Bronwen King

Tandoori Palace Butter Chicken

A respected brand, this New Zealand-made sauce was the best nutritionally. It had the fewest kilojoules (334/100g), least fat and saturated fat (3.3g and 1.8g/100g respectively), least sugar (4.7g/100g), least sodium (287mg/100g), and fewest additives.

While our seven tasters thought all of the sauces tasted good, this had a slight edge, with three tasters voting it best, three second and one third. At $5.25 for a 500g jar, it was also the cheapest. Overall rating: Best – best for nutrition, taste and cost.

Patak’s Butter Chicken Mild

This Australian brand came second for nutrition. It was second for kilojoules, sugar and sodium (497kJ, 7.4g, and 368mg/100g respectively). It had slightly more fat than Global at 7.9g/100g and a similar number of additives.

It was second for taste, but tasters found it difficult to pick a winner between this and Tandoori Palace. It was second cheapest but only slightly more expensive than Tandoori Palace at $5.49 per 500g. Overall rating: Second – for nutrition, taste and cost.

Global Cuisine Butter Chicken

This other New Zealand-made sauce was last for nutrition with more kilojoules, fat and sugar than Tandoori Palace (594kJ, 7.5g fat and 12.5g sugar per 100g).

It ranked third for taste and was a lot sweeter than the others. It was the most expensive at $4.85 for a 390g pouch ($6.20 per 500g) Overall rating: Third – for nutrition, taste and cost.