Chicken tikka masala is a South Asian dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken chunks ( chicken tikka) in a spiced sauce. The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The dish was popularised by cooks from South Asia living in Great Britain and is offered at restaurants around the world.

Composition

Chicken tikka masala is composed of chicken tikka, boneless chunks of chicken marinated in spices and

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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 (;

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. The sauce usually includes tomatoes (frequently as

purée A purée (or mash) is cooked food, usually vegetables, fruits or legumes, that has been ground, pressed, blended or sieved to the consistency of a creamy paste or liquid. Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g., app ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, coconut cream and a

masala Masala, Massala or MASALA may refer to: Spice * Masala (spice), any of the many spice mixes used in South Asian cuisine ** Masala chai, a flavoured tea beverage ** Masala incense, Indian incense using a spice mix ** Masala dosa, an Indian dish Pl ...

spice mix. The sauce and chicken pieces may be coloured orange using foodstuffs such as

turmeric Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast ...

paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from '' Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder ...

, tomato purée or with food dye. Chicken tikka masala is similar to butter chicken, both by recipe and appearance.

Origins

The origin of the dish is not certain, but many sources attribute it to the South Asian community in Great Britain; some sources also cite

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

as the city of origin. Chicken tikka masala may derive from butter chicken, a popular dish in the northern

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...

. 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 explanation is that it originated in a restaurant in

, Scotland. 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. Aslam died in 2022 at the age of 77. Chef Anita Jaisinghani, a correspondent in the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in 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''. With i ...

'', 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's Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...

tomato soup. This is disputed by author Jo Monroe, who claims that this story was invented by the founder of a London restaurant "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 began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...

'' newspaper, claims: "It's basically a

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

dish not more than 40–50 years old and must be an accidental discovery which has had periodical improvisations."

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, British

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwe ...

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

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

, declaring:

References

External links

* * {{Chicken dishes, state=collapsed Bangladeshi cuisine in the United Kingdom Bangladeshi meat dishes Bengali curries British chicken dishes Culture in Glasgow Curry in the United Kingdom Desi cuisine Indian chicken dishes Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom Indian curries Masalas National dishes Pakistani chicken dishes Pakistani cuisine in the United Kingdom Pakistani curries Punjabi cuisine Scottish cuisine Sylheti cuisine

Composition

Origins

Popularity

See also

References

Further reading

External links