Butter Chicken vs Chicken Tikka Masala: The Difference
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between butter chicken and chicken tikka masala?
Butter chicken is built on tomato, butter and cream, strained smooth, sweet and restrained in its spicing, and traditionally contains no onion. Chicken tikka masala is built on a fried onion-and-tomato masala with a fuller spice mix, is tangier and more savory, usually a little spicier, and often keeps some texture.
Is butter chicken the same as tikka masala?
No, though they're close relatives and butter chicken came first. Both are tandoor-cooked chicken in a creamy tomato sauce, but the sauces are made differently.
Which is spicier, butter chicken or tikka masala?
Tikka masala, usually, though not by much and it varies more by restaurant than by dish. Butter chicken is mild almost by definition, since the butter, cream and sweetness would fight any real heat.
What is murgh makhani?
It's butter chicken. Murgh means chicken and makhani means buttery. Chicken makhani is the same dish under a third name.
Where did butter chicken come from?
Moti Mahal in Delhi, around 1950, after the restaurant relocated from Peshawar following Partition. It was created to use unsold tandoori chicken by simmering the dried pieces in a tomato, butter and cream gravy.
Who invented chicken tikka masala?
It's disputed. Ali Ahmed Aslam of the Shish Mahal in Glasgow claimed to have created it in the 1970s, and a Glasgow MP campaigned for protected origin status in 2009. Others argue it's a Punjabi dish that predates that. Both accounts are plausible.
Is chicken tikka the same as chicken tikka masala?
No. Tikka means pieces, chicken tikka is boneless marinated chunks cooked in a tandoor and served dry with no sauce. Chicken tikka masala is those pieces in a masala sauce.
What is kasuri methi?
Dried fenugreek leaf, crushed and stirred into butter chicken near the end of cooking. It's slightly bitter and faintly maple-like, and it's the distinctive note most people can't identify in butter chicken. Tikka masala usually doesn't contain it.
Which is better for a first-time Indian meal?
Butter chicken. It's milder, sweeter and richer, and it's the dish that most often convinces people who thought they wouldn't like Indian food.
Is tikka masala authentic Indian food?
It's a dish of the Indian diaspora, most likely created by Punjabi cooks cooking for British customers. That makes it a real dish with a real history rather than a fake one. Both it and butter chicken are modern, roughly fifty and seventy-five years old.
