Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka masala is a dish of chunks of roasted marinated (chicken Tikka) in a spiced curry sauce. The sauce is usually creamy and orange - coloured. There are multiple claims to its place of origin, including the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent or Glasgow in Scotland. It is among the United Kingdom's most popular dishes, leading a government minister, Robin Cook, to claim in 2001 that it was "a true British national dish".



Course            Main course
Place of origin         Uncertain, Indian subcontinent or Scotland
Serving temperature            Hot
Main ingredients                  Chicken, yogurt, cream, tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, chili pepper,
                                                 lamb, fish or paneer Tikka masala.

        

                                                 Composition
Chicken Tikka masala is chicken tikka, chunks of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt that is then baked in a tandoor oven, and served in masala (spice mixture) sauce. A tomato and coriander sauce is common, but no recipe for chicken tikka masala is standard, a survey found that of 48 different recipes, the only common ingredient was chicken. The sauce usually include tomatoes (frequently as purée), cream, coconut cream and spices. The sauce and chicken pieces may be coloured orange using  foodstuffs such as tumeric, paprika, tomato purée or with food dye. The dish shares some similarity with Butter chicken, both in the method of creation and appearance.









                                                   Variants
Other tikka masala dishes replace chicken with lamb, fish, or paneer.
                                                   Origin
The origin of the dish is disputed. Rahul Verma, a food critic who writes for The Hindu, said he first tasted the dish in 1971 and that its origin were in the Punjab. He said "it's basically a Punjab dish not more than 40-50 years and must be an accidental discovery which has had periodical improvisations".
 Another explanation is that it originated in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland, but probably from British Bangladesh community which ran most India n restaurants in the United Kingdom. A specific version of the British explanation recounts how a Pakistani chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of the shish mahal restaurant in the west end of Glasgow invented chicken tikka masala by improvising a sauce made from yogurt, cream, and spices.In 2013, his son Asif Ali told the story of its invention in 1971 to the BBC's Hairy Bikers TV cookery programme.
 On a typical dark, wet Glasgow night, a bus driver coming off shift came in and ordered a chicken curry. He sent it back to the waiter saying it's dry. At the time, Dad had ulcer and was enjoying a plate of tomato soup. So he said why not put some tomato into the curry with some spices. They sent it back to the table and the bus driver absolutely loved it. He and his friends came back again and we put it on the menu.