In the back kitchen of a restaurant that changed a city’s cuisine forever, a cook stirs a pot of tomato sauce so smooth it looks like liquid silk. Pieces of tandoori-charred meat slide into the sauce and disappear beneath a slick of golden butter. The dish was born from leftovers and became the most ordered curry on the planet. Can you name what’s simmering?
- 1This dish was invented in a Delhi restaurant in the 1950s as a way to use leftover tandoori meat
- 2The sauce is built on a base of tomatoes, cashews, and cream, blended until impossibly smooth
- 3The protein is marinated in yogurt and spices, then charred at extreme heat before joining the sauce
- 4A generous amount of butter and cream is added at the end — richness is the entire point
- 5It became the gateway dish that introduced millions of Westerners to Indian cuisine
Butter chicken was born at Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi’s Daryaganj neighborhood in the 1950s. The story goes that leftover tandoori chicken was simmered in a rich tomato gravy enriched with butter and cream to keep it moist and flavorful. Kundan Lal Gujral, the restaurant’s founder, had no idea he’d created what would become the single most popular Indian dish worldwide. The ownership of the recipe has been the subject of an actual lawsuit between the families of Moti Mahal’s original partners — a legal battle as rich and complicated as the sauce itself.
- 500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks
- 150g plain yogurt
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 400g canned tomatoes
- 20 cashew nuts, soaked
- 3 tbsp butter
- 100ml heavy cream
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
- Salt to taste
- Marinate the chicken in yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric, and salt for at least 2 hours. Overnight is better.
- Cook the marinated chicken under a hot broiler or in a very hot pan until charred on the edges but not cooked through. Set aside.
- Simmer the canned tomatoes and soaked cashews together for 15 minutes, then blend into a completely smooth sauce. Strain through a sieve for silk-level smoothness.
- Melt the butter in a heavy pan. Pour in the tomato-cashew sauce. Add garam masala, sugar, and salt. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the charred chicken pieces. Simmer gently for 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and has absorbed the sauce’s flavor.
- Stir in the cream and crushed kasuri methi. Simmer for 2 more minutes. Finish with an extra knob of butter on top.
- Serve with naan or basmati rice. The sauce should be rich enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Did You Know?
In 2022, the families behind Delhi’s Moti Mahal and Daryaganj restaurants took their butter chicken origin dispute to the Delhi High Court, each claiming to be the true inventors. The judge ultimately ruled that recipes cannot be copyrighted, but the case drew international attention to a dish that generates an estimated billions of dollars in restaurant revenue worldwide each year. In the UK alone, butter chicken (often called chicken tikka masala in its British adaptation) is so popular that it was once half-jokingly declared a national dish by a British foreign secretary.
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