Butter Chicken is one of the most popular chicken dishes that originated in India in the 1950s. As the name suggests, Butter chicken is a delicious curry made from chicken pieces cooked in a spiced tomato and butter-based gravy. The gravy is world-famous for its rich texture and rich, creamy, and mildly spiced flavour with sweet undertones.
Originating in Delhi, India, Butter Chicken is a popular Indian dish known for its smooth, buttery tomato-based sauce that coats tender pieces of chicken. The sweetness comes from the tomatoes and cream, while the spices like garam masala, cumin, and chilli powder add a subtle warmth and complexity.
The preparation of butter involves soaking chicken in a mix of lemon juice, yoghurt, red chilli, salt, garam masala, and ginger-garlic paste for a few hours to create the magical flavour. Then it’s cooked in a clay oven, but it can also be grilled, roasted, or fried. After that, it’s cooked in a rich, buttery curry sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, and ginger, cooked until thick and smooth. The special sauce is creamy and includes spices like cardamom, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and fenugreek. Sometimes cashew paste is added to make it thicker, and it’s topped with fresh coriander before serving.
The term “butter chicken” first appeared in English in 1975, listed as a special dish at Gaylord Indian restaurant in New York City. Today, butter chicken is a popular dish across the world, including Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and New Zealand. In these countries, it’s often used as a filling in pizza, poutine, wraps, pies, and more. The dish is commonly eaten in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and anywhere there’s a South Asian community. Because it’s so popular around the world, some people mistakenly think it was invented in the West, like chicken tikka masala, which it’s often confused with. In 2024, a legal fight broke out between two restaurant families in India—Gujral’s and Jaggi’s—over who actually invented the butter chicken recipe.
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