In 2001, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared chicken tikka masala a true British national dish, and the debate over who owns it has not stopped since. This episode separates the two components: the dry, yogurt-marinated chicken tikka cooked in a tandoor that dates to the Mughal Empire of the 1520s, and the creamy tomato masala sauce added centuries later. We explain why yogurt’s lactic acid is essential for meat that survives a 900 degree oven and why the original dish had no sauce at all.

Then we take apart the famous Glasgow legend of chef Ali Ahmed Aslam and a can of Campbell’s condensed tomato soup, including the admission that the soup detail was invented as a PR stunt. The more supported history involves Bangladeshi lascar sailors who converted fish and chip shops into curry houses and deliberately built gravy-rich dishes for British tastes, along with Mrs. Balbir Singh’s 1961 recipe. We also cover the backlash over Columbusing, Peter Jackson’s idea of indigenization, and whether culinary authenticity exists at all.

• The Persian roots of the word tikka and the Central Asian tandoor
• Competing claims from Glasgow restaurateurs in the 1950s and 1960s
• Why post-war Britain latched onto a comforting canned-soup story
• Supermarket ready meals since 1983 and the dish’s status as the top curry house order by 2010
• Tikka masala tacos in the US and pizza toppings in India as proof that food keeps mutating