LONG before Her Majesty, the Queen of England, could pass a royal order making the Indian Chicken Tikka Masala Britain�s national dish and the favourite food of Buckingham Palace, this popular food item was being done in many avatars in restaurants all over North India.

There is a Mughlai version of the Chicken Tikka Masala, though the more authentic, and the one which inspired Britain to include it on the Top 10 food chart, is the Punjabi recipe.

The Punjab version has chicken marinated with ginger-garlic paste, garam masala, chilli powder, and then tandoored to produce a dry, roasted meat. The tandoor provides wrap-around heat, which is one of the most effective ways of roasting, and it gives the chicken meat a familiar, smoked charcoal flavour. It i suspected that the English were first fascinated by the tandoor, then what was being cooked inside, and that�s why the national interest in Chicken Tikka Masala took off.

The tandoored chicken meat is then cooked in butter and onion along with other spices to form the masala. The onion-based gravy is thick and slow cooked. And when the chicken is cooked in it, its tandoored flavours are slowly released. The Punjabi likes his gravies rich in texture and heavy with ghee, butter or cream, because that is what is needed to withstand the cold and severe North Indian winters. Though Chicken Tikka Masala is not necessarily a winter dish.

In Amritsar, while the Chicken Tikka and the Tandoori Chicken are mainly appetisers to the main course, or had as accompaniments with drinks, the Chicken Tikka Masala is the main course itself. It is best had with naan, roti, chapati and paratha. And not with rice. This is not a dish to be found on the menus of the street eats in Amritsar city. It is cooked at home and in speciality restaurants only.

The British housewife is more lucky. Ever since Chicken Tikka Masala because her national dish, she has been able to pick up authentic but frozen tins of the same in supermarkets, department stores and food courts all over the country as part of her weekly shopping.

This she then takes home and warms and the English man has steaming hot Chicken Tikka Masala with rotis also picked up from the supermarket and microwaved before serving for dinner.