Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken pieces (

chicken tikka Chicken tikka is a chicken dish popular in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. It is traditionally small pieces of boneless chicken baked using skewers on a brazier called or over charcoal after marinating in Indian spices and ...

) in a spiced sauce ( masala). The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The origins of the dish are debated, with many believing it was created by South Asian cooks in Britain. It is offered at restaurants around the world and is similar to

butter chicken Butter chicken is a type of curry made from chicken cooked in a spiced tomato and butter (''makhan'')-based gravy. The gravy is typically known for its rich texture. It is similar to chicken tikka masala, which uses a tomato paste. The dish orig ...

Composition

Chicken tikka masala is composed of

, boneless chunks of chicken marinated in spices and yoghurt that are roasted in an oven, served in a creamy sauce. Lloyd, J and Mitchinson, J. ''

The Book of General Ignorance ''The Book of General Ignorance'' is the first in a series of books based on the final round in the intellectual British panel game '' QI'', written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson,

''. Faber & Faber, 2006 A tomato and

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 ...

sauce is common, but no recipe for chicken tikka masala is standard; a survey found that of 48 different recipes, the only common ingredient was chicken. Chicken tikka masala is similar to

, both in the method of creation and appearance.

Origins

The origin of the dish is not certain, but many sources attribute it to the South Asian community in Great Britain. Chicken tikka masala may derive from

, a popular dish in the northern

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. The ''Multicultural Handbook of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics'' credits its creation to Bangladeshi migrant chefs in Britain in the 1960s. They developed and served a number of new inauthentic "Indian" dishes, including chicken tikka masala. Historians of ethnic food Peter and Colleen Grove discuss multiple claims regarding the origin of chicken tikka masala, concluding that the dish "was most certainly invented in Britain, probably by a Bangladeshi chef." They suggest that "the shape of things to come may have been a recipe for Shahi Chicken Masala in Mrs Balbir Singh’s ''Indian Cookery'' published in 1961." Another claim is that it originated in a restaurant in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. This version recounts how a

British Pakistani British Pakistanis (; also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are Britons or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, Pakis ...

chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of a restaurant in Glasgow, invented chicken tikka masala by improvising a sauce made from a tin of condensed tomato soup, and spices. Peter Grove challenged any claim that Aslam was the creator of the dish on grounds that the dish was known to exist several years before his restaurant opened. Chef Anita Jaisinghani wrote in the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'' that "the most likely story is that the modern version was created during the early ’70s by an enterprising Indian chef near London" who used

Campbell's The Campbell's Company (doing business as Campbell's and formerly known as the Campbell Soup Company) is an American company, most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products. The classic red-and-white can design used by many Campb ...

tomato soup. However, restaurant owner

Iqbal Wahhab Iqbal Wahhab (; born 22 August 1963) is a Bangladeshi-born British businessman. He is the founder of '' Tandoori Magazine'', and restaurants The Cinnamon Club and Roast. Background and career Wahhab was born in East Pakistan, (now Bangladesh) a ...

claims that he and Peter Grove fabricated the story of a chef using tomato soup to create chicken tikka masala in order "to entertain journalists". Rahul Verma, a food critic who writes for ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', claimed that the dish has its origins in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

region.

Popularity

Chicken tikka masala is served in restaurants around the world. According to a 2012 survey of 2,000 people in Britain, it was the country's second-most popular foreign dish to cook, after Chinese stir fry. In 2001, the British Foreign Secretary

Robin Cook Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until ...

mentioned the dish in a speech acclaiming the benefits of Britain's

multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...

, declaring:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicken Tikka Masala Bangladeshi cuisine in the United Kingdom Bangladeshi cuisine Bengali cuisine Bengali curries British cuisine Chicken dishes Curry in the United Kingdom Desi cuisine Indian chicken dishes Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom Indian curries Indian meat dishes National dishes Pakistani chicken dishes Pakistani curries Punjabi cuisine Sylheti cuisine Pakistani cuisine in the United Kingdom British chicken dishes

Composition

Origins

Popularity

See also

References