- Butter chicken is an iconic Indian dish that's beloved around the world, but it can take time to make.
And while I personally love to cook from scratch, I recognize that, in our fast-paced world, buying butter chicken off the shelf might sometimes be your only option.
But with so many choices, which one will satisfy your family?
I've decided to set up a totally unsponsored blind taste test with my kids Rupali and August to determine the butter chicken champion.
Are y'all ready for this butter chicken battle?
- Yeah.
- Definitely.
- Let's do it!
- This is "Spice Road," let's go.
Butter chicken is a rich comfort food curry made with marinated tandoori chicken simmered in a spiced creamy tomato butter sauce.
It was invented in the mid 1900s at the legendary Moti Mahal restaurant in Peshawar when leftover chicken was tossed into a buttery tomato gravy.
As Indian immigrants spread across the West in the 1960s and '70s, butter chicken followed and today it may be the most popular Indian dish outside South Asia.
It's so iconic that the creator's descendants are engaged in a heated legal battle over who can claim credit as the dish's inventor.
Hey kids, before you dig in, what do you think makes for a great butter chicken?
- [August] I think what makes a great butter chicken is having the right cream to water ratio.
- [Rupali] I think that one of the most important things for a butter chicken is the tadka, which is all the spices.
If you don't have good spices, then you can't have a good butter chicken.
- You guys.
- Bring out the dishes.
- First up is a microwaveable butter chicken.
(lively music) (microwave beeping) Mystery butter chicken number one.
(upbeat music) - Hm.
- It's really good.
- Has a nice spiciness to it.
- I would rate it like an eight.
- I'd rate it like a 7.3 because I feel like they use like ground spices for this and they didn't use whole spices, which, I know, they're a company, but, like, 7.3, yeah.
- It's like butta chicken.
(laughs) Patak's butter chicken simmer sauce.
(bright music) (pan sizzling) Mystery butter chicken, number two.
(intriguing music) - It's sweeter.
- You like sweeter?
- Umm.
Not really.
- It tastes more like a tomato sauce to me, more than like a curry.
- It's not as spiced.
- I saw all these like things that look like whole spices, so I thought it would be more seasoned, but then just like appears to just - Disappointing.
- be like a tomato-y flavor.
- I would give it 7.5.
- I would give this like a... 6.7.
- Well, we won't waste any more time with this one then.
Bighorn Mountain Food's butter chicken and rice.
(lively music) (zipper zipping) One more butter chicken.
(curious music) - All the ingredients feel different, but just like a little spicier.
- Tastes like a butter chicken and like a chicken curry at the same time.
- Yeah.
- [August] It's more like thick and compact.
- Ah.
- It's the flavor that tastes like chicken curry.
- Yeah.
- So you're getting less butter maybe on this one.
- Uh-huh.
- Hmm, interesting.
- I would give a solid seven.
This one I would give like a 7.6.
- Rupali picked Trader Joe's as her favorite overall, while August seemed to like Bighorn best.
Which was which?
- I think this was the first one.
- This one was the second one because it has those leafy bits in it.
- And this is definitely the third one.
- You win.
- Yes!
- Yes, confetti!
Oh, that's good.
There you have it.
Proof that you can get a delicious Desi meal at your local grocery store.
Now all I want to know is, what Desi meals are you dying to grab off your grocery store shelf?
Let me know.
(bright music) (bright music continues)
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