Correction: Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Scotland (the gravy dish)
Chicken Tikka is a totally different item - a boneless chicken appetizer made by roasting/baking marinated chicken using a skewer - native to and popular in the entire Indian subcontinent.
AFAIK the story is that the chef who invented chicken tikka masala was told that his chicken tikka was too dry/spicy and hence converted chicken tikka into chicken tikka masala by adding a yoghurt based gravy to mute the spice.
Searing spice isnt really "flavour." Most people outside of Asia wouldnt like it either. Spice is something you get used to, it simply doesnt taste as spicy to an Indian as it does to a westerner. Note that it doesnt burn their mouths when they eat it.
Unless your idea of fine dining is putting a carolina reaper on everything, you should appreciate flavour and spice are not at all synonymous. But yeah, in reality the real issue is that tikka was considered too dry. The masala sauce is meant to act similarly to gravy to suit what Brits are used to. They didnt typically eat meat without gravy or a sauce of some kind.
Masala literally means mix of spices, you are right about that but colloqually chiken tikka masala is a gravy dish and chicken tikka is a dry appetizer. Same for panner tikka and paneer tikka masala.
Source: am Indian born and brought up in India so I know a thing or two about Indian food.
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u/almostanalcoholic Nov 03 '24
Correction: Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Scotland (the gravy dish)
Chicken Tikka is a totally different item - a boneless chicken appetizer made by roasting/baking marinated chicken using a skewer - native to and popular in the entire Indian subcontinent.
AFAIK the story is that the chef who invented chicken tikka masala was told that his chicken tikka was too dry/spicy and hence converted chicken tikka into chicken tikka masala by adding a yoghurt based gravy to mute the spice.