The curry was created by Punjabi immigrants from Peshawar Kundan Lal Jaggi and Kundan Lal Gujral in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in the Daryaganj neighborhood of Old Delhi. The curry was created “by chance” by combining leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato gravy that was laden with butter (makhan). A recipe for “Murgh makhanii (Tandoori chicken cooked in butter and tomato sauce)” was released in 1974.
The English term “butter chicken” curry made its first print appearance in 1975 as a house speciality at the Gaylord Indian restaurant in Manhattan. It is consumed as a pie filling in Australia and New Zealand, as well as being used as a topping for pizza, poutine, wraps, rotis, and rolls in Toronto and the Caribbean. The curry is popular in many nations with a South Asian diaspora, including Pakistan, India, and many more. Due to its popularity outside of India, people occasionally wrongly think it originated in the West.
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