Tuna Melt Sliders
Tuna Sliders are the perfect addition to any dinner table. They are small enough to be an appetizer, large enough for a small meal, and delicious any time of year!
Tuna Sliders are the perfect addition to any dinner table. They are small enough to be an appetizer, large enough for a small meal, and delicious any time of year!
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 package kings hawaiian buns
- 2 ounce each) cans tuna (drained)
- 1/2 cup (119.5 g) mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons shallot (finely diced)
- 1 tablespoon dill pickle (finely diced (or more to taste))
- 8 slices havarti cheese ((if your slices are large you can use less))
- 1 tablespoon butter (melted)
- Carbohydrate 0.596027117933633 g
- Cholesterol 2.54192708442342 mg
- Fat 1.03106809059645 g
- Fiber 0.0549288197113596 g
- Protein 0.134108506883848 g
- Saturated Fat 0.614211597474644 g
- Serving Size 1 1 slider (9g)
- Sodium 14.0327743078932 mg
- Sugar 0.541098298222274 g
- Trans Fat 0.0776809027940015 g
- Calories 12 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a medium bowl combine tuna, mayonnaise, celery salt, shallot, pickle, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Set aside.
- Split your rolls in half, place one half in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
- Top the buns with the tuna mixture and the slices of Havarti cheese.
- Place the top half of the rolls on top of the tuna and brush the rolls with the melted butter.
- Sprinkle with celery seed.
- Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 10-15 minutes
- Remove foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is hot and bubbly
- Serve immediately.
Adding too much moisture directly to the tuna salad mixture guarantees a waterlogged bun that dissolves before the cheese even has a chance to melt in the oven. When combining canned tuna, mayonnaise, and lemon juice, excess liquid must be drained completely from the fish and the emulsion balanced so that the bread maintains its structural integrity under heat. Bakes utilizing sweet dinner rolls require careful management of internal steam, especially when covered with aluminum foil during the initial fifteen minutes of cooking at 350°F to ensure the dairy softens uniformly without turning the crumb into paste.
Controlling Moisture and Heat
Achieving a crisp exterior and a molten interior relies entirely on thermal management rather than haphazard stacking. Brushing melted butter across the top buns creates a barrier against drying out, but removing the foil during the final five minutes of baking is mandatory if the goal involves achieving bubbly, lightly browned Havarti cheese instead of a steamed, rubbery topping. Swapping mayonnaise for Greek yogurt introduces excess water content that breaks down the proteins in the fish and saturates the starch in the bread almost immediately. Similarly, utilizing un-drained pickles or substituting high-moisture mozzarella for the specified Havarti will release pools of liquid inside the baking dish, ruining the textural contrast between the soft interior crumb and the toasted edges.
- Press canned tuna through a fine-mesh strainer to extract hidden liquids before mixing.
- Keep aluminum foil tightly sealed for the first 10 minutes to heat the filling safely, then uncover for 5 minutes to crisp the crowns.
- Monitor the internal cheese melting point carefully, watching for active bubbling around the edges of the 9x13 pan.
