How to Sear Tuna

Co-authored by Daniel Siriban

With its distinct flavor and its high nutrient content, tuna is one of the healthiest and most delicious types of seafood available. However, since it has such a low fat content, it tends to get dry and flaky if it's cooked all the way through (think canned tuna). One way to keep tuna moist and flavorful is to use a technique called searing that cooks the outside of the meat, leaving the inside rare. Even novice chefs can learn this technique in just a few minutes.

Ingredients

Basic Seared Tuna^{[1]
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12 ounces whole tuna cut into two steaks (use best quality available)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (divided)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons rice wine (optional)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (optional)
1 tablespoon ginger (minced) (optional)
3 tablespoons scallion (minced) (optional)

Marinated Tuna^{[2]
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1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons parsley (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon oregano (chopped)
Black pepper to taste

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Basic Seared Tuna

1
Remove excess water from the surface of the tuna. Cut your tuna into even-sized steaks if it isn't already divided this way. Pat each steak gently with a paper towel on both sides. The steaks don't need to be bone-dry, but you don't want any excess water beyond the natural moistness of the meat.
- Water will turn to steam in the hot pan, effectively steaming your meat rather than searing it. This keeps you from getting the crispy, caramelized exterior you want.
2
Heat oil in a pan on the stove. Use medium-high or high heat for about five minutes or until pan starts smoking. Add cooking oil to the hot pan. It should start to shimmer immediately. Use canola oil or another oil with a high smoke point — not olive oil.^{[3]
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- The key to getting a good sear is cooking at high heat for a short length of time. Cooking at too low of temperature won't give you the crispy texture you want and cooking for too long will risk drying out the inside of the meat.
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3
Add the steaks to the pan. Season the steaks lightly on both sides with salt and pepper to prep them for cooking.^{[4]
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Daniel Siriban
Japanese Personal Chef
Expert Interview. 1 September 2021.} Carefully add the steaks to the hot pan. Lay the steaks away from you to protect yourself from getting sprayed with the hot oil. The meat should begin to sizzle immediately.
4
Sear on each side for 1-2 minutes. As mentioned above, the key to searing is to cook hot and fast. Let each side cook without disturbing it for about 90 seconds. At this point, peek underneath and look for a brown, crispy exterior. This is a sign to flip. Cook the other side for the same length of time.^{[5]
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- You can adjust the cooking time somewhat as needed based on the thickness of your steaks. For example, if you have an especially-thick steak (over an inch or so thick), you may want to cook in the area of 2-3 minutes.
5
Remove tuna from pan and serve. Once the outside of the tuna is crispy and well-browned, the fish is ready to eat. Sprinkle the steaks with one tablespoon of the lemon juice for added flavor. When the meat cools slightly, cut it into strips by slicing against the grain of the muscle. This severs the tough muscle fibers, making the meat more tender.^{[6]
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- Note that it's not especially important for the inside of the meat to be all the way done. In fact, most restaurants will deliberately leave the inside of tuna steaks very rare — unlike fattier fish like salmon, cooking tuna all the way through tends to dry out the meat.
- Good-quality tuna is safe to eat seared with the inside rare. If you're worried about the possibility of disease, use a cooking thermometer. Most cooking resources recommend an internal temperature of about 125 degrees F (51 degrees C).^{[7]
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6
Optionally, cook vegetables and garnishes in the leftover juice. Now, if you wish, you can prepare an easy and healthy side by cooking vegetables in the pan until soft. In the recipe above, ginger and scallions are recommended, but there are many other good choices — it all depends what you have in the fridge.
- To make this side, toss the scallions in the pan with the ginger, adding a little more oil to prevent sticking. Cook until clear and soft. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, and remaining lemon juice. Cook for one minute. Season with salt and pepper and serve over the steaks.^{[8]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Marinated Tuna

1
Combine marinade ingredients in bowl. Making a marinade is easy. All you need to do is mix ingredients and seasonings that you like. The recipe above will make you a delicious soy-orange marinade, but you can easily make your own. A few guiding rules for making your marinade are below:^{[9]
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- Marinades almost always contain at least one fat and one acid. The fat is generally oil, while the acid can be vinegar, citrus juice, wine, or another acidic ingredient.
- In addition to this, most marinades have a few other ingredients to give the meat added flavor or aroma. These include herbs, spices, sugar, salt, pepper, and more.
- In the example marinade recipe above, the orange and lemon juices are the acidic ingredients, the olive oil is the fat, and everything else is for flavor.
2
Set tuna in marinade to soak. Once you've made your marinade, transfer it to a sturdy plastic bag. Put your steaks in the bag, massage them so that they get well-coated with the marinade, and set the bag in the fridge. Leave it here for at least half an hour and as long as 24. The longer you let the fish marinate, the stronger the flavor will be.
- You can double-bag your marinade if you're worried about spills.
3
Sear marinated meat as normal. Heat a pan on the stove, adding oil when it's hot. Remove the steaks from the marinade. Shake off excess moisture. Sear the steaks at high heat for 1-2 minutes per side or as needed — just like you normally would.
4
Baste each side of the meat with extra marinade as desired. As you cook the meat, you can add flavor by basting the meat with a little extra marinade. When you flip the meat, the marinade gets caught between the fish and the pan, searing and caramelizing.
- Since the marinade contains the juice of the uncooked meat, for sanitation reasons, make sure you never add marinade to the top side of the meat right before serving it. You want the marinade you add to touch the hot pan so any germs in it can be killed. If you do add marinade to the top side of the tuna, flip it and cook briefly before serving.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

More Recipe Variations

1
Try grilling instead of cooking on the stove.^{[10]
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Daniel Siriban
Japanese Personal Chef
Expert Interview. 1 September 2021.} The directions above call for a hot pan on the stove, but there's no reason you can't get a great sear on the barbecue. The same general principles apply: get the grill nice and hot, paint the bars with a little oil, and lay your steaks down to cook 1-2 minutes per side. It's easiest to control the heat of gas grills, but charcoal works just as well as long as you get a hot, steady cooking temperature.
- See our grilling article for lots of specific instructions to get your meat just right.
2
Use oil and solid seasonings to give the tuna a flavorful crust. Once you've mastered cooking basic seared tuna recipes, try changing up the recipe by giving each steak a coat of solid or powdered seasonings. This is a little like applying a dry rub to other types of meat. To do this:
- After you use a paper towel to remove the water from the steaks, paint both sides of each steak with a thin layer of cooking oil.
- Toss your oil-coated steaks in a bowl with your favorite seasonings, herbs and spices. They will stick to the oil and form a crisp exterior when you sear the meat.
- Good choices include minced garlic, minced parsley, ginger, paprika, rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and much more — it's up to you.
- Finish by seasoning with salt and pepper. Sear as normal.
3
Serve the tuna with dipping sauce. If you've ever been to a sushi restaurant, you may have noticed that many tuna-containing dishes come with a small portion of sauce meant for dipping the fish in. You can replicate this by pouring a small amount of your favorite sauce into a small dish or bowl and serving this with the meal. Soy and teriyaki sauces are good all-purpose choices, but other can sauces can also work well.
- See our soy dressing recipe for a simple sauce that goes well with most seared tuna dishes.
4
Try breading the tuna before pan-frying. What isn't better breaded and fried? Giving your steaks a coating of bread crumbs and frying in a little more oil than you would normally use can give them a deliciously crispy exterior. There are many ways to do this — you can find just one below:
- Combine equal parts panko bread crumbs and black sesame seeds in a bowl.
- Roll the steaks in the breading mixture one by one until they are well-coated. If they aren't picking up the breading on their own, try coating them lightly with oil first.
- Pan-sear, using extra oil to get a crisp, fried effect on the breading.

Expert Q&A

Question

Should I season tuna before searing?

Daniel Siriban
Japanese Personal Chef
Daniel Siriban is a Japanese Personal Chef and the Owner of Roshi Experience. With over 18 years of culinary experience, he specializes in sushi, teppanyaki, and traditional Japanese dining. Daniel holds an AA in Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management from The Art Institute of California, Orange County.

Daniel Siriban

Japanese Personal Chef

Expert Answer

Yes! Try covering the outside surface of the fish with some pepper. Black pepper is probably the most common way to flavor your tuna, but you can also use fine chili peppers.