 "Is chicken tikka masala British? Tracing the origin of the dish amid row over TasteAtlas' ranking")
Is chicken tikka masala a British dish? The question gained the spotlight after TasteAtlas released its latest list of ‘50 best chicken dishes around the world’, placing a flag of the United Kingdom in front of chicken tikka masala.
The list included four Indian chicken dishes, with butter chicken in the fourth position, tikka in the sixth, Chicken 65 at number 10 and tandoori chicken at 18th rank. However, the inclusion of chicken tikka masala as a UK speciality triggered confusion among Indian foodies.
A user questioned, “How come chicken tikka masala became British, look at the name itself!! Does it sound British to you??”
Another wrote, “Pretty sure it was created by east asian folk who lived in the UK. The place of origin is the UK but culturally it’s East Asian/Indian.”
The origin of the delectable chicken tikka masala has been hotly debated for decades. Let’s take a closer look.
What is chicken tikka masala?
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSadaf Hussain, a chef and writer, wrote for Indian Express in 2022 that the word ‘tikka’, which means “bite-sized” meat, came to the Indian subcontinent with Mughal emperor Babur.
Chicken tikka is a popular dish in northern India and Pakistan. It is made of spiced chicken marinated in chilli powder and yoghurt and cooked in a tandoor.
Chicken tikka masala consists of small chunks of roasted chicken, served with a rich curry.
How was chicken tikka masala invented?
Ali Ahmed Aslam, a Pakistan-origin chef in Scotland’s Glasgow who passed away in December 2022, had claimed he made the world’s first chicken tikka masala.
In a 2009 interview, he said he invented the dish at his restaurant Shish Mahal in Glasgow in 1972 when a customer told him his chicken tikka was too dry.
Aslam, who immigrated from Pakistan as a boy, told AFP that the customer wanted some sauce but he went a step ahead. The restaurant owner threw the meat in a yoghurt-based tomato sauce. And so, chicken tikka masala as we know it today was born.
Soon after, chicken tikka masala gained popularity in most British restaurants. In 2001, the meal was ranked above the British culinary staple of fish and chips in the list of the UK’s favourite dishes, reported CNN.
At the time, Robin Cook, the UK’s late foreign minister, called chicken tikka masala “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,” he added.
“Coming to terms with multiculturalism as a positive force for our economy and society will have significant implications for our understanding of Britishness.”
In 2009, a Scottish MP asked for a European Union Protected Designation of Origin status for the curry. However, the bid was rejected.
Some say chicken tikka masala is nothing but Indian-origin butter chicken with a different name. As per Indian Express, Kundan Lal Jaggi and Kundan Lal Gujaral, who came to India after the 1947 partition, first served butter chicken in the 1950s. Their tale of the origins of the dish was similar to Aslam’s.
Monish Gurjal, the head of the popular Indian restaurant chain Moti Mahal, claims his grandfather was serving chicken tikka masala to Indian leaders as early as 1947, reported NPR.
“Chicken tikka masala is often the gateway to Indian food for the uninitiated in America,” chef Keith Sarasin was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
“In India, gravies came about when chilli peppers and tomatoes were brought in by the Portuguese. It wasn’t until the 17th Century that gravy-based curries were popularised for the English, by Anglo-Indian cooks. While many stories exist about the true roots of chicken tikka masala, for me, the dish being a curry makes it Indian enough," celebrity chef and TV host Ranveer Brar told South China Morning Post (SCMP) in 2020.
Another theory is that the dish was invented by Bangladeshi chefs in the UK.
According to the Multicultural Handbook of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics, chicken tikka masala was developed by Bangladeshi chefs who migrated to the UK in the 1960s and created their own dishes to satisfy the British palates.
Why the debate may never end
The debate may never end.
“It’s kind of like: who invented chicken noodle soup? It’s a dish that could’ve been invented by any number of people at the same time,” Leena Trivedi-Grenier, a food writer who had investigated the several origin claims, told NPR.
Trivedi-Grenier dubbed the idea that chicken tikka masala was created solely to appease British palates as “garish”. “How do you colonise and enslave an entire country for a century and then claim that one of their dishes is from your own country?”
It seems the mystery of its origin will continue. It is better to enjoy the delicacy than to quarrel over who invented it.
With inputs from agencies
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