Firstly what is Butter Chicken?
Butter chicken is traditionally a curry made with spiced tomato and butter-based gravy also known as (makhan) . It generally has a reddish, orange color and a creamy texture. Its often served on a bed of rice with a side of nan bread. Butter chicken is an incredibly popular food in India and has come in many different flavors and varieties, depending on the region you get it from.
Well where did it come from? The story is actually a bit complicated
Like many dishes the origin of butter chicken is hard to pinpoint, and multiple families claim to be its progenitor, the first claim is that Kundan Lal Gujral made butter chicken in his restaurant, Moti Mahal, that he opened in Daryaganj with two partners post indian independence. He claimed he invented it by experimenting with leftover chicken chunks, tomato paste and gravy.
The other half of the story
However, a descendant of one of those partners, Raghav Jaggi, claims it was his grandfather Kundan Lal Jaggi. He claims that Gujral was only the host of the moti, but that jaggi was the cook, and that he invented the recipe when improvising for a group of refugees they served at the restaurant.
But how did it get here
well the answer to that is a lot simpler. after butter chicken's original invention, it spread across india, and in the ever globalizing world economy of the 20th century, indians from every corner of the country spread across the globe,bringing their cultural traditions, especially their foods, with them. It isn't uncommon for immigrant famlies to open restaurants in the countries they've migrated to, so many Indian immigrants to America opened restaurents in whihch they cooked the meals they knew and loved, one of those being butter chicken.
Here's a recipe