This dish is made by cooking a marinated piece of meat in a tandoor, the typical coal-fired Indian oven. Masala is a gravy, usually made out of some sort of tomato puree or gravy with cream and a variety of Indian spices. In principle, it is a mild curry dish, even though the adding of large quantities of tartrazine causes it to regularly look orange. Depending on the recipe you use, it can look anything from orange to red or green.

Chicken Tikka Masala is one of the the most popular Indian dishes in the world, and it has perhaps replaced the tandoori chicken as the flagship of Indian food. In the UK alone, Marks & Spencer, the well-known English retailer, sells over 18 tons of their Chicken Tikka Masala Sandwiches every week, while more than 23 million servings are sold at the Indian restaurants each year.

The chicken, although generally considered to be a specificIndian dish, does not have its origins in India. The kitchens from Glasgow to London claim to have created this dish that was put to sale for the first time in the late 1960s. As an urban legend suggests, the dish was invented by a Bangladeshi chef living in  Britain. He served chicken tandoori to a man who asked, “where’s my gravy?” Thus, the result was a combination of tomato soup and spices that received the name of masala. This is the way chicken tikka masala was born, and it is a clear and early example of what now defines fusion cooking. Currently, it is very popular in Britain and considered a national dish.

So what does a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala contain? A survey conducted in 1998 indicated that 48 versions have a common ingredient in chicken. A widespread recipe includes chicken that is normally marinated during the night in yogurt, garlic, ginger, cumin, cardamom powder, white pepper as well as a variety of other spices. Then, the chicken is briefly cooked in the tandoor, and served with a sauce consisting of tomato, garlic, ginger, cream, green and red peppers, and a variety of spices. In comparison with tandoori chicken, its taste is creamy and milder, rather than spicy.

It is not clear if chicken tikka masala is a British dish or an Indian one, but, whatever its origins, it is enjoyed by millions of people on both continents each year.

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