While India’s butter chicken has previously featured across multiple lists announced by the travel guide TasteAtlas—a recently announced list of the World’s 20 Best Chicken Dishes ranks the delicacy to be amongst the top five positions. Bagging the fifth rank, the creamy, Mughlai-style preparation sits among a prestigious list of chicken preparations—the topmost being the Piliç Topkapı from Türkiye—a special preparation of herbed rice with nuts stuffed inside chicken. Morocco’s Rfissa ranked second on the list which is a preparation of stewed chicken with lentils and onions, served on a bed of shredded msemen or trid pastry. This was followed by Korea’s Chikin ranking third and Peru’s Pollo A La Brasa bagging fourth position.
In addition to the butter chicken, the classic dish of tandoori chicken also featured in the extended ranking which showcased 20 dishes, at the 14th position. Other global heavyweights included Japan’s karaage ranking 6th, Pakistan’s chicken karahi ranking 9th, USA’s fried chicken at 13th and United Kingdom’s chicken tikka masala at 18th positions respectively. Interestingly enough, the history of butter chicken states that the dish was conjured from the need to use up day-old leftover tandoori chicken—essentially becoming an extension of the original chargrilled delicacy which has an unmissable smoky depth from being cooked over coals. The pre-partition discovery of the dish has been credited to Peshawar’s Moti Mahal restaurant, where it was first created by Kundan Lal Gujral.
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Also known as murgh makhani, butter chicken has now become a signature preparation across coveted restaurants that boast of having an impressive North Indian or Mughlai spread. Typically eaten with tandoori naan, the delicacy has also evolved into featuring as fillings in wraps or rolls, toppings on pizza, in sandwiches and pretty much most global preparations adapted for the Indian palate. The disputed history of butter chicken also credits its conception in India to the post-partition period when Kundan Lal Jaggi—a former colleague of Gujral—created the classic recipe at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Daryaganj, where the claim was since trademarked in 2018.