Chicken tikka masala: UK vs. India
A lot of people consider chicken tikka masala to be Britain’s national dish. It’s so widespread and ubiquitous that you’d have a hard time not finding it around every corner. But is it truly British? It’s rumored to have been invented in a restaurant in Glasgow in 1970 by Ali Ahmed Aslam, who worked at Shish Mahal curry house at the time.
The story goes like this: when a customer was displeased by a curry dish for being ‘too dry, Aslam simply pouted a can of tomato soup over it. He then added yogurt, a few extra spices and brought the dish back to the customer.
The counterclaim? In India, under the British Empire, sauce was regularly added to certain types of curry that were known to otherwise be dry and fiery, especially by people accustomed to spices. There’s even another claim that chicken tikka masala is just a different take on a traditional Punjabi recipe!
