This easy spicy spicy tuna recipe is the perfect filling and topping for crispy rice, sushi rolls, and salad bowls. It’s a no-cook Japanese style recipe that comes together in minutes with simple ingredients.
What is Spicy Tuna?
Spicy Tuna is not only the perfect filling for your favorite sushi rolls, salad bowls and crispy rice, but it's an easy no-cook protein that you'll find at most Japanese restaurants that serves sushi.
To make it, you'll need sashimi-grade tuna, spicy mayo and a few other simple ingredients to make your spicy tuna mixture.
To serve this raw fish mixture on its own, I like to add green onions, sesame seeds, and soy sauce., and a sheet of nori.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Sashimi Grade Tuna Steaks: When you're buying raw tuna, make sure you seek out sashimi-grade tuna or sushi grade tuna. This is the highest quality of raw fish that's prepped for consuming uncooked. Fresh tuna, straight from the ocean, is frozen which kills off most parasites and creatures that live in the meat of the raw tuna so do not be alarmed if it comes frozen -this form of raw tuna is perfectly fine. PRO TIP: Aldi Sells frozen raw sushi grade tuna steaks in the freezer section for under $10. However, If sushi grade tuna or sushi grade fish in general is hard to source where you live, you could absolutely used canned tuna for more accessible approach that's a lot cheaper, too. With this approach, it's more of a spicy tuna salad which is totally delicious in its own right.
- Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise: This brand of Japanese Mayonnaise is from a company named Kewpie. It's my go-to Japanese mayo for making spicy mayo, too. It's much richer than normal mayonnaise since it's made with egg yolks. You can buy it online or find it linked in my recipe card below.
- Sesame oil: Sesame oil (whether it's toasted or not) adds the perfect nutty depth in this recipe. I do not recommend swapping it for another oil.
- Crispy chili oil: I learned to use this crunchy chili oil spicy sauce from a local Japanese restaurant called Sasaki here in New Smyrna Beach. It not only adds texture but heat and crunch as well. I think the addition of it to sriracha makes the ultimate spicy tuna recipe. But if you don't have any, you could just double the amount of sriracha sauce in my recipe below.
- Sriracha: This spicy sauce is what's traditionally used in any spicy tuna mixture. It's fiery, slightly vinegary and packs a ton of heat. If you don't like it too spicy, you could cut down on the amount - basically tweaking it to taste.
- Flaky Salt: To really make the whole thing shine, I always add a bit of flaky salt to my spicy tuna mixture. You could use regular or sea salt here, too.
- Scallion: This is optional but green onion not only adds a little bit of color but texture, too. You could leave it out if you're using the spicy tuna mixture in a roll but I love topping it when the spicy tuna is the main focus.
How to make it
No matter how you want to use Spicy Tuna, the method to preparing this sushi grade tuna is always the same.
Prep the Fish: First, you'll want to rinse the raw fish with water and pat it dry. This just helps to remove any fishy oils that may be stinking up the raw tuna. Then grab your sharpest knife and cut the sashimi-grade tuna into tiny ¼ inch pieces - you can also roughly chop the raw fish until you have a chunky minced texture.
Add Flavorings: Next, add cut up raw tuna to a bowl and top with Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, sesame oil, crispy chili oil, sriracha and a pinch of flaky salt.
Stir to Coat: Gently stir everything together to combine. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Either set aside for building different sushi rolls or bowls, or top with scallions and serve with nori and sushi rice.
How to Serve Spicy Tuna
There are a ton of different ways to serve Spicy Tuna. Here are some of my favorites:
Spicy Tuna Bowl
One of the easiest ways to serve spicy tuna is over rice with a few colorful toppings. You could use sushi rice, brown rice or regular store bought rice rice. Sushi rice is different than regular white rice as its made with a tad of rice vinegar which gives it a sticky, almost-gummy texture that you're probably familiar with. To make an easy spicy tuna bowl, simply prepare a batch of sushi rice with a little bit of rice vinegar. Once it's cooked, add it your serving bowl with some sliced avocado or seaweed salad, sesame seeds and green onions. I always serve it with a side of soy sauce and wasabi. If you want to get extra fancy, you can add other dipping sauce like eel sauce (aka unagi sauce), sriracha sauce, chili sauce or another version of your favorite Japanese hot sauce.
Sushi Roll
Whether you're enjoying this spicy tuna filling in a Spicy Tuna Roll Recipe, a California Roll, in hand rolls or rolled up in a nori sheet with some spicy sauce, you can't really go wrong. To make a traditional spicy tuna roll, you'll want to prepare some sushi rice along with the spicy tuna mixture. Using a bamboo mat topped with a sheet or nori (aka seaweed sheets), add your sushi rice and pat it down.
To avoid the rice sticking, either wet your fingers or dab them with a little bit of vegetable oil before pressing. Then add your spicy tuna mixture (and a vegetable like avocado or cucumber if that's what you're into) and roll it into a log. You could also do this with plastic wrap if you don't have a bamboo mat. Once you roll it into a tight log, slice the log into individual sushi rolls and serve with wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce.
Crispy Rice
Last year, crispy rice was EVERYWHERE! This deep fried sushi rice appetizer was made famous by Nobu here in the states. It's topped with spicy mayo, green onions, and a soy sauce dipping sauce. To learn how to make my crispy rice recipe, feel free to watch my viral video.
Inari
And not but not least, inari is my favorite way to use this easy spicy tuna filling. These little fried tofu pockets are seasoned with sugar and vinegar and they're completely addicting. You can find them at most Asian markets and they come canned or frozen. I like to stuff each pocket with sushi rice, a spoonful of the spicy tuna mixture, then top it with unagi sauce, spicy mayo, fish roe and green onion. You can find my recipe for it here.
How long Does Spicy Tuna Last?
I think Spicy tuna is best served minutes after you make. I don't recommend preparing it too far ahead of time or saving it unless you have no other choice. This is totally a personal preference as I think raw tuna is best eaten right away.
However, if you were to use canned tuna which turns this recipe into more of a spicy tuna salad, you could make that a day in advance as it keeps better than raw fish.
Recipe
Easy Spicy Tuna Recipe (For Crispy Rice, Rolls & Bowls)
Ingredients
- 12 oz Sashimi Grade Tuna Steaks about 2-3 small tuna steaks
- 2 tablespoon Kewpie Japanese Mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
- ½ teaspoon Crispy Chili Oil
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha
- ⅛ teaspoon Flaky Salt
- 1 tablespoon Scallion finely sliced
Instructions
- Rinse Tuna steaks with fresh water and pat dry. With the sharpest knife you have, cut tuna steaks into tiny ¼ inch pieces - you can also roughly chop until you have an a chunky minced texture.
- Add kewpie Japanese mayonnaise, sesame oil, crispy chili oil, sriracha and a pinch of flaky salt.
- Stir to combine and either set aside for building different sushi rolls or bowls, or top with scallions and serve with nori and sushi rice.
