Why Britain Considers Tikka Masala A National Dish

With its robust flavors, it's easy to assume that chicken tikka masala is a dish that hails from the Indian subcontinent. However, it's actually an example of the ingenuity of immigrant chefs. Exact origin stories vary, but it is generally agreed that chicken tikka masala was invented by South Asians who emigrated to the United Kingdom and adapted their national cooking style to the British palate. Chicken tikka masala rapidly gained popularity to the point where it is now considered one of England's national dishes. It is usually referred to as a curry dish, although the term "curry" has an equally long and complex history. 

Chicken tikka masala recipes vary widely depending on the restaurant and the chef. Generally, the dish combines yogurt-and-spice marinated chicken breast that's grilled for a smoky flavor or cooked in a tandoor oven and cut into sizable chunks (or "tikka"). The chicken is then smothered in a creamy, tomato-based masala sauce.

Chicken tikka masala is a wildly popular staple of Indian takeout food – if you were to put together a cheat sheet of Indian restaurant dishes, it would definitely be on there. However, like many other well-known recipes from around the world (Pad Thai gained popularity during wartime, while Hoppin' John was eaten during the American Civil War) chicken tikka masala's history has something of a dark side. After all, the dish would likely not exist without the British Empire's former colonization of India and Pakistan.

The British Empire ruled India directly or indirectly for roughly 250 years, from the early 1700s to 1947. The innumerable cultural interactions stemming from that colonial relationship meant that the U.K. offered somewhat familiar shores for Indians looking to leave the continent, and so Britain became a magnet for Indian immigration. As generations of Indians lived and worked in Britain, some of their cultural recipes merged with traditional British foods. Sometime in the 1970s, this crucible birthed chicken tikka masala.

Exactly where and when is lost to history, but one popular origin story claims a Bangladeshi chef in Glasgow, Scotland, improvised a tomato cream sauce for a British customer who wanted gravy with their meat. Others say it emerged from butter chicken,  a similar dish that hails from northern India and that is sweeter and less spicy. Whatever the precise origin, chicken tikka masala took the world by storm, and is believed to be one of the first instances of modern fusion cuisine.