Who invented chicken tikka masala?
Most accounts credit Ali Ahmed Aslam of the Shish Mahal in Glasgow, who is said to have made it in the 1970s. Other chefs in Britain claim it too, so nobody can prove who was first.
Chicken tikka masalaWith one portion of pilau rice800kcal
A dry plate in Glasgow
The best known story starts in the West End of Glasgow. Ali Ahmed Aslam was born in Pakistan in 1945 and came to the city as a boy in the late 1950s. In 1964 he opened a restaurant there called the Shish Mahal. Some time in the 1970s, the story goes, a customer sent back his chicken tikka because it was too dry. He wanted gravy with it. Aslam made a mild sauce of tomato, cream and spices, poured it over the chicken, and a new dish was on the menu.
The tin of soup
Many versions of the tale add one famous detail. Aslam is said to have opened a can of condensed tomato soup to make that first sauce. It is a lovely picture, and it was printed again and again. But restaurateur Iqbal Wahhab later said that he and food historian Peter Grove had invented the soup part to entertain journalists. In his words, it was completely made up. So the customer and the dry chicken may be true, but the soup most likely is not.
Other people say it was theirs
Glasgow does not own the story alone. Peter Grove pointed to Sultan Ahmed Ansari of the Taj Mahal restaurant, also in Glasgow, who said he made the dish in the 1950s, before the Shish Mahal even opened. Other writers credit Bangladeshi chefs working in British curry houses in the 1960s. Britannica mentions one more theory, that it grew out of butter chicken from northern India. In 2009 a Glasgow MP, Mohammed Sarwar, asked for protected status for the dish. It was not granted.
A British national dish
In 2001 the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, gave a speech about modern Britain and picked this curry as his example. He called it a true British national dish. His point was that Britain takes in food from elsewhere and makes it its own. He even explained the sauce: chicken tikka is Indian, and the masala sauce was added because the British like their meat in gravy. By 2010 it was the most popular dish in British curry houses, and supermarkets sell it as a ready meal.
What it is today
Aslam died in December 2022, aged 77, and the Shish Mahal closed for two days in his memory. The dish he is linked to is now cooked far from Glasgow. A typical plate is pieces of chicken that were marinated in yogurt and spices and cooked in a hot oven, then served in an orange sauce of tomato and cream. It usually comes with rice or naan, or both, which is where most of the portion sits.