Chicken tikka masala is widely believed to have been invented in Glasgow, Scotland, in the early 1970s. According to a popular origin story, Pakistani- Bangladeshi chef Ali Ahmed Aslam of the Shish Mahal restaurant improvised the dish by adding a creamy tomato-based sauce to chicken tikka to please a customer who found the original chicken tikka too dry. This incident reportedly happened during a stormy night in Glasgow and led to the creation of chicken tikka masala as it is known today. Despite this popular account, the exact origins remain debated, with some claims tracing influences to Indian and Mughal culinary traditions and the Punjab region. However, the dish is considered by many to be a British invention by South Asian chefs adapting traditional recipes to local tastes. Chicken tikka masala is now regarded as a national dish of the United Kingdom and a symbol of multicultural British cuisine.
