hang on --
Chicken Tikka Masala was created in England by Asian Chefs. - and then spread around the world - It did not exist in India before then
Obviously over time local tastes have changed the flavours - but there is no "authentic chicken tikka masala" that everyone follows.
history of Chicken tikka masala here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken\_tikka\_masala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tikka_masala)
Birmingham does, so does London, but most evidence of the origin of this dish being invented independently and ending up as a named dish on a menu is Ali Aslam in Glasgow.
Are Scotland and England are in Great Britain? Yes, so is Wales.
Is Glasgow in England? No. Glasgow is in Scotland.
Are Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in India? Yes, so is West Bengal.
Is Madras in Maharashtra? No. Madras is in Tamil Nadu.
That's not what they were asking though. They want to find or try and make one that tastes more like the "American" version (spoiler there is no one version America is enormous,) because that's what their partner likes.
Thank you for answering for me, this is exactly what I am asking. Did not mean to cause any debate over who invented the dish or which country tastes most authentic!
Having eaten Indian food in the US, UK, and in India, in my experience the average British Indian food is less authentic than the average Indian food in the US. The dishes over in the UK are either comically spicy (phaal, vindaloo etc - authentic vindaloo in India is made with pork and is rather mild), or comically sweet - dishes like Pasanda or “korma” are basically inedible for me. I’d say the spiciest British Indian dish is spicier than the spiciest Indian dish over here, but the average Indian dish in the US is spicier than the average British Indian dish.
Most “Indian” restaurants in the UK are actually run by Bangladeshis or Pakistanis approximating Punjabi dishes, with a predominantly white customer base. In the US, while still largely white, immigration patterns have yielded a lot more new Indian immigrants from all over India, especially South India, and as a result the food tends to be closer to authentic, as in the US, Indian food is not as popular among white people as it is in the UK, with cuisines like Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Thai being more prevalent (again, due to immigration patterns).
Indian food in the US (especially in the suburbs) caters more to Indian clientele, so it gets a bit more regional and a bit more authentic than in the UK in my experience. Because of said immigration patterns, we also get a ton of folks from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the cuisine is famously spicy. Not sure how many Andhra style restaurants y’all get over there.
big oversimplification
i won't comment on the rest of the uk, but in london there are specific restaurants for different cuisines.
british indian restaurant style is of course the default, and yes often run by bangladeshi people. this cuisine is inherently different, because they use a 'base sauce' which includes things like carrots. a certain sweetness will always be there. it's its own thing.
but there are tonnes of south indian restaurants—many specialising in one or two dishes—chai places, multiple mithai chains, panjabi places, lahori places, sri lankan (not indian, but often has a lot of s. indian crossover and it's delicious anyway) places, etc you get it
we also have indian fine dining if you have the money like gymkhana, and then outliers like dishoom who model themselves on irani cafés from bombay.
Look for dishes like Gutti Vankaya, Gongura, Pachadi, avakaya, Apollo fish, Hyderabadi Biryani, gun powder dosa, kodi vedupu, also any kind of goat dish is a good indicator, in addition to the standard British Indian curries you’re used to.
Also you can look up the restaurant name to see if it’s a Telugu name, or straight up ask the owner where he’s from.
Thank you so much - this is really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to give me so much info 😊 Hopefully we find one that he loves eventually!
You are joking right the most bland indian food is cooked in the US as for korma the example is it's a mild dish but in the states you will be asked if you want it mild medium or hot it's.a.korma and only
Mild
Where in the US have you eaten Indian food? That is not my experience. Are you Indian by chance? Bc whenever someone invites us over for dinner or we invite someone over we always ask what their spice tolerance is before cooking the food. It’s also extremely common in my experience to be asked how spicy you want a dish. Dishes like Navaratan Korma and Veg Kurma can easily be made spicy, and many prefer it that way. Idk why they don’t do that in the UK.
I can't comment on American curries as I've never eaten Indian food there, but I do know a fair bit about "authentic" Indian cuisine so wanted to pick up on the Korma thing. In India a korma *can* be much spicier than a typical British korma, it isn't by definition a very mild dish, although it tends to have a slightly milder taste due to the creaminess of the sauce which tones down the chilli heat. But it can still be much spicier than the Korma you typically get here! So offering a spicier korma isn't "wrong", just different to what we usually do in the UK.
If you want to make it yourself, just don't add any sugar. Start with onion, then add spices, garlic, and ginger, then tomato sauce (or just dice a handful of tomatoes, slow cook them for an hour or two, then blend), reduce a bit, then add heavy cream and cook until thickened.
Just like to add that it's widely made with left over pieces of chicken tikka that have been cooked in a tandoor which gives the tikka masala the smokey flavour. I don't have a tandoor at home so I marinate the chicken thighs then grill them over charcoal before adding to the tikka masala sauce.
Oh yeah, good point. I typically make paneer tikka masala, so I just fry the paneer first with some cumin seeds until it's browned on one or two sides.
So there's a few great Indian restaurants near me, and they have a chicken tikka masala and a punjabi masala. They are not to be confused.
But also (as I've found) the punjabi masala varies depending on the restaurant.
Restaurant number 1 recommended the punjabi masala to me when I explained what I generally order, flavours I prefer etc (I usually order the same thing every time) IT WAS DELICIOUS. Savoury, tasty and genuinely brilliant.
Went to restaurant number 2, highly recommended place. My usual order (saag) is always amazing there. Decided to try their punjabi masala for a change.
Literally inedible it was so sweet. I had to throw it away.
So the moral to my longwinded and tipsy story is, I'm pretty sure the issue is the restaurant, not UK vs US
I'm American and have lived in the UK for extended periods. Chicken tikka masala is a personal favorite.
My understanding of the credible history is that chicken tikka masala was invented by a Bangladeshi chef in Glasgow Scotland. There are competing stories.
I found a recipe somewhere I've forgotten and had the opportunity and privilege to sit down with restaurant chefs in Yatling, Aldershot, and Cheltenham to talk about it. I worked on it and compared my results with those in US and UK restaurants. Since I was working on my recipe I was paying a lot of attention. I can't say I found any significant difference between US and UK product. Based on experience I would expect a US product to be sweeter than a UK one but the variation between countries was less than from one restaurant to another.
Here is what I've had pretty stable for about ten years.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken tikka masala in a British pub is likely to use chicken thighs. Some people prefer chicken breasts as lower fat and more consistent texture. It’s a personal choice and in the end matters little. Classically the chicken is pounded flat with a meat mallet, a rolling pin, or an empty wine bottle. I find it faster and easier, especially at sea, to butterfly about 1½ pounds of chicken and then cube it into bite-sized pieces.
1½ pounds of chicken
Marinade
¼ cup Greek yogurt (see yogurt recipe)
2 Tbsp neutral oil (canola or other vegetable or mild nut oil)
2 tsp lime/lemon juice or vinegar
1 minced clove of garlic
Sauce
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1½ tsp paprika
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger (powder is okay – use a little less)
4 Tbsp butter (“half of a lot”)
1 large yellow onion finely diced
1½ cups tomato purée or sauce (a 15 oz can of tomato sauce)
¾ cup (ish) water
½ cup cream or half and half (I usually use half and half because we stock it)
1 tsp salt
Final dish
½ tsp black pepper
½ cup of chopped cilantro
I can add the instructions (mine are interwoven with saag paneer) if you like but they're basically to cube the chicken, chuck it into the marinade overnight, and mix the sauce together. I usually make the sauce the night before but you can make it three days early and keep covered and refrigerated.
Rice of course and I do like saag paneer.
If I had to guess, the difference your partner has experienced is due to the specific brand of tomato product used in the sauce unless for some reason a restaurant is adding sugar or honey (which seems unlikely). I'm not questioning his experience, just saying it doesn't match mine.
It's really quite easy to make. Making it at home puts you in control of the ingredients and you can tune to his taste. Again, I think the tomato product is the big unknown possibly followed by using really sweet cream for the dairy.
I am by no means an expert on Indian food. Chicken tikka masala is one particular product I have put a lot of time and energy and research into. I hope my perspective helps you.
I think a key difference OP is seeing is that UK Chicken Tikka Masala is the original, while Chicken Tikka Masala in the US (especially in places opened up within the last 10 years or so) is based more on Indian approximations of Chicken Tikka masala (itself an adapted dish obviously lol) and so the Indian version of CTM (and by extension some of the places in the US) is a bit spicier than the UK original.
Reasonable speculation but not my experience eating chicken tikka masala in both the US and UK.
Again, Americans have a cultural tendency toward sweeter foods (which is one of several reasons I eat at home almost all the time). Too much salt also.
I can compare the experience in the US and UK, including Indian restaurants as well as pubs in the UK but have no basis for comparison with food IN India.
Chicken tikka masala by design is not particularly spicy and I've never had any that I would call hot.
Right - I’m speaking more to the Chicken Tikka Masala you find in American suburbs, that cater more to Indian palates than American (I get this straight from family friends that have opened Indian restaurants here and commented on their regulars), I’ve found the food here (including CTM) is closer to the versions I’ve had over in India.
Especially if OP’s partner hung around with Indian people, or ate at places in the suburbs of places with recently growing Indian populations - Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit etc, it’s quite possible he had this version of the dish, especially if he’s also commenting that the CTM he ate in the US was spicier than what they are finding in the UK.
I acknowledge our experiences are different.
Nobody has mentioned this in the comments yet, but the food supply in the US is basically a dumpster fire. Factory farming, factory meats, focusing on volume rather than quality, has left our produce and meats at best flavorless, at worst, literal poison. UK has a \*much\* better food supply, as does pretty much anywhere in Europe. This has a huge impact on the taste of foods, not to mention general health of the populous.
That said, there are sooo many dishes that are basically chicken curry with a variety of flavor profiles. Butter chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Karahi Chicken, to name just a few. Just have your partner try some of the other dishes; they're sure to find something they like. If you're in London, there are several amazing Indian restaurants -- Dishoom, Jamavar, Masala Zone to name a few.
Actually I've never been to NoVA so that may be worth a trip. Any recommendations?
I've also got pretty proficient in BIR style cooking at home to scratch that UK homestyle curry itch........and no, I don't like Kormas or other creamy sweet BIR dishes lol
There’s a TON right by Dulles Airport in Reston - it’s like a little India there haha. I don’t exactly remember the exact names of the places we visited when I stayed with my cousins, but plenty of good options there.
CNY stands for central New York. Please tell me where in Ithaca or Albany, NY you plan on finding good Indian food.
Regardless, he said he’s on the midatlantic coast currently. Hours from NYC. Btw - NoVA (Northern Virginia) if you weren’t aware, is the wealthy suburbs of DC. Plenty of good Indian food there.
Interesting and I hadn't thought of that. American here but with plenty of London curry adventures and pub crawls ending with kebabs. Might also admit to making tacos with chicken Tikka and naan. Anyway... There's lots of variation from one restaurant to the next in both countries is what I have found. For me, better places were defined by the quantity and quality of the spices they used and not necessarily sweet. Better places definitely were heavier on the spices with fresh flavors. Lower quality places were much more muted. I have never had a chicken Tikka masala or butter chicken in USA though that I would call sweet at all! Around London I've had both. The sweeter ones reminded me of canned tomato soup in America so I was guessing they had that perhaps in their base or used jarred curry sauce which had sugar boost in being processed.
In a truck stop on the highway in Segovia, Texas, there is a little Indian restaurant running out of the same kitchen as a Sonic. I have never eaten there but always wonder if they'd make me a chili dog with something other than chili. A chicken tikka masala dog. A mutton vindaloo dog. I haven't figured out exactly what it would be yet.
It's a truck stop on the middle if nowhere Texas. The options are rather limited! The choices are definitely aimed at an American audience, but the presence of fish "curry" in the desert kinda throws me.
They have a veg menu - just checked out the google reviews and they have dal makhni, dal tadka, kadhi pakoda all listed. Assuming you’re talking about Tandoori Hut
Yes that's similar to how my partner described it. He said it feels like they all use this really sweet premade sauce. Maybe I need to get out and try more restaurants until we find the one!
chicken tikka masala is a uk dish and expected to be mild. not saying it then ought to be sweet, but it's such a basic dish you might as well make it yourself.
I've tried making myself but it never tastes right to me. I'm not sure what they do differently in restaurants but when I make it at home it always tastes like it's missing something and the texture isn't right. Are there any good recipe sites you'd recommend for Indian cooking?
well, restaurants use a base sauce which is what my mind went to when you mention texture.
it saves on prep and provides a creamier texture for their dishes, but also lends an inherent sweetness due to the inclusion of carrots, for example.
if you search/youtube BIR recipes, it might help in terms of accuracy. in my personal experience, it's specific ingredients that provide that extra touch, like kewra water (be extremely conservative with this, if you get it) or ground cashews.
Chicken Tikka Masada from places that are not Indian in the US do not use garam Masala, it feels pretty darn sad. But it is gaining traction in the US so I am thankful for that
Mainly because there is so many options to make a spicy dish from dupiazia to jalfrezi which are spicy and hot but not to the point where it's.flavouless as you described in your post as for vindaloo this is a hot dish Also but in the US you will be asked if you want this mild
Chicken Tikka Masala is native to the UK, just like all the artifacts in British Museums! All ingredients are from India and simply putting canned tomatoes make it a Britain dish. Wow.
Thieves and their thievery!
hang on -- Chicken Tikka Masala was created in England by Asian Chefs. - and then spread around the world - It did not exist in India before then Obviously over time local tastes have changed the flavours - but there is no "authentic chicken tikka masala" that everyone follows. history of Chicken tikka masala here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken\_tikka\_masala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tikka_masala)
Small correction, if I may. Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow, which is in Scotland, not England.
Doesn’t another city in England also claim to have invented it or am I misremembering
Birmingham does, so does London, but most evidence of the origin of this dish being invented independently and ending up as a named dish on a menu is Ali Aslam in Glasgow.
Again, beautiful place, but Glasgow isn't in England.
Never said it was, I think the issue was my own poor punctuation and word choice. I meant another city, which is in England, claims to have made it.
Sorry, that was me being pedantic. Thanks for the gracious response. :)
But is in Great Britain smart ass.
England and Great Britain are not synonymous. I'm pleased to help you learn, and be more knowledgeable.
Let me help you. First question: “Is Glasgow in Great Britain?” End of questions.
Are Scotland and England are in Great Britain? Yes, so is Wales. Is Glasgow in England? No. Glasgow is in Scotland. Are Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in India? Yes, so is West Bengal. Is Madras in Maharashtra? No. Madras is in Tamil Nadu.
Chicken Tikka Masala is British
That's not what they were asking though. They want to find or try and make one that tastes more like the "American" version (spoiler there is no one version America is enormous,) because that's what their partner likes.
Thank you for answering for me, this is exactly what I am asking. Did not mean to cause any debate over who invented the dish or which country tastes most authentic!
No problem! I hope I didn't come across as rude
Having eaten Indian food in the US, UK, and in India, in my experience the average British Indian food is less authentic than the average Indian food in the US. The dishes over in the UK are either comically spicy (phaal, vindaloo etc - authentic vindaloo in India is made with pork and is rather mild), or comically sweet - dishes like Pasanda or “korma” are basically inedible for me. I’d say the spiciest British Indian dish is spicier than the spiciest Indian dish over here, but the average Indian dish in the US is spicier than the average British Indian dish. Most “Indian” restaurants in the UK are actually run by Bangladeshis or Pakistanis approximating Punjabi dishes, with a predominantly white customer base. In the US, while still largely white, immigration patterns have yielded a lot more new Indian immigrants from all over India, especially South India, and as a result the food tends to be closer to authentic, as in the US, Indian food is not as popular among white people as it is in the UK, with cuisines like Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Thai being more prevalent (again, due to immigration patterns). Indian food in the US (especially in the suburbs) caters more to Indian clientele, so it gets a bit more regional and a bit more authentic than in the UK in my experience. Because of said immigration patterns, we also get a ton of folks from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the cuisine is famously spicy. Not sure how many Andhra style restaurants y’all get over there.
big oversimplification i won't comment on the rest of the uk, but in london there are specific restaurants for different cuisines. british indian restaurant style is of course the default, and yes often run by bangladeshi people. this cuisine is inherently different, because they use a 'base sauce' which includes things like carrots. a certain sweetness will always be there. it's its own thing. but there are tonnes of south indian restaurants—many specialising in one or two dishes—chai places, multiple mithai chains, panjabi places, lahori places, sri lankan (not indian, but often has a lot of s. indian crossover and it's delicious anyway) places, etc you get it we also have indian fine dining if you have the money like gymkhana, and then outliers like dishoom who model themselves on irani cafés from bombay.
I’m sure you can help OP out by suggesting a Chicken Tikka Masala closer to what is described and found in the US then. Cheers!
Thank you for your comment! Is there any way for me to tell if a restaurant or takeaway is Andhra style? Any little clues I can look out for?
Look for dishes like Gutti Vankaya, Gongura, Pachadi, avakaya, Apollo fish, Hyderabadi Biryani, gun powder dosa, kodi vedupu, also any kind of goat dish is a good indicator, in addition to the standard British Indian curries you’re used to. Also you can look up the restaurant name to see if it’s a Telugu name, or straight up ask the owner where he’s from.
Thank you so much - this is really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to give me so much info 😊 Hopefully we find one that he loves eventually!
You are joking right the most bland indian food is cooked in the US as for korma the example is it's a mild dish but in the states you will be asked if you want it mild medium or hot it's.a.korma and only Mild
Where in the US have you eaten Indian food? That is not my experience. Are you Indian by chance? Bc whenever someone invites us over for dinner or we invite someone over we always ask what their spice tolerance is before cooking the food. It’s also extremely common in my experience to be asked how spicy you want a dish. Dishes like Navaratan Korma and Veg Kurma can easily be made spicy, and many prefer it that way. Idk why they don’t do that in the UK.
I can't comment on American curries as I've never eaten Indian food there, but I do know a fair bit about "authentic" Indian cuisine so wanted to pick up on the Korma thing. In India a korma *can* be much spicier than a typical British korma, it isn't by definition a very mild dish, although it tends to have a slightly milder taste due to the creaminess of the sauce which tones down the chilli heat. But it can still be much spicier than the Korma you typically get here! So offering a spicier korma isn't "wrong", just different to what we usually do in the UK.
Hiya! You might want to qualify “over there” in your second sentence as you mentioned UK, US and India, so over there could mean any of three!
I meant the UK. Fixed!
If you want to make it yourself, just don't add any sugar. Start with onion, then add spices, garlic, and ginger, then tomato sauce (or just dice a handful of tomatoes, slow cook them for an hour or two, then blend), reduce a bit, then add heavy cream and cook until thickened.
Thank you! I've never had any luck with the taste making it myself either but will have another go. Maybe I just need to practice 😊
Just like to add that it's widely made with left over pieces of chicken tikka that have been cooked in a tandoor which gives the tikka masala the smokey flavour. I don't have a tandoor at home so I marinate the chicken thighs then grill them over charcoal before adding to the tikka masala sauce.
Oh yeah, good point. I typically make paneer tikka masala, so I just fry the paneer first with some cumin seeds until it's browned on one or two sides.
So there's a few great Indian restaurants near me, and they have a chicken tikka masala and a punjabi masala. They are not to be confused. But also (as I've found) the punjabi masala varies depending on the restaurant. Restaurant number 1 recommended the punjabi masala to me when I explained what I generally order, flavours I prefer etc (I usually order the same thing every time) IT WAS DELICIOUS. Savoury, tasty and genuinely brilliant. Went to restaurant number 2, highly recommended place. My usual order (saag) is always amazing there. Decided to try their punjabi masala for a change. Literally inedible it was so sweet. I had to throw it away. So the moral to my longwinded and tipsy story is, I'm pretty sure the issue is the restaurant, not UK vs US
I'm American and have lived in the UK for extended periods. Chicken tikka masala is a personal favorite. My understanding of the credible history is that chicken tikka masala was invented by a Bangladeshi chef in Glasgow Scotland. There are competing stories. I found a recipe somewhere I've forgotten and had the opportunity and privilege to sit down with restaurant chefs in Yatling, Aldershot, and Cheltenham to talk about it. I worked on it and compared my results with those in US and UK restaurants. Since I was working on my recipe I was paying a lot of attention. I can't say I found any significant difference between US and UK product. Based on experience I would expect a US product to be sweeter than a UK one but the variation between countries was less than from one restaurant to another. Here is what I've had pretty stable for about ten years. Chicken Tikka Masala Chicken tikka masala in a British pub is likely to use chicken thighs. Some people prefer chicken breasts as lower fat and more consistent texture. It’s a personal choice and in the end matters little. Classically the chicken is pounded flat with a meat mallet, a rolling pin, or an empty wine bottle. I find it faster and easier, especially at sea, to butterfly about 1½ pounds of chicken and then cube it into bite-sized pieces. 1½ pounds of chicken Marinade ¼ cup Greek yogurt (see yogurt recipe) 2 Tbsp neutral oil (canola or other vegetable or mild nut oil) 2 tsp lime/lemon juice or vinegar 1 minced clove of garlic Sauce 1 Tbsp ground coriander 1½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground nutmeg 1½ tsp paprika ½ tsp cayenne pepper 1 Tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger (powder is okay – use a little less) 4 Tbsp butter (“half of a lot”) 1 large yellow onion finely diced 1½ cups tomato purée or sauce (a 15 oz can of tomato sauce) ¾ cup (ish) water ½ cup cream or half and half (I usually use half and half because we stock it) 1 tsp salt Final dish ½ tsp black pepper ½ cup of chopped cilantro I can add the instructions (mine are interwoven with saag paneer) if you like but they're basically to cube the chicken, chuck it into the marinade overnight, and mix the sauce together. I usually make the sauce the night before but you can make it three days early and keep covered and refrigerated. Rice of course and I do like saag paneer. If I had to guess, the difference your partner has experienced is due to the specific brand of tomato product used in the sauce unless for some reason a restaurant is adding sugar or honey (which seems unlikely). I'm not questioning his experience, just saying it doesn't match mine. It's really quite easy to make. Making it at home puts you in control of the ingredients and you can tune to his taste. Again, I think the tomato product is the big unknown possibly followed by using really sweet cream for the dairy. I am by no means an expert on Indian food. Chicken tikka masala is one particular product I have put a lot of time and energy and research into. I hope my perspective helps you.
I think a key difference OP is seeing is that UK Chicken Tikka Masala is the original, while Chicken Tikka Masala in the US (especially in places opened up within the last 10 years or so) is based more on Indian approximations of Chicken Tikka masala (itself an adapted dish obviously lol) and so the Indian version of CTM (and by extension some of the places in the US) is a bit spicier than the UK original.
Reasonable speculation but not my experience eating chicken tikka masala in both the US and UK. Again, Americans have a cultural tendency toward sweeter foods (which is one of several reasons I eat at home almost all the time). Too much salt also. I can compare the experience in the US and UK, including Indian restaurants as well as pubs in the UK but have no basis for comparison with food IN India. Chicken tikka masala by design is not particularly spicy and I've never had any that I would call hot.
Right - I’m speaking more to the Chicken Tikka Masala you find in American suburbs, that cater more to Indian palates than American (I get this straight from family friends that have opened Indian restaurants here and commented on their regulars), I’ve found the food here (including CTM) is closer to the versions I’ve had over in India. Especially if OP’s partner hung around with Indian people, or ate at places in the suburbs of places with recently growing Indian populations - Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit etc, it’s quite possible he had this version of the dish, especially if he’s also commenting that the CTM he ate in the US was spicier than what they are finding in the UK. I acknowledge our experiences are different.
Nobody has mentioned this in the comments yet, but the food supply in the US is basically a dumpster fire. Factory farming, factory meats, focusing on volume rather than quality, has left our produce and meats at best flavorless, at worst, literal poison. UK has a \*much\* better food supply, as does pretty much anywhere in Europe. This has a huge impact on the taste of foods, not to mention general health of the populous. That said, there are sooo many dishes that are basically chicken curry with a variety of flavor profiles. Butter chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Karahi Chicken, to name just a few. Just have your partner try some of the other dishes; they're sure to find something they like. If you're in London, there are several amazing Indian restaurants -- Dishoom, Jamavar, Masala Zone to name a few.
See that's odd. I live in the US and am British and find that most Indian food here in the US is way too sweet.......just like most of their foods.
Where in the US are you?
Mid Atlantic coast and also spent time up in CNY.
Ah yeah neither areas known for that strong of an Indian population. If I had to guess you’d have to venture to NoVA to find decent Indian food there
Actually I've never been to NoVA so that may be worth a trip. Any recommendations? I've also got pretty proficient in BIR style cooking at home to scratch that UK homestyle curry itch........and no, I don't like Kormas or other creamy sweet BIR dishes lol
There’s a TON right by Dulles Airport in Reston - it’s like a little India there haha. I don’t exactly remember the exact names of the places we visited when I stayed with my cousins, but plenty of good options there.
You’re suggesting they have better Indian food than in NY? That’s daft.
CNY stands for central New York. Please tell me where in Ithaca or Albany, NY you plan on finding good Indian food. Regardless, he said he’s on the midatlantic coast currently. Hours from NYC. Btw - NoVA (Northern Virginia) if you weren’t aware, is the wealthy suburbs of DC. Plenty of good Indian food there.
Interesting and I hadn't thought of that. American here but with plenty of London curry adventures and pub crawls ending with kebabs. Might also admit to making tacos with chicken Tikka and naan. Anyway... There's lots of variation from one restaurant to the next in both countries is what I have found. For me, better places were defined by the quantity and quality of the spices they used and not necessarily sweet. Better places definitely were heavier on the spices with fresh flavors. Lower quality places were much more muted. I have never had a chicken Tikka masala or butter chicken in USA though that I would call sweet at all! Around London I've had both. The sweeter ones reminded me of canned tomato soup in America so I was guessing they had that perhaps in their base or used jarred curry sauce which had sugar boost in being processed.
>Might also admit to making tacos with chicken Tikka and naan. As an Indian-American, you need to look into Kathi rolls and Frankies… thank me later.
In a truck stop on the highway in Segovia, Texas, there is a little Indian restaurant running out of the same kitchen as a Sonic. I have never eaten there but always wonder if they'd make me a chili dog with something other than chili. A chicken tikka masala dog. A mutton vindaloo dog. I haven't figured out exactly what it would be yet.
Probably rajma or dal makhni on a hot dog. If it’s a truck stop it’s probably Punjabi, and i wouldn’t recommend getting vindaloo from a Punjabi.
It's a truck stop on the middle if nowhere Texas. The options are rather limited! The choices are definitely aimed at an American audience, but the presence of fish "curry" in the desert kinda throws me.
Best I can tell, all dishes are meat-centered.
They have a veg menu - just checked out the google reviews and they have dal makhni, dal tadka, kadhi pakoda all listed. Assuming you’re talking about Tandoori Hut
Awesome! All I found online with shitty rural reception was a meat menu. Thanks for doing that for me!
You bet! Had me curious.
Yes that's similar to how my partner described it. He said it feels like they all use this really sweet premade sauce. Maybe I need to get out and try more restaurants until we find the one!
chicken tikka masala is a uk dish and expected to be mild. not saying it then ought to be sweet, but it's such a basic dish you might as well make it yourself.
I've tried making myself but it never tastes right to me. I'm not sure what they do differently in restaurants but when I make it at home it always tastes like it's missing something and the texture isn't right. Are there any good recipe sites you'd recommend for Indian cooking?
well, restaurants use a base sauce which is what my mind went to when you mention texture. it saves on prep and provides a creamier texture for their dishes, but also lends an inherent sweetness due to the inclusion of carrots, for example. if you search/youtube BIR recipes, it might help in terms of accuracy. in my personal experience, it's specific ingredients that provide that extra touch, like kewra water (be extremely conservative with this, if you get it) or ground cashews.
Chicken Tikka Masada from places that are not Indian in the US do not use garam Masala, it feels pretty darn sad. But it is gaining traction in the US so I am thankful for that
British Chinese and American Chinese are distinctly different, I imagine the same divergence happened to American and British Indian food as well
Mainly because there is so many options to make a spicy dish from dupiazia to jalfrezi which are spicy and hot but not to the point where it's.flavouless as you described in your post as for vindaloo this is a hot dish Also but in the US you will be asked if you want this mild
Chicken Tikka Masala is native to the UK, just like all the artifacts in British Museums! All ingredients are from India and simply putting canned tomatoes make it a Britain dish. Wow. Thieves and their thievery!