Butter chicken or bitter chicken?

Neither the Gujrals nor the Jaggis can claim the invention of India's most-loved dish. The genesis may go to canny cooks in the Mughal era

The delicious butter chicken — one of India's best-known, best-liked and most-favoured dishes globally — has suddenly become highly contentious, with two Delhi-based restaurant chains battling it out in court over claims to its origins and bragging rights.

The lawsuit has been brought about by the Gujral family who own Moti Mahal, a famed Delhi restaurant that has over the years hosted the Shah of Iran, US President Richard Nixon, Jacqueline Kennedy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the King of Nepal, Soviet leaders Alexei Kosygin and Nikolai Bulganin, and Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, besides others. Moti Mahal was