Matthew McConaughey’s Tuna Salad Is Different (But Delicious)

I once had the opportunity to be part of a voiceover recording session with Matthew McConaughey, just me and him in a sound booth. At ease and effortlessly charming, he drank kombucha and did push-ups between takes. I feel like knowing that little tidbit somehow helps his tuna salad recipe make more sense. (Maybe.)   

If you’re looking for a tuna salad that packs all the crunch with conversation-starting ingredients, Matthew McConaughey’s Tuna Salad is a show-stopper with a personality that’s as free-spirited as he is. This is like that tuna salad you knew in high school, and you bump into them now—totally transformed—like, “Is that you, Tuna?”

For one, there is no real recipe. I love directions, so this is the “con” in McConaughey. (Still love him though.) McConaughey has waxed poetic about his tuna salad in podcasts and Q&As but will not be confined to pen and paper to record it. Luckily, I stumbled upon an exquisite interpretation of his method via AllRecipes, where resident chef Nicole McLaughlin translates McConaughey-ese to give this whimsical tuna salad some structure.

How To Make Matthew McConaughey’s Tuna Salad

Start by mixing the dressing in one bowl (wasabi, mayo, Italian dressing, lemon juice, and vinegar), and separately combining what feels like an apple-y, corn-pepper-pickle relish in another bowl. (Try a bite—it’s tangy, crunchy, frozen pea perfection.) The two main elements in the dressing—wasabi and Italian dressing—make no sense together if you think too hard about it, but they taste magical.

Just a quick note that AllRecipes used dried jalapeño snack chips. After the recipe went viral, McConaughey clarified that these were “wet” jalapeño chips, which I took to mean pickled jalapeño slices in a jar, but who can know for sure? McConaughey tunas to the beat of his own drum.

Enter: The canned tuna. Get the good tuna, y’all (The kind in the oil, drained). The polar opposite of water-packed tuna, it’s like going for chicken thighs instead of breast—tender, moist, and rich. I feel like one of those fluffy white cats in the commercials as I crack open the pop-top lid and incorporate it into the mix. 

Real talk: this tuna salad is outstanding. I’m all about the surprise juicy crunch of the apples (Total Martha Stewart tuna salad move). And the peas feel almost like popping boba in your mouth. For the “fresh corn,” I picked a can of smoky, fire-roasted kernels fresh off the grocery store shelf. And, in a brilliant play, wasabi paste brings a warm, buzzy heat to the entire salad, but it’s delicate enough to let the tuna shine.  

For serving, you can dive right in with a spoon or pull a McConaughey and mix in a handful of potato chips, letting the tuna salad rest in the fridge overnight so the chips soak up all that goodness. (He says it gets even better!) I love folding tuna salad into ruffly lettuce leaf “tacos,” but I also wasn’t mad about spooning it onto rosemary crackers and Siete kettle-cooked potato chips, but you do you. Matthew McConaughey would most definitely abide by following your bliss.