Remember the story behind the invention of Butter Chicken? Well, turns out, the same restaurant gave the world the lip-smacking tandoori chicken too! It is said that the dish originated in Moti Mahal Delux, of which Kundan Lal Gujaral was the head chef and owner. The chef was known to dabble around with his ingredients and loved his tandoor. So one day, as an experiment, he skewered some chicken, applied the spices, and left it in the tandoor. The result was so marvellous that it even impressed the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. He then made sure that Moti Mahal turned into his official banquet, as records claim.
Visiting dignitaries like American Presidents Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, the King of Nepal, and the Shah of Iran, all were made to eat Chicken Tandoori by the Prime Minister himself. The subsequent fame of Tandoori chicken led to many variations. Eventually, boneless chicken started being used, and thus Chicken Tikka came into existence.In India, tandoori cooking was traditionally associated with the Punjab and became popular in the mainstream after the 1947 partition when West Punjabis resettled in places such as Delhi, although sources say that the tandoori style of cooking chicken could date back as early as the Mughal era.
No comments:
Post a Comment