandwich, mayo side up.
Cook & serve: Shut the air fryer basket and set the air fryer to cook at 380F for 8 minutes, flipping the sandwich halfway through. The tuna melt is done when you see melty cheese and golden brown edges to your preference! Remove from air fryer and cut in half on a cutting board. Repeat for as many tuna melts as you need. I recommend cooking only one tuna melt at a time if you’re using the basket style air fryer.
