The great chicken tikka riddle: Glasgow MP tables motion that Britain's favourite curry stems from Scotland

It was the hottest debate in the House of Commons. Where does chicken tikka masala come from?

According to a motion tabled by Glasgow Central MP Mohammad Sarwar, Britain’s favourite curry has its origins, not in India- but in Scotland.

He believes Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow’s West End, created the first chicken tikka masala in the Seventies - and he now wants

this recognised by Parliament.

Dishes loosely resembling tikka masala were cooked in clay tandoori ovens in the Punjab as far back as 500 years ago.

But the dish we eat today - M&S sells a staggering 18 tons of it a week - does appear to have its roots in the UK. Indeed, Indian cooking began to take on a British twist when Dean Mahomet opened the UK’s first curry house - the Hindoostanee Coffee House in Portman Square, London - in 1809.

But after being whipped up by Aslam to cater for Brits looking for a milder curry, the tikka masala really took off in 2001, when former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared it was Britain’s ‘true national dish’.

We now wolf down 25 million portions a year. Today, chicken tikka masala is part of a £2.5 billion Indian food industry; Indian restaurants alone employ 65,000 people in Britain. There are 48 varieties of chicken tikka masala, according to the Real Curry Restaurant Guide. In many cases, the only common ingredient is chicken.

REF: Daily Mail