Butter Chicken with Cashews

Butter chicken, known in India as murgh makhani, was reportedly developed by three Punjabi chefs at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi in the 1950s. Since then, it has become one of the most beloved Indian dishes around the world.

The Moti Mahal restaurant itself had a past closely intertwined with the history of India itself. The original Moti Mahal was located in the city of Peshawar, in what would become Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947 with the dissolution of the British Raj. After partition, along with many others from the Punjabi region, the founders moved to Delhi, the capital city of newly defined India, and reopened Moti Mahal. It was a fortuitous move, as their success led to the innovation of a new dish, butter chicken, as they sought to use leftover tandoori chicken and combined it with tikka masala sauce.

Moti Mahal soon became one of the most famous restaurants in Delhi, playing host to a diverse cast of characters including Richard Nixon, Jackie Kennedy and JFK, Queen Elizabeth II, and Nikita Khrushchev. The dish invented by its three founding chefs, Kundan Lal Jaggi, Kundan Lal Gujral, and Thakur Dass, perpetuates their legacy throughout the world today.

Butter chicken is a fragrant chicken curry combining traditional tandoori flavors with a spicy sauce, cooked in butter to lend a unique, decadent richness. It is best served with North Indian flatbreads such as naan or roti, though it also pairs well with jasmine rice.