Chicken 65

Chicken 65 Recipe With detailed photos and video. Learn how to make the South Indian starter recipe, Chicken 65.

Chicken 65 is a famous south Indian starter that you must try. Very easy to prepare and tasty too. This is a moderately spicy, batter coated and deep fried chicken appetizer. You can find in all most all the non-veg restaurants in South India.

What is Chicken 65?

Chicken 65 is a deep-fried chicken starter served widely in South Indian Restaurants. This exceptionally popular chicken dish looks bright red in color, but it is moderately spicy. Chicken with bones or boneless chicken can be used to make chicken 65, but make sure that the chicken pieces are bite sized, but not larger chunks.

Chicken 65 is prepared by coating the bite sized chicken pieces with a batter made of flour and spices. It is then deep fried and seasoned with curry leaves and green chilies.

Chicken 65 and its origin

Chicken 65 is supposed to be originated in Buhari Hotel Chennai, TamilNadu, India. Buhari hotel is a famous South Indian Restaurant located in TamilNadu. The chicken 65 served in Buhari hotel, Chennai is light yellow in color and taste is also slightly different from the one served in other Chennai restaurants.

How to make Chicken 65?

Chicken 65 preparation is quite easy. Take bite sized skinless chicken pieces. Marinate it with ginger- garlic paste, salt and lemon juice. It is then dipped in bright red colored flour based batter, deep fried and further seasoned with fresh springs of curry leaves and green chilies.

Chicken 65 - Serving options

Chicken 65 is a yummy appetizer. It actually does not need any accompaniment. The flavors of curry leaves and other spices are enough to make it delectable. But in Chennai hotels, Chicken 65 is served with a small bowl of green chutney.

Chicken 65 Recipe | Perfect Chicken 65 Recipe | How to make chicken 65 at home

Indian style batter fried chicken

Preparation time: 35 minutes | Cooking time: 7 minutes | Total time: 42 minutes

Ingredients of Chicken 65

To marinate the chicken pieces

350 gm boneless chicken without skin, cut into cubes ( or usual curry cut chicken pieces)
1/2 tbsp garlic paste
1/2 tbsp ginger paste
A few drops of lemon (or half portion of a small lemon) / 1 tbsp vinegar
Salt to taste

For outer coating

2 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp all purpose flour (maida)
1 tbsp Kashmiri red chili powder
1 tsp hot chili powder
Salt to taste
1 Egg
Water as needed

Other ingredients

Oil for frying
2 springs of curry leaves
2 green chilies

How to make chicken 65 at home - Video

Chicken 65 Preparation With Step By Step Photos

To make chicken 65, you can take either boneless or regular chicken with bones, cut into almost equal sized small pieces. Chopping into equal sized pieces ensure uniform cooking. Take chicken in a bowl and put ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and lemon juice. If you are using ready-made ginger garlic paste, then adjust the salt and lemon juice accordingly as the store-bought ginger-garlic paste has some amount of salt and vinegar in it. The lemon juice or vinegar will soften the chicken while cooking.
Mix well and leave it for at least 30 minutes, so that the spices infuse into the chicken nicely.
After 30 minutes, you can do second mariantion, put cornflour, all purpose flour, egg, Kashmiri red chili powder and hot red chili powder. The Kashmiri red chili powder is just for color, if you don't have, please ignore it. Sometimes, store bought Kashmiri red chili powder taste too hot, in that case avoid hot chili powder.
Mix well with your hands or using a spoon. The chicken pieces should be fully covered with the batter. You can also sprinkle one or two drops of water if necessary.
Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying, Once hot, reduce the flame to medium and fry curry leaves. Transfer immediately into a bowl, once the spluttering stops.
Drop marinated chicken pieces one by one.
Once the chicken is almost done, remove from the oil. Repeat the process. Once the final batch of chicken is fried, fry the first batch again for a few minutes or till the chicken turns crisp. Second frying is to get a beautiful crispiness to your chicken 65.
Switch off the flame and immediately fry two slit green chilies.
Transfer this into the same bowl where you keep both fried chicken and curry leaves.
Chicken 65 is ready, serve hot and enjoy.