Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken chunks (chicken tikka) in a spiced sauce (masala). The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The dish was created by South Asian cooks living in Great Britain and is offered at restaurants around the world.
Composition
Chicken tikka masala served with rice
Chicken tikka masala is composed of chicken tikka, boneless chunks of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt that are roasted in an oven, served in a creamy sauce.[1][2] A tomato and coriander 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.[3][4] The sauce usually includes tomatoes (frequently as purée), cream, coconut cream and a masala spice mix. The sauce and chicken pieces may be coloured orange using foodstuffs such as turmeric, paprika, tomato purée or with food dye.
Chicken tikka masala is similar to butter chicken, both in the method of creation and appearance.[5]
Origins
The origin of the dish is not certain, but many sources attribute it to the South Asian community in Great Britain; some sources cite Glasgow as the city of origin.[2][6][7][8]
Chicken tikka masala may derive from butter chicken, a popular dish in the northern Indian subcontinent. 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.[9]
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."[10] 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."[10]
Another claim is that it originated in a restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland.[11][1] This version recounts how a British Pakistani 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.[12][13][7] 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.[14]
Chef Anita Jaisinghani, a correspondent in the Houston Chronicle, wrote 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'stomato soup.[15] However, restaurant owner Iqbal Wahhab 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".[16][17][18]
Rahul Verma, a food critic who writes for The Hindu,[19] claimed that the dish has its origins in the Punjab region.[20][11]
Popularity
Chicken tikka masala is served in restaurants around the world.[21][22]
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.[23]
Chicken tikka masala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken tikka is an Indian dish. The masala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy.[24][25][16][26]
^"Glasgow 'invented' Tikka Masala". BBC News. BBC. 21 July 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2017. Mr Sarwar claimed the dish owed its origins to the culinary skills of Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of the Shish Mahal restaurant in Park Road in the west end of the city. He is said to have prepared a sauce using spices soaked in a tin of condensed tomato soup after a customer said his meal was too dry.
^Godeau, Lucie (2 August 2009). "Chicken tikka masala claims its origins in Scotland". Sydney Morning Herald. Agence France Presse. Retrieved 19 May 2017. 'Chicken tikka masala was invented in this restaurant, we used to make chicken tikka, and one day a customer said, "I'd take some sauce with that, this is a bit dry",' said Ahmed Aslam Ali, 64, founder of Shish Mahal. 'We thought we'd better cook the chicken with some sauce. So from here we cooked chicken tikka with the sauce that contains yogurt, cream, spices'.
^Hay, Mark (5 May 2014). "Who Owns Chicken Tikka Masala?". Roads & Kingdoms. Retrieved 9 January 2023. 'Many chefs have claimed to have 'invented' chicken tikka masala, but it was certainly not Ali Ahmed Aslam of Shish Mahal,' says Grove. 'The restaurant did not open until the '60s and there was already a Glasgow claimant in the shape of Sultan Ahmed Ansari, who owned Taj Mahal and claimed to have invented it in the late '50s.'
^ abMonroe, Jo (September 2005). Star of India: The Spicy Adventures of Curry. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 135–137. ISBN978-0-470-09188-3. Retrieved 29 November 2021. An enterprising chef then looked around for something to make a sauce from and found a tin of Campbell's condensed tomato soup. Hey presto! A legend had been born. The problem with this story is that — despite its status as a curry legend — it is completely invented. Cinnamon Club founder Iqbal Wahhab ...claims to have originated the story to entertain journalists in the days when he handled the marketing for several restaurants. 'That thing about the Campbell's soup was completely made up,' he confessed
^"Curry myths". Iqbal Wahhab. 5 December 2011. Archived from the original on 9 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
^Nelson, Dean; Andrabi, Jalees (4 August 2009). "Chicken tikka masala debate grows as Indian chefs reprimand Scottish MPs over culinary origins". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 April 2010. Rahul Verma, Delhi's most authoritative expert on street food, said he first tasted the dish in 1971 and that its origins were in Punjab."Its basically a Punjabi dish not more than 40-50 years old and must be an accidental discovery which has had periodical improvisations"
^Kumar, Rakesh (24 February 2007). "Tastes that travel". The Hindu. Chennai, India: Kasturi & Sons Ltd. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
