Chefs, customers, and restaurant employees will all have had butter chicken at some point in their lives if they work in or around restaurants. It was invented by three Punjabi restaurateurs, Kundan Lal Jaggi, Kundan Lal Gujral, and Thakur Dass, who created the world-famous Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi, in the 1950s.
This dish has been a fixture of Indian restaurants all over the world for over 60 years, from London to New York, Sydney to Moscow, and back to Delhi. While millions of people have eaten butter chicken, few are familiar with the history of the dish or the narrative of the three refugees, all of whom were entrepreneurs, who fled Peshawar following partition.
In a tandoor or traditional clay oven, butter chicken is cooked. It's first marinated in a mixture of cumin, turmeric, garlic, and ginger, as well as yogurt and lemon juice. The tomato sauce, along with butter and cream, is then poured over it as this is the most loved flavor of Butter Chicken Sauce. A number of different versions of the recipe have emerged as a consequence of time and experimenting, many of which employ a variety of spices. People get two recipes in one: traditional tandoori chicken and makhani chicken. Many of the variations available today utilize fewer spices than the original Moti Mahal recipe.
The story behind the creation of butter chicken is almost as fascinating as the dish itself. Mokha Singh Lamba established the Moti Mahal restaurant in Peshawar before the partition. Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi both worked as servers there for a while. Just across the street from the restaurant, Thakur Dass was at his family's rice and pulses wholesale business.
Just before the partition, the Moti Mahal was shut down. Many refugees moved to India during these terrible times as a result of partition, bringing their diverse skills and cultures with them. Even though Mokha Singh Lamba was too old to continue running the restaurant at the time, they were glad for the three entrepreneurs to use the original logo and gave their entire support to the venture.
There was a ready-made army of potential consumers who wanted to taste traditional Peshawar cooking, thanks to the region's rising Punjabi population. The trio began by selling bread and tea, but after purchasing three tandoor ovens, they added fish and chicken to their menu.
There's no denying that the separation's struggles and tribulations developed a close kinship between the three entrepreneurs. The courageous entrepreneurs threw their heart and energy into the project, even though it took a lot of hard work and their wives earning additional money stitching.
