A Negative Review of Aslam's Butter Chicken in Matia Mahal
My Substack Editor is glitching horribly, so there may be some formatting issues in the post, such as extra "subscribe" buttons and duplicate images. I'll get to fixing them eventually. Apologies.
What do you picture when you think of Dilli Street Food? A steaming hot plate of Momos served with gooey mayonnaise and mouth-watering red chilli chutney? Or perhaps a hearty bowl of Chhole served with fluffy Bhatuure? One of the first things that comes to mind upon the mention is the Butter Chicken of Dilli - or well, the Butter Chickens (plural) of Dilli. Butter Chicken in Dilli can mean one of two many different things - the more traditional usage of the term is reserved for the rich, creamy, sweet Punjabi-style tomato and cream gravy with pieces of smokey tandoori chicken floating in it, claimed to have invented by Kundan Lal Gujral after the partition in a (then) small store in Daryaganj, by the name of Moti Mahal, eventually making its way across the seven cities of Dilli, and even beyond that. The other type of “Butter Chicken”, which is the focus of today’s review, was popularised just 2.5 kilometres from Moti Mahal, by a restaurant called “Aslam Chicken” in the busy streets of Bazaar Matia Mahal just opposite Jama Masjid.
Aslam Chicken, a store that is no older than 20-25 years old, is largely credited to have invented, and popularised the second type of “Butter Chicken”, which is a dish that is now synonymous with the cuisine around Jama Masjid, thanks to the penetration of Instagram Reels and food bloggers online. Their preparations are quite different than the classic, Punjabi style of Butter Chicken. In this process, chicken tikkas baked in a tandoor are lathered in a waterfall of melted AMUL Butter, the resultant mixture being a creamy, soft indulgence that is wonderful for catering to tourists, part of the reason behind its soaring popularity amongst youngsters, visitors and on Instagram Reels (the visuals of visibly charred chicken getting waterboarded by industrial quantities of butter are optimum to start a tsunami of shares thanks to the magical wonders of social media algorithms). This is also the reason why I prefer to call this version of “Butter Chicken” not by that name, which is far more popular, but as Butter-Drenched Tikkas, which are a more accurate (but less easy on the tongue) description of the item, and helps to differentiate it from the Punjabi-style Butter Chicken, which has been around for far earlier. Butter-Drenched tikkas have spread like wildlife. Aslam has inspired many imitators, just as inventors of popular dishes often do - one of them being Moti Mahal’s very own Butter Chicken as discussed earlier, which has not only been picked up by several other Punjabi outlets across the nation, but many claimaints on the original name of “Moti Mahal” have also arised. Many of Aslam’s imitators are within the walls of Shahjahanabad, and some have jumped over it, with the concoction being widely available in other Muslim-majority localities, where streetside Mughlai food is prevalent, such as Okhla or Nizamuddin Basti.
Aslam Chicken is a world of contrasts. Their newly opened branch in Matia Mahal, just opposite the original, features three storeys of opulent, golden interiors, decorated with fancy chandeliers and shining glass, which give an aura of royalty to this shop that once started from humble beginnings. And just like the streets of the bazaars of Old Dilli, it is never not packed to the brim. You have to heckle the waiters and managers multiple times to get them to start looking out for empty seats in case a table gets vacant, they’ll be oblivious to your presence otherwise, busy in the circle of life - ensuring your chicken gets to your plate and the leftover bones go in the trash. Business is always booming. Business is chaotic.
The trek to Jama Masjid from my (then) abode in South Dilli is gruelling. The wait for a table is a fairly long one. The wait for your chicken is even longer. Which is why the first bite into Aslam’s Butter-Drenched Chicken disappointed me so much. The chicken they serve is extremely dry and chewy, making it a chore to finish even a quarter plate. They are very conservative when it comes to spicing the chicken tikkas, which makes it easy for the butter and dahi gravy to completely drown out the flavours emerging from it. Also note that, during the process of melting the butter, they do not remove the butter from its parchment paper, so you’re probably consuming a ton of microplastics with it. They also serve fish and paneer if you’re interested in checking them out, but the uninspiring chicken only drove me out of their gates, I couldn’t dare to stick around to check out their other fare if their signature dish was such a drub.
I get where the appeal of Aslam’s Butter-Drenched Chicken comes from. Its a fairly innovative twist on a traditionally popular food, and it might have been good a few years ago, when I wasn’t exploring the food of Dilli every day. But I can say for sure that now, with it being scaled up to a multi-outlet business, and it enjoying an infinite flow of customers thanks to its omnipresence in the Dilli food blogging and Instagram scene, its quality has taken a severe dip.
It is not that I dislike the concept of a Butter-Drenched Chicken. In North India, wheat is a staple. In Italy, pasta is a staple. Down South, rice is a staple. How is this relevant? I’m a Gujarati. AMUL Cheese and Butter are my staple foods. A Butter-Drenched Chicken is right up my alley - if you told me that this was an invention of Bhatiyar Gali and not Matia Mahal, I’d have believed you in an instant. It is obvious that Aslam have lost their charm over the years. Now, I can really only describe it as a tourist trap - popularised by food bloggers, vloggers and social media alike.
I have not explored Butter-Drenched Tikkas in much detail in Dilli. This is mostly because I have always preferred the kebab to a tikka, and also because my go-to spot to have Butter-Drenched Tikkas in Dilli - Anmol Chicken in Urdu Bazaar, shut down last June. I have enjoyed the Butter-Drenched Tikkas of Zaika (sold as “Butter Chicken”), located in Daryaganj, just across the Delhi Gate Metro Station, adjacent to Changezi, so that is a spot I can recommend. Another spot that might be worth trying would be Bismillah in Matia Mahal, a place whose Butter-Drenched Kebabs have been close to my heart, and while I have never had their Tikkas, I have a hunch that they would be worth your time.
Recommendations : Butter Chicken (3/10). Highly advised to skip this restaurant.
