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Aside from those who profess their love and commitment towards a deliciously creamy butter chicken, the dish is surrounded by enigma despite its popularity. Given how every restaurant or chef might add their own special touches which change the composition of the delicacy in small ways, Saransh Goila has managed to craft what is possibly the most perfect butter chicken we’ve tasted. At first, its delicate sweetness is what we taste – soon after which the gravy metamorphosizes into a deeply complex, savoury preparation. Delicately cooked chunks of chicken and a whiff of kasuri methi elevate the experience significantly.
Saransh, who is currently in the process of celebrating the landmark achievement of expanding his namesake venture – Goila Butter Chicken – to 100 outlets says that, “8 years (of Goila Butter Chicken) have been truly incredible since we started this venture in Andheri, Mumbai. We never dreamt of being able to reach 100 kitchen landmarks someday; so it’s a little overwhelming since it was not planned. The brand started as a self-funded homegrown business, where we would reinvest all the money we would earn from one store into another. Our customers have shown so much love and faith, that’s the reason we have reached where we are today.”
Hara Bhara Kebab
Emerging as the name synonymous with what is a popular favourite has been no mean feat – even according to Saransh. “There are legends like Moti Mahal, Daryaganj, Havmor and Gulati’s who have made butter chicken proud for decades. I think what really matters is the fact that we are able to push the boundary for our food and the dish strikes a chord with the global audience because it has tomatoes as its base – which are universally liked whether you look at pizza or pasta.” He sends us a sneak peek of some new items which have been added to the menu – silken dahi ke kebab, tender and moist tandoori soya chaap, a mildly seasoned chicken kali mirch tikka and our personal favourite – Goila’s chicken kebab, which had a mild smokiness and melted like butter when bitten into.
Saransh is also candid to confess that unlike most other butter chicken recipes, there is a noticeable absence of sugar in the recipe which was lauded by the judges of the popular competitive cooking show – Masterchef Australia. “We sometimes add a touch of honey as well as 50% less cream and butter than the classic. We get the creaminess through cashew nuts, and we do a bouquet garni of spices to give it a balanced flavour profile. We were proud to have taken it to MasterChef Australia and give it a global stamp,” he quips. What’s interesting about the chef’s second lease of the journey that his butter chicken franchise shaped into is that his audience also includes a large amount of vegetarians – an audience which led him to make new additions to a rather concise menu.
Desi Ghee Rajma Chawal
“An audience that we constantly got feedback on was from vegetarians and they felt because we are called Goila Butter Chicken, our non-veg split was heavier. We have now added a great mix of vegetarian dishes on our menu we heard from our customers and have become much more vegetarian friendly,” Saransh says. He highlights some of his personal favourites – an Amritsari Chhole Kulche inspired by his multiple trips to Amritsar, the Hara Bhara Kebab loaded with greens and the Desi Ghee Rajma Chawal which has been a feature ever since Goila Butter Chicken’s inception. The slow-cooked flavours of the chhole, paired with a hefty stuffed kulcha is a reflection of dhaba-style cooking that Amristar is well-known for.
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On the occasion of the business celebrating eight years of serving up their star dish, the franchise has been acquired by yet another food giant – Biryani By Kilo. When quizzed about how he manages to maintain consistency across fresh food products that the brand sells, the chef says that supply chain is one of the biggest challenges that they face. He reassures us that the food infrastructure in India has grown considerably over the past decade, allowing food to travel from the central kitchen to different spokes rather easily. The recent acquisition has also enabled Saransh’s brand to utilise an already-active network for supplying Goila Butter Chicken base gravies and spice blends consistently.
Butter Chicken
When asked about what excites him most about the brand he worked so hard to build, with college buddy Vivek Sahni, Saransh says that, “When we started the brand, it was just from Mumbai and we were catering to a certain palette. Now we are travelling all across India, and you have to make sure that you entertain and engage with people from different parts of the country and everybody has a different likeness, with flavour and spice or for the kind of dishes they prefer to eat and you have to customize and alter your menu keeping those things in mind.” As someone who has been championing regional cuisine and seasonality independent of his work with GBC, the chef finds himself excited by the vast scope for him to grow creatively.
