Born in undivided India, what makes Butter Chicken a global darling?

History of butter chicken

“Okay, so the history of butter chicken is incredibly simple,” Kurush F Dalal, archaeologist and culinary anthropologist told indianexpress.com. Dalal shared that the dish was invented to solve the serious problem of food wastage. A restaurant that served tandoori chicken was trying to find a way to use the leftovers of the tandoori dish that would turn dry and rubbery.

Calling it “an absolute flash of brilliance”, Dalal said that the chef at the restaurant added tomato onion base with a few spices to the tandoori chicken. “And then just before serving it, he did a very French thing of mounting it with butter and a little cream. And he serves this tandoori butter chicken out. It becomes so popular that ultimately he’s making tandoori chicken just to turn it into butter chicken. Okay, and this is the story of Moti Mahal,” shared Dalal.

Moti Mahal is a restaurant in Old Delhi whose founders migrated from Peshawar and is credited for the invention of butter chicken and dal makhni. The restaurant boasts of hosting influential and high-profile dignitaries like India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Nepal’s royal family, Maharaja of Patiala Yadavindra Singh, and even Bollywood stars such as Dilip Kumar and Nargis, among many others. It has also been a favourite joint of many butter chicken lovers.

Clockwise: India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru visits Moti Mahal; a restaurant worker making rotis using tandoor; superstar Dilip Kumar pays visit to Moti Mahal and actor Nargis visits the eatery. (Pic source: Monish Gujral)

“Butter chicken is a dual dish as it is tandoori chicken plus butter chicken,” said Monish Gujral, chairman of Moti Mahal Delux and grandson of Kundan Lal Gujral – co-founder of Moti Mahal, who is credited for the invention of the dish.

Gujral said that his grandfather became a complete chef at the age of 16 or 17 by working at a restaurant in Peshawar after losing his dad at a young age. “He learnt the nuances of cooking while working as an apprentice from a young age,” said Monish Gujral.

However, recently another restaurant called Daryaganj claimed to be the original founders of butter chicken and dal makhni. They claim Kundan Lal Jaggi, co-founder of Moti Mahal who later split from the hotel, was the inventor of butter chicken and dal makhni. “Moti Mahal lays claim to being the originators, and yes there is validity to this statement due to the involvement of Kundan Lal Jaggi, Raghav’s grandfather (Raghav Jaggi, co-founder, Daryaganj) who was one of the founders of Moti Mahal in Daryaganj,” said Amit Bagga, co-founder and CEO of Daryaganj Restaurants that was founded in 2019.

“Kundan Lal Jaggi was a chef at the Moti Mahal and had the responsibility of handling the kitchen,” claimed Bagga.

When we quipped about these claims to Gujral, he said it is just people trying to piggyback on someone else’s invention. “Where were all these claims when my grandfather was alive and was getting multiple awards and being awarded at different platforms?” he asked.

Both butter chicken and dal makhani are claimed to be founded at a small restaurant in Peshawar and later travelled to Delhi after India and Pakistan partition in 1947. (Pic source: Pexels)

While Dalal claimed that as far as the evidence goes, butter chicken and dal makhni were invented at the Moti Mahal. But he cannot surely pinpoint the exact individual who came up with the idea but he asks does it really matter? “So food has a habit of travelling and evolving,” said Dalal.

He said that it is not that Tandoori chicken can only be made by one person. “Similarly, a kebab is a kebab, it can be made by 20 people. The oldest tandoor evidence that we have in the world, for example, comes from Rajasthan during the Harappan period. And we have evidence of them consuming chicken as well, so does that mean that Harappans were making tandoori chicken?” he quizzed.

While, both for the Gujrals and the Jaggi family the matter of invention of these popular dishes is a personal one, for the rest of the world they are just grateful that these dishes came into being.

Reason for butter chicken’s universal appeal

Butter chicken may now be a global rage, but what led to its universal appeal? While it could be hard to pinpoint exact reasons for its appeal, there are several factors that contributed towards it. “Butter chicken was born out of the marriage of two cultures. It came into existence when the British were ruling India and is the byproduct of that time as the British wanted to eat Indian food. But they probably found it to be very heavy on spice,” chef Sahransh Goila told indianexpress.com.

Gujral concurred and said butter chicken’s ‘subtle gravy’, and the universal appeal of tomatoes with the smoky flavours of tandoor were exotic yet at the same time acceptable to the Western food palate.

Butter chicken: A global superstar

“When I visited New Zealand for the first time I was taken aback to see McDonald’s in Auckland selling butter chicken patties and butter chicken pot pies,” shared Gujral. He added, “Butter chicken is kind of a national dish for Kiwis, maybe because they were a British colony and got introduced and hooked to the dish.”

Similarly, Gujral remembers a cafe in New York selling ‘butter chicken croissants’. “Food is always evolving. These innovations are very important however they can only happen after the invention,” he said.

Bagga explicated that the fusion of butter chicken with other cuisines or dishes allows for cross-cultural influences and the opportunity to introduce Indian flavours to different culinary traditions. “It can spark curiosity and intrigue among diners, expanding their understanding and appreciation of diverse flavours,” he said.

(Being a vegetarian growing up, Goila was first introduced to butter chicken when he was studying in the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad. Pic source: Goila butter chicken)

One very popular reinvention of the iconic dish is done by chef  Saransh Goila who now successfully sells ‘Goila Butter Chicken’ from cloud kitchens across multiple cities in India. Goila gained immense popularity after he presented his butter chicken as a part of Masterchef Australia in 2018. Just like the original butter chicken invention, ‘Goila Butter Chicken’ was also invented ‘accidentally’, according to Goila. Being a vegetarian growing up, Goila was first introduced to butter chicken when he was studying at the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad. He loved the taste of butter chicken and was unhappy with its vegetarian version – butter paneer.

“Vegetarians always get a very shoddy version of this classic which means either the gravy would be too sweet or too creamy. It almost feels like ‘mithai’ and lacks all the flavour or the smokiness or the robustness of a butter chicken,” he said.

Goila invented a butter chicken gravy that had smokiness, richness of flavour and a limited amount of dairy for his family. He served that gravy with paneer. “My family absolutely loved it,” recalled Goila.

He later started organising food pop-ups at his residence, where he would prepare multiple dishes and butter chicken. “By the end of any pop-up, butter chicken would become the talking point,” he said.

It was in 2016 that he along with his batchmate Vivek Sahani launched Goila butter chicken from his residence in Mumbai. “The first three months were incredible because every single day, we would sell out by 9.30 pm to 10 pm. Then while a lot of people felt that, you know, who eats butter chicken in today’s day and age maybe you know, it’s a classic, old dish. Why do you want to reinvent it, I think we realised fairly early that there was a big market for it”.

Goila Butter Chicken is currently operating in 60-plus outlets in over 18 cities in India and the UK.

While Goila Butter Chicken is a twist to the classic recipe with an addition of honey, a significant reduction of dairy, introduction of bouquet garni of Indian spices, among other things, Goila insists it reminds people of the comfort of the original dish yet at the same time is contemporary.

Butter chicken’s ‘subtle gravy’, the universal appeal of tomatoes with the smoky flavours of tandoor was exotic yet at the same time acceptable to the Western food palate. (Pic source: Freepik/Representative image)

“I think of invention as extending your arms and legs, especially as a brand. The kind of audience you’re catering to – like we cater to a lot of Gen Z and millennials. They appreciate the fact that somebody was able to serve them, the real taste of butter chicken, but in a different format. I think till the time you’re able to stick to flavour, texture to some extent, people will be accepting of innovation,” he said.

📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!