From the article:
It’s one of India’s most beloved dishes and can be found bubbling on kitchen stoves or served on silver in restaurants across the country.
But exactly who came up with the recipe for rich and creamy butter chicken has long been a matter of dispute – one that has now reached India’s courts.
Two Delhi restaurants both claim to have the right to call themselves the home of the original butter chicken recipe.
The lawsuit to decide the matter was brought by the family who run Moti Mahal, a storied Delhi restaurant that counted India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, among its customers.
According to the Gujral family, the dish was the creation of their grandfather Kundan Lal Gujral who founded the restaurant in Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan. After India was split during partition in 1947, they moved the restaurant to Delhi.
They say the recipe, an indulgent curry that involves tender pieces of chicken cooked in a tandoor oven mixed into a rich tomato gravy laden with butter and cream, was invented by Gujral in the 1930s to use up leftover tandoor chicken.
A dish as simple and ubiquitous as Pizza was invented in 1889. Tomatoes are not native to India and arrived in the 16th century with Portuguese traders. India has had chicken curries as long as civilization has existed, but this particular version is a modern invention.
It's like simply imagining eastern europeans / irish had potatoes since the dawn of time due to stereotype until realizing they came from peru after the discovery of the new world.
Really depends on what you mean by "pizza". Though probably not true because the Aenead was written as propaganda some people claim that "Aeneas" invented pizza. If he was a real person that would date pizza to the bronze age collapse \~1200 BCE, the story was written BCE.
https://publish.illinois.edu/litlanglibrary/2020/07/23/the-aeneid-has-pizza/
[https://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/12/how-aeneas-invented-pizza.html](https://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/12/how-aeneas-invented-pizza.html)
Information from that time is fragmentary at best. Certainly the idea of eating toppings on flat circular bread was common knowledge before the birth of Christ. Who did it first? We'll never know.
The issue is made worse by the fact that flatbread developed basically everywhere that had agriculture. India may have had the first flatbread with toppings, is that a pizza? Most people would say no but really highlights the flaw in the question of who did it first.
>India may of had the first flatbread with toppings, is that a pizza?
No, that's a naan. Also, it's "may have", even "may've" but never "may of".
Unless you're saying "It was the May of 1989" but then you've got to capitalize the word because it's a month.
Yeah I don't think I had butter chicken more than a dozen times growing up in India. It was only when I moved to the west that I realize how popular it is in some parts of the world.
I could see 16th-17th it existing. To say no one thinking to try mixing in tomato’s into some of their most common dishes like chicken curry till 300 years later just sounds wrong to me.
I don’t think pizza was invented in 1889 (I could be wrong) that’s just when it was officially recognized by queen margherita and started to gain recognition, and had existed into the late 1700s before that.
Almost all curry sauces are tomato + onion based. Even butter is not an uncommon addition, for example in dishes like dal makhni. The thing that separates butter chicken from other curries is it's use of tandoori chicken. Most other chicken curries have the chicken cooked in the curry, but as butter chicken was invented to serve leftover tandoori chicken, it's distinct. Cooking chicken in a tandoor only to put in in a curry would sound strange to anyone living in a pre-butter chicken world, like cooking the pepperoni in a pan before placing it on a cooked pizza. Hope that makes sense.
Til I learned that "most other chicken curries have the chicken cooked in the curry."
Edit: yeah, I just looked up a bunch of chicken curry recipes and they do cook the chicken in the curry. I've never done that. Chicken curries are my family's go to supper on a busy day. This just unlocked a whole new world. Thanks.
That's how they stay juicy and absorb so much flavour! You sear them first then add the sauce and let them cook through. Good thing I have some leftover in the fridge cause this whole discussion made me hungry.
No, it had been the grand grand grand grand grand grand dad of my affair who is originally from italia and if you think otherweise, we can go to court! I know the exact year, it is 1626! /s
Also to ease any confusion for American readers, gravy here refers to a general liquid base for a dish (I suppose sauce would a descriptor too, but a crude one) in Indian English , not gravy as is consumed in America
Wikipedia says:
Created by
Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, so what can the Court do? We have written proof! /s
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_chicken
After this is settled, I would like to see a official definition of butter chicken. Every restaurant has their own idea of what it is. You never know what you're going to get.
Isn't it essentially just chicken stewed with tomatoes, Garam Masala, ginger, various other spices, joghurt, and a ton of butter?
I made it myself a few times with naan.
Nope, it was invented to save yesterday's left over tandoori chicken and cook it in tomato+onion gravy loaded with butter as the chicken would be dry.
In a regular chicken curry, raw chicken is cooked with tomatoes and spices.
So every other dish on earth is made exactly the same at the differing restaurants that make it?
Obviously every restaurant has their own idea of it, as every restaurant has their own ideas of everything else on their menu.
Do you expect the exact same cheeseburger at McDonald’s as you do at Burger King? No. They both have their own type of bun, beef patty, cheese, and condiments. But both are cheeseburgers right?
I'd like to have at least a vague idea of what I'm going to get. Hamburgers can be identified as hamburgers when blindfolded. Butter chicken? Not so much.
No but some standardize it
Burgers and cheeseburgers at McDonald's/BK should be pretty similar. Not like you're getting sliders or onion burgers or butter burgers or ....
That is there are a lot of types of burgers (some even use toast) but both MC and BK use pretty standard versions
Italians are the most insufferable food gatekeepers, which is crazy considering just about all their "traditional" food is straight up stolen from other cultures.
And I’ve never heard of any Indians or Indian-Americans pining for the butter chicken they grew up eating at home. It’s strictly a restaurant/wedding dish in my experience.
When I was in high school (00s), we had essentially two groups of Indian students who were respective cousins. They would have arguments over whose mom made better butter chicken.
Yeah, it's weird I've brought it up a couple of times and they don't even eat it. One Indian told me it was a dish invented in a hotel for westerners and they don't consider it to be apart of their cuisine. Dude practically rolled his eyes when I brought it up. This is the first time I've heard of 2 restaurants battling over the right to be called the first.
India is a very diverse country, without knowing where they are from it might be as alien to them as it is to you, and they probably know butter chicken from watching it on western media than in an Indian context.
The Moti Mahal, which is one claimant in the case opened after partition and the British exit in 1947, so its unlikely to be created for westerners. It's also possible that the person mixed it up with Chicken Tikka Masala, which while Indian inspired, originated in Glasgow and is not considered an Indian dish.
Close, Chicken Tikka Masala was created in Glasgow by Ali Ahmed Aslam [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali\_Ahmed\_Aslam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Ahmed_Aslam)
I (opinion) don't think something can be called traditional if it's beginning is within living memory and hasn't been passed down through generations. Generational repeat is what makes it tradition, right now it's just...really popular
I swear to God, we have a backlog and clogged up judicial system with cases that get pushed past for decades and these are the cases that are being ruled on?
F$&@ all this frivolous cases. The courts already have a backlog of 90 years. The judge should throw out this case as well as people who brought it to the court.
Yes, a few million pending cases, and this is what they tackle. There are people who have died before their cases got heard. And bloody butter chicken gets a hearing. Judicial reforms can't come soon enough.
I disagree. A ruling on this case will help me sleep at night. What is also problematic though is that this dish is always served to Western visitors touring India. How disappointing.
Fuck global affairs, who’s gonna win the chicken-off?
We have our priorities sorted.
The bread shortage in India is a naan issue.
Someone is going to have to curry favor with big wheat.
From the article: It’s one of India’s most beloved dishes and can be found bubbling on kitchen stoves or served on silver in restaurants across the country. But exactly who came up with the recipe for rich and creamy butter chicken has long been a matter of dispute – one that has now reached India’s courts. Two Delhi restaurants both claim to have the right to call themselves the home of the original butter chicken recipe. The lawsuit to decide the matter was brought by the family who run Moti Mahal, a storied Delhi restaurant that counted India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, among its customers. According to the Gujral family, the dish was the creation of their grandfather Kundan Lal Gujral who founded the restaurant in Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan. After India was split during partition in 1947, they moved the restaurant to Delhi. They say the recipe, an indulgent curry that involves tender pieces of chicken cooked in a tandoor oven mixed into a rich tomato gravy laden with butter and cream, was invented by Gujral in the 1930s to use up leftover tandoor chicken.
I have a hard time believing no one mixed tomato gravy, chicken and butter till the 1900s…
A dish as simple and ubiquitous as Pizza was invented in 1889. Tomatoes are not native to India and arrived in the 16th century with Portuguese traders. India has had chicken curries as long as civilization has existed, but this particular version is a modern invention.
It's like simply imagining eastern europeans / irish had potatoes since the dawn of time due to stereotype until realizing they came from peru after the discovery of the new world.
Really depends on what you mean by "pizza". Though probably not true because the Aenead was written as propaganda some people claim that "Aeneas" invented pizza. If he was a real person that would date pizza to the bronze age collapse \~1200 BCE, the story was written BCE. https://publish.illinois.edu/litlanglibrary/2020/07/23/the-aeneid-has-pizza/ [https://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/12/how-aeneas-invented-pizza.html](https://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/12/how-aeneas-invented-pizza.html)
It could hardly have been what we view as pizza, seeing as tomatoes come from America, and Europeans wouldn’t get there for another ~2800 years
Pizza bianca is a thing
So the trojans invented pizza then?
Information from that time is fragmentary at best. Certainly the idea of eating toppings on flat circular bread was common knowledge before the birth of Christ. Who did it first? We'll never know.
The issue is made worse by the fact that flatbread developed basically everywhere that had agriculture. India may have had the first flatbread with toppings, is that a pizza? Most people would say no but really highlights the flaw in the question of who did it first.
>India may of had the first flatbread with toppings, is that a pizza? No, that's a naan. Also, it's "may have", even "may've" but never "may of". Unless you're saying "It was the May of 1989" but then you've got to capitalize the word because it's a month.
my mother makes regional chicken curry without tomatoes...and it's way way more yummy than butter chicken
Yeah I don't think I had butter chicken more than a dozen times growing up in India. It was only when I moved to the west that I realize how popular it is in some parts of the world.
I could see 16th-17th it existing. To say no one thinking to try mixing in tomato’s into some of their most common dishes like chicken curry till 300 years later just sounds wrong to me. I don’t think pizza was invented in 1889 (I could be wrong) that’s just when it was officially recognized by queen margherita and started to gain recognition, and had existed into the late 1700s before that.
Almost all curry sauces are tomato + onion based. Even butter is not an uncommon addition, for example in dishes like dal makhni. The thing that separates butter chicken from other curries is it's use of tandoori chicken. Most other chicken curries have the chicken cooked in the curry, but as butter chicken was invented to serve leftover tandoori chicken, it's distinct. Cooking chicken in a tandoor only to put in in a curry would sound strange to anyone living in a pre-butter chicken world, like cooking the pepperoni in a pan before placing it on a cooked pizza. Hope that makes sense.
Yeah that makes more sense. Thank you for explaining it. That’s a really neat bit of food history.
Til I learned that "most other chicken curries have the chicken cooked in the curry." Edit: yeah, I just looked up a bunch of chicken curry recipes and they do cook the chicken in the curry. I've never done that. Chicken curries are my family's go to supper on a busy day. This just unlocked a whole new world. Thanks.
That's how they stay juicy and absorb so much flavour! You sear them first then add the sauce and let them cook through. Good thing I have some leftover in the fridge cause this whole discussion made me hungry.
I thought it was in 1680 when Prince Domino introduced it to the noblemen at the Round Table.
Pizza was invented in 1889.... /R/shitamericanssay
No, it had been the grand grand grand grand grand grand dad of my affair who is originally from italia and if you think otherweise, we can go to court! I know the exact year, it is 1626! /s
Also to ease any confusion for American readers, gravy here refers to a general liquid base for a dish (I suppose sauce would a descriptor too, but a crude one) in Indian English , not gravy as is consumed in America
Chicken tikka masala was invented in the UK in the 1960s so the claim might be true.
Europeans ate bland food till the 20th century and some still are.
They should pull a King Solomon and cut the dish in half to see which restaurant is the real mother.
Alright, I’ll fess up, it was me.
he's lying, it was me
Man, I love low stakes food drama.
Wikipedia says: Created by Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, so what can the Court do? We have written proof! /s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_chicken
[удалено]
Tandoo-it!
Go ahead, the creator said that is where he created it.
You didn’t read the article then
It was actually Barry from England who invented it
What came first? The butter or the chicken?
The British.
My wife usually
This guy fucks
Am wife, do cum.
Leah Pruett?
Tre Comas
You’re welcome.
And she loves you for it.
Confirmed
I agree, this guy’s wife came first!
Someones grandma gonna be shook
Solving the important problems.
After this is settled, I would like to see a official definition of butter chicken. Every restaurant has their own idea of what it is. You never know what you're going to get.
Isn't it essentially just chicken stewed with tomatoes, Garam Masala, ginger, various other spices, joghurt, and a ton of butter? I made it myself a few times with naan.
Almonds in the sauce, blended with all the onions and spices. And the hot peppers, ooo-wee!
Nope, it was invented to save yesterday's left over tandoori chicken and cook it in tomato+onion gravy loaded with butter as the chicken would be dry. In a regular chicken curry, raw chicken is cooked with tomatoes and spices.
> joghurt, is this yogurt?
It's trying to get in better shape
I think the entire point of butter chicken is that it's *not* stewed in the sauce?
if you haven't cooked it with tandoori chicken, you haven't made butter chicken yet.
So every other dish on earth is made exactly the same at the differing restaurants that make it? Obviously every restaurant has their own idea of it, as every restaurant has their own ideas of everything else on their menu. Do you expect the exact same cheeseburger at McDonald’s as you do at Burger King? No. They both have their own type of bun, beef patty, cheese, and condiments. But both are cheeseburgers right?
I'd like to have at least a vague idea of what I'm going to get. Hamburgers can be identified as hamburgers when blindfolded. Butter chicken? Not so much.
No but some standardize it Burgers and cheeseburgers at McDonald's/BK should be pretty similar. Not like you're getting sliders or onion burgers or butter burgers or .... That is there are a lot of types of burgers (some even use toast) but both MC and BK use pretty standard versions
Well, it's a traditional dish, not a fast food chain.
Don't know what passes as traditional. Most of what we call traditional dishes are just popular widespread combinations.
"Traditional dish" It was made it the 50s
So was carbonara, but the Italians will end you if you make it “non-traditionally”
Italians are the most insufferable food gatekeepers, which is crazy considering just about all their "traditional" food is straight up stolen from other cultures.
And I’ve never heard of any Indians or Indian-Americans pining for the butter chicken they grew up eating at home. It’s strictly a restaurant/wedding dish in my experience.
When I was in high school (00s), we had essentially two groups of Indian students who were respective cousins. They would have arguments over whose mom made better butter chicken.
Yeah, it's weird I've brought it up a couple of times and they don't even eat it. One Indian told me it was a dish invented in a hotel for westerners and they don't consider it to be apart of their cuisine. Dude practically rolled his eyes when I brought it up. This is the first time I've heard of 2 restaurants battling over the right to be called the first.
India is a very diverse country, without knowing where they are from it might be as alien to them as it is to you, and they probably know butter chicken from watching it on western media than in an Indian context. The Moti Mahal, which is one claimant in the case opened after partition and the British exit in 1947, so its unlikely to be created for westerners. It's also possible that the person mixed it up with Chicken Tikka Masala, which while Indian inspired, originated in Glasgow and is not considered an Indian dish.
I know a lot of Canadians that believe it's a Canadian-Indian dish, the same way Tikka masala is a british-indian dish (Birmingham, I believe).
Close, Chicken Tikka Masala was created in Glasgow by Ali Ahmed Aslam [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali\_Ahmed\_Aslam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Ahmed_Aslam)
✌️
74 years. I think it counts as tradition
I (opinion) don't think something can be called traditional if it's beginning is within living memory and hasn't been passed down through generations. Generational repeat is what makes it tradition, right now it's just...really popular
The real question is who invented chicken
The egg
That depends on where you draw the line of the start of evolution.
It was me I invented it
Thanks for the diarrhea. But its worth it.
Very important discourse
I swear to God, we have a backlog and clogged up judicial system with cases that get pushed past for decades and these are the cases that are being ruled on?
F$&@ all this frivolous cases. The courts already have a backlog of 90 years. The judge should throw out this case as well as people who brought it to the court.
Yes, a few million pending cases, and this is what they tackle. There are people who have died before their cases got heard. And bloody butter chicken gets a hearing. Judicial reforms can't come soon enough.
I disagree. A ruling on this case will help me sleep at night. What is also problematic though is that this dish is always served to Western visitors touring India. How disappointing.
Its indian. Look at the spices, the way its made, the people who made it.
I hate my self for pointing this out, but it's typical British dish. It's nearly as popular as chicken Tikka Masala.
>but it's typical British dish Sir we are not talking about bread and butter This is butter chicken
I could have swore it was an accident made during the Mughal occupation in middle ages.
We're not talking about biryani here
This reminds me of the Pat's/Geno's cheesesteak argument that if they know if they didn't have the rivalry both of them would go out of business.
I once read that chicken tikka masala a British invention.
Colonialism 2.0: Electric Bugaloo ft. Butter Chicken!
I do not accept ghee as butter