Butter chicken — also known as murgh makhani — is arguably the most famous Indian dish in the world: creamy, mildly sweet and spiced, and often people's very first taste of Indian cuisine. Here's its story, how it's actually made, and a few facts even regulars might not know.
The origins of the dish
The story begins before India's independence, in the city of Peshawar (now in Pakistan), where a restaurateur named Kundan Lal Gujral already ran an establishment known for its tandoor-cooked chicken.
In 1947, the partition of India forced Kundan Lal Gujral to flee to Delhi. There, he opened a new restaurant, Moti Mahal, in the Daryaganj neighborhood — an establishment still celebrated today as the birthplace of the tandoori chicken that became popular across India.
It was at this restaurant that butter chicken was born, more out of necessity than sudden inspiration: tandoor-cooked chicken pieces, prepared ahead of service, tended to dry out by the end of the night. Rather than throw them away, Kundan Lal Gujral had the idea to simmer them in a sauce made from tomatoes, butter and cream — the now-famous 'makhani' sauce. The result was an instant hit, and the dish stuck around.
How it's made
The traditional recipe comes together in two stages. First, chicken pieces marinate for several hours in a mix of yogurt, lemon juice and spices (ginger, garlic, garam masala, chili), then get cooked in a tandoor oven at very high heat — which gives them that signature light smokiness.
Next comes the 'makhani' sauce: tomatoes slow-simmered down until reduced, enriched with butter, cream and a gentler blend of spices (cardamom, cinnamon, fenugreek). The tandoori chicken is then added to this sauce and left to simmer for a few minutes, soaking up all the flavor.
At Indian Flavors, we follow the same principle: nothing is prepared in advance, and every portion of butter chicken is assembled to order — the sauce simmers in the kitchen, never reheated from one service to the next.
Did you know?
- The name 'makhani' simply comes from the Hindi word for 'butter' (makhan).
- Butter chicken is sometimes confused with chicken tikka masala, a related dish that emerged later in the United Kingdom — both share a tomato-cream sauce, but their origins and recipes remain distinct.
- In 2024, the descendants of two cooks who shared the same first name — both called 'Kundan Lal' and both having worked at the original restaurant — faced off in a Delhi court over who truly invented the dish. The filing ran over 2,700 pages long, and the question remains, as of today, unresolved.
- Butter chicken is now considered one of the most-ordered Indian dishes in the world, found on menus at both traditional Indian restaurants and Western chains.