In the 1930s, when actor-singer Kundal Lal Saigal was breaking box-office records with Devdas, two namesake contemporaries were honing their culinary skills in Peshawar. Those two Kundan Lals – Gujral and Jaggi – went on to create
butter chicken
, the addictive dish of tandoori chicken stewed in tomato puree that online food guide tasteatlas.com ranked third among the ‘best chicken dishes in the world’ last June.
Like Saigal, Gujral and Jaggi are long gone, but their restaurateur descendants are now embroiled in a legal battle. Gujral’s family, which runs
Moti Mahal
Hotels and Restaurants, moved Delhi High Court last month claiming the title of butter chicken’s
inventor
for itself and roughly Rs 2 crore in damages from its rivals. The lawsuit is spread over 2,752 pages.
Fix For Dry Chicken
Moti Mahal’s website describes it as India’s famous restaurant since 1920, tracing its origin to Peshawar, and credits founder
Kundan Lal Gujral
as the creator of tandoori chicken, butter chicken, dal makhani and chicken pakora.
It says when Gujral “began worrying about his cooked chickens drying out, he searched for a sauce with which he could rehydrate them. His solution was the ‘makhani’ or ‘butter sauce’ and it led to the creation of ‘butter chicken’, made from bits of tandoori chicken that were in danger of drying out.”
“Tandoori chicken and butter chicken were invented by Kundan Lal Gujral. He created these dishes in Peshawar. Butter chicken is our legacy. No one can take it over,” says Moti Mahal CMD Monish Gujral.
Moti Mahal lists Jawaharlal Nehru, Shah of Iran, Richard Nixon and Zulfiqar Bhutto among its past patrons, and claims former Union education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad said, “Visiting Delhi and not eating at Moti Mahal was like visiting Agra and not seeing the Taj Mahal.”
One Night In 1947…
Moti Mahal is suing Daryaganj, a restaurant chain started in 2019, whose co-owner Raghav Jaggi is the grandson of Kundan Lal Jaggi.
Daryaganj
has its own origin story for butter chicken. Late one night in 1947, their website says, some guests arrived at Kundan Lal Jaggi’s restaurant in Old Delhi’s Daryaganj locality. Jaggi had only a few pieces of tandoori chicken remaining. He made a gravy and added the chicken to it, at an unnamed Bengali diner’s suggestion. The dish was a hit, and eventually got named as ‘butter chicken’.
Daryaganj has its own versions of how dal makhani, chicken pakora and tandoori chicken were birthed, and also claims Jaggi played host to Nehru, Shah of Iran, Nixon and Bhutto.
The two stories are not as contradictory as they appear. Amit Bagga, co-founder and CEO of Daryaganj, says, “Moti Mahal
restaurant in Daryaganj, where butter chicken and dal makhani were invented, was founded by Kundan Lal Jaggi and Kundan Lal Gujral with a third partner who retired.”
Now, which of the Moti Mahal founders – Gujral or Jaggi – invented butter chicken is a question for Justice Sanjeev Narula to decide. On Jan 16, Daryaganj was given a month to file its written response. The next hearing is scheduled on May 29.
It’s Not A Patent Fight
Patent lawyer Saya Choudhary, partner, Singh & Singh Law Firm, says the method of preparing butter chicken and butter chicken itself are already in the public domain. “Therefore, the question of claiming patent rights does not arise. The current dispute is thus related to misrepresentation as to the origin, and not infringement of patent rights.”
While tracing the dish’s origin won’t be easy, food writer Vikram Doctor says its main ingredients could provide clues: “Butterchicken today requires bigbreasted broilers with lots of tender meat. That bird was bred in the US in the 1940s and only started spreading across the world in the late 1950s.”
Pre-1940s, chickens were notoriously tough birds that required long stewing. Doctor says the real secret of tandoori chicken was not so much the tandoor as the yogurt marinade which hydrated and tenderised the tough chickens of the time. But creamy yogurt became widely available in Delhi only after Partition, when refugees from West Punjab arrived with water buffaloes.
Since then, butter chicken has lorded over menus donning a multiplicity of avatars. You can buy butter chicken pizza, burger, dosa, samosa, sauce, even sushi. “Butter chicken seems to have become a cuisine in itself,” says Doctor.
A Ticking Umami Bomb
What makes butter chicken a monster success? Chef and restaurateur Garima Arora of Gaa, a Michelinstarred Bangkok restaurant, describes it as an “umami bomb”, a flavour recognised as comforting and delectable. Tomato, dairy, spices…sounds a lot like why people love pizza,” she says.
Panchali Mahendra of Atelier Hospitality draws attention to butter chicken’s flamboyant colour. “It’s scientifically proven that red and orange colours make one hungry. I guess the immediate look of butter chicken instigates the brain into a hunger moment,” she says.
But there are as many butter chickens as their makers. “Every restaurant, dhaba and thela is serving butter chicken and no two have the same taste. Bombay’s butter chicken is totally different from Ludhiana’s,” says chef-restaurateur Chiquita Gulati.
California, London, Middle East
Food historian Chitrita Banerji says butter chicken is among the West’s favourite Indian dishes, mainly due to Indian restaurants abroad. Dal makhani is another, says Doctor, probably because both are “easy entry-level dishes to Indian food,” by which he means they are creamy but not too spicy.
Restaurateur Rohit Ghai, owner of multiple restaurants in London and the Middle East, estimates nine out of ten tables order butter chicken every day. Kornelija Norbutate, manager of Roti Chai restaurant in central London, and Rahul Sharma, chef at Delhi Junction, a small eatery outside London with a “70% English and 30% Indian” clientele, also say butter chicken is their most popular dish.
“My customers, Indian or American, really love the dish,” says Rahul Bhambri, who owns the restaurants Rooh (New Delhi) and Pippal (California). Sandeep Goyle, Delhi chapter head of National Restaurant Association of India, talks of restaurants in the US, Australia and Thailand serving butter chicken.
And the legal fight seems to have further spurred sales. Food connoisseur Rocky Mohan says, “The case…has turned out to be great advertising for the dish.” Restaurateur Rajan Sethi of Ikk Panjab says, “Our butter chicken orders have grown manifold over the last few days.”
(With inputs from Naomi Canton in London)
