The dish that has become a global icon of Indian cuisine is dying in an Indian courtroom, as its creators’ grandsons fight over who invented it
Butter Chicken was the solution to a simple problem: what to do with leftover tandoori chicken? Illustration by C Y Gopinath using Ai
One Friday in the middle of the pandemic in July 2020, Noel Atkinson, 48, felt a strong urge to eat Butter Chicken. It is well-known that Melbourne is not the home of Butter Chicken, but there were plenty of Indian restaurants offering that famous dish, except that Werribee, the suburb where he lived, was far from them. Nevertheless, such was his craving that Noel Atkinson decided to drive 32 km downtown and get his Butter Chicken, since it was past 11 pm and all nearby Indian places were closed.
Alas, when he was just a few metres away from the restaurant, he was flagged down by Melbourne Police and charged with violating COVID-19 regulations. Poor Atkinson, who gets his taste for Punjabi food from his Ambala-born mother, was fined AU$ 1,652 (about Rs 96,000), and sent home — without any Butter Chicken.
By Sunday, the event had gone viral all over Melbourne. Tonka, just off Flinders Street, claimed that Atkinson had “very likely” been headed to their restaurant, and started a “Who is Mr Butter Chicken?” campaign. They calculated that AU$ 1,652 translated to 61 Butter Chickens or pretty much a lifetime supply.
Desi Dhaba, another nearby restaurant, publicly offered Noel free Butter Chicken for a year, though by then Mr Atkinson may have lost his taste for anything with either chicken or butter in it.
Recently, the beloved dish that is arguably Indian cuisine’s single most recognisable culinary icon, exploded in controversy with two young men who went to court, each claiming that his grandfather had invented Butter Chicken. The grandfathers, Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, however, were good friends, both refugees who had fled to India from Pakistan during the Partition. It would not have occurred to them to fight over such a silly matter.
To understand why this legendary dish is dying in a courtroom, we need to go to a time before Butter Chicken was born, when a man called Mokha Singh Lamba ran a well-known tandoori joint called Moti Mahal in Peshawar, and the two Kundan Lals were his employees. As Pakistan broke off from India, the restaurant shuttered, and the three men fled to Daryaganj, a hub for refugees coming to Delhi. Mokha Singh, old and tired, gave the two lads his blessings to start a new Moti Mahal in Daryaganj.
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It started as a tearoom in 1947, but soon acquired three tandoor ovens, adding tikkas, kebabs and naans to their menu. Gujral, whom the New York Times described as a “portly, florid man with a splendid moustache”, was the restaurant’s face, while his junior partner Jaggi managed kitchen operations. Since they could not afford a hall, Moti Mahal became Delhi’s first open-air restaurant. A singer sang tinny qawwali songs from Pakeezah.
Butter Chicken was born here, not from an attack of creativity but frugality caused by a simple problem: what to do with tandoori chicken left unsold at the end of the evening, which would go dry by the next day? Why not recook it in a simple sauce? The legendary Butter Chicken sauce was an inspired creation of tomatoes, cream and butter with just enough spices to give it a personality while rehydrating yesterday’s tandoori bits.
To everyone’s surprise, it was a smash hit. Within a year, ministers and heads of state, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Richard Nixon, Nikita Khrushchev and John F Kennedy, among others, had visited Moti Mahal just to taste its famous Butter Chicken.
Moti Mahal expanded, opening branches in other cities and countries, but when the owners died, it was sold in 1992. Monish Gujral, grandson, tried to continue the tradition on his own, opening a chain called Moti Mahal Delux. Not to be outdone, in 2019, Raghav Jaggi, the other grandson, started his own franchise, calling it Daryaganj, with a kicker claiming they were “The Inventors of the Original Butter Chicken and Dal Makhani”.
Incensed by this, Monish filed a 2700-page lawsuit in Delhi High Court in 2024, claiming that it was his grandfather who had created the original Butter Chicken, and in Peshawar, not Delhi, well before India’s Independence, while working in Moti Mahal there. He sought R2 crore in damages as well as an injunction against Daryaganj’s false claim.
Butter Chicken flourishes unfettered as a global dish while it dies in India. It shows up in pizza toppings, burgers, in just-add-water meals, and other forms. As food historian Pushpesh Pant said, Butter Chicken now belongs to everyone in the world who loves a good curry.
Of course, the final nail in Butter Chicken’s coffin comes from those who would improve a perfect recipe that should just be left alone. We may forgive the Paneer Makhani, a nod to the vegans among us, but why should you tolerate tofu and chick peas instead of dairy and meat?
A local genius has spawned a white Butter Chicken by leaving out tomatoes entirely. Certain Michelin-starred chefs have introduced nuts, yoghurt, and clear essence of tomatoes. Everyone is playing fast and loose with Butter Chicken.
Inspired by these stunning assaults on such a venerable dish, I plan to create my own version, in which I will omit chicken, tomatoes, all spices and cream. It will be called just — Butter.
You can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopi@gmail.com
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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