Butter chicken is a type of curry made from chicken cooked in a spiced tomato and

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

(''makhan'')-based gravy. The gravy is typically known for its rich texture. It is similar to

chicken tikka masala Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken pieces (chicken tikka) in a spiced sauce (masala (spice), masala). The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The origins of the dish are debated, with many believ ...

, which uses a tomato paste. The dish originates in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

History

The curry was developed at the Moti Mahal restaurant in the

Daryaganj Daryaganj (literally "A market near a river") is a neighbourhood of Delhi inside the walled city of Old Delhi. The "darya" (lit. "River") refers to the river Yamuna which was just outside the walled city. Daryaganj is one of the three sub-divisi ...

neighbourhood of

Old Delhi Shahjahanabad colloquially known as Old Delhi( Hindustani: ''Purāni Dillī'') is an area in the Central Delhi district of Delhi, India. It was founded as a walled city and officially named Shahjahanabad in 1648, when Shah Jahan decided to shi ...

in the 1950s, after the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

by Kundan Lal Jaggi and Kundan Lal Gujral, who were both Punjabi Hindu refugees from

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

, in the

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. The curry was made "by chance" by mixing leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato sauce, rich in butter (''makhan''). In 1975, the English phrase "butter chicken" curry first appeared in print, as a specialty of the house at Gaylord Indian restaurant in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, it can be found as a filling in pizza,

poutine Poutine () is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a hot brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, though its exact origins are uncertain, and there are several competing claims regar ...

, wraps,

roti Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Southeast African countries. It is made from stoneground whole-wheat flour, kno ...

, or rolls, while in Australia and New Zealand, it is also eaten as a

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...

filling. The curry is common in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and many other countries where a

South Asian diaspora The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora, is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region. There are over 44 million people in this diaspora. Endonyms South Asians in the diaspo ...

is present. Due to its popularity outside of India, it is sometimes mistakenly believed to be of Western origin (like

, which it is sometimes confused with). In 2024, the family of Gujral (who run Moti Mahal) sued the family of Jaggi (who run a rival restaurant) in a dispute over credit for inventing the dish.

Preparation

Chicken is marinated for several hours in a mixture of

lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

, dahi (yogurt), Kashmiri red chilli, salt,

garam masala Garam masala (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ''garam masālā'', ) is a Spice mix, blend of ground spices originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is common in Indian cuisine, Indian, Pakistani cuisine, Pakistani, Nepalese cuisine, Nepale ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

paste, and garlic paste. The marinated chicken is cooked in a

tandoor A tandoor ( or ) is a large vase-shaped oven, usually made of clay. Since antiquity, tandoors have been used to bake unleavened flatbreads, such as roti (as well as leavened ones, such as naan) and to roast meat. Tandoors are predominantly use ...

(traditional clay oven), but may be grilled, oven-roasted, or pan-fried. It is served in a mild curry sauce that includes butter. The sauce is a tomato, garlic, and ginger-based sauce that is simmered until smooth and much of the water has evaporated. There are many variations on the composition and spicing of the sauce, which is sieved so that it is velvety smooth. Spices may include

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

cumin Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

, pepper,

, and

fenugreek Fenugreek (; ''Trigonella foenum-graecum'') is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small Glossary_of_leaf_morphology#Leaf_and_leaflet_shapes, obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiar ...

( Punjabi/

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: kasuri methi).

Cashew Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as t ...

paste may be used as a thickener and it is finally garnished with coriander.

References

Bibliography

* ''Curry Club Tandoori and Tikka Dishes'', Piatkus, London — (1993) *''Curry Club 100 Favourite Tandoori Recipes'', Piatkus, London — & (1995) * ''India: Food & Cooking'', New Holland, London — (2007) {{Chicken dishes, state=collapsed South Asian curries Indian cuisine Indian chicken dishes Indian cuisine outside India Pakistani chicken dishes Tomato dishes Foods featuring butter Punjabi cuisine

History

Preparation

See also

References

Bibliography