5 min read
The history of butter chicken, and how we cook ours
Butter chicken is on almost every North Indian menu in the world, and most people eating it have no idea it began as a way to avoid wasting food. The real story is more interesting than the dish's reputation as a safe, mild order suggests.
It started with leftover tandoori chicken
The dish is usually traced to Moti Mahal in Delhi in the 1950s, and to a cook named Kundan Lal Gujral, whose family had moved to Delhi from Peshawar around Partition. The restaurant sold a lot of tandoori chicken, and unsold pieces would dry out by the end of the day.
The fix was to simmer that leftover chicken in a gravy of tomatoes, butter, and cream, which kept it moist and turned a problem into a new dish. The most famous Indian curry in the world, in other words, was invented to rescue yesterday's chicken.
Why it spread so far
Butter chicken travelled because it is mild, rich, and forgiving. It does not demand a high spice tolerance, so people who find a lot of Indian food too hot can still enjoy it, while anyone who wants more heat can add it. It works with both rice and bread, and it is hard to get wrong once the gravy is right.
That combination made it the dish that introduces a lot of people to North Indian food, and the one they keep ordering once they are hooked.
How we cook ours
We start with real tandoor char on the chicken, because that smoke is half of what makes the dish taste like more than a creamy curry. Then the gravy is a tomato base cooked down slowly and finished with butter and a little cream, balanced so it stays rich without turning heavy or sweet.
It is the mildest thing on our menu and one of the most ordered, which is exactly what butter chicken has always been good at.
Quick questions
- Who invented butter chicken?
- It is usually credited to Kundan Lal Gujral at Moti Mahal in Delhi in the 1950s, created to use up leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato, butter, and cream gravy.
- Is butter chicken spicy?
- No, it is one of the milder North Indian curries. It is rich and creamy rather than hot, which is a large part of why it became so popular.
- What is the difference between butter chicken and chicken tikka masala?
- They are close relatives. Butter chicken is richer and more buttery with a smoother tomato gravy, while tikka masala is often spicier and more onion forward, and its origin is usually traced to Britain rather than India.