Chicken 65… The perfect starter or snack.

Everything you need to know about how to make Chicken 65!

I learned a lot of fantastic chicken 65 recipes while travelling the UK, researching for my second cookbook ‘The Curry Guy Easy’.

As you will see, there are a lot of ingredients in this famous dish. For this reason, I almost didn’t include it in that book.

So don’t let all those ingredients scare you off! This recipe is super easy. Just get your ingredients lined up and you can make delicious chicken 65 at home. Just like me, I think you might just be doing that very often.

There are so many different recipes for chicken 65 in the UK but they are all quite similar. I like to serve it as a starter but it also makes a great snack. The spicy and crispy chicken pieces are to die for.

An optional extra is to stir in red chilli sauce to finish it all off. You could use the hot sauce of your choice and yes… shop bought is fine.

I have also tried chicken 65 many times in India and found the dish there to be very similar to those we get in the west. Perhaps that is why it has become so popular worldwide.

Once you’ve made the recipe, you will want to make in again and again.

Ever wondered why the dish is called ‘chicken 65’?

I’ve heard so many stories about how chicken 65 got its name. One was that the original chicken 65 had sixty-fine ingredients in it.

Although I have tried, I have yet to find a recipe that calls for that many ingredients but it is a possibility.

A more believable explanation was that chicken 65 was always the 65th option on the menu at popular restaurants in India. There were a lot of different dishes on the menus.

Diners would simply look for the 65th item on the menu and know it would be amazing.

Although this recipe does include red food colouring for the meat, it is not necessary for you to do so.

The colouring adds a nice colour that many people expect in a chicken 65 but that colouring has no flavour at all.

These step by step chicken 65 recipe photos should help you get the recipe just right.

Slice the chicken breasts at an angle as shown.

Marinating the meat. It’s red because I used red colouring in my homemade tandoori masala.

Fry for about 3 minutes until crisp and 85% cooked through.

The crispy chicken resting while the dish is finished off.

If you want to work ahead, you could fry the chicken up to a day before serving it. 

Then just heat through and you’re off. 

Tempering the whole spices and curry leaves in the oil.

Frying the garlic, ginger, spring onion and chillies.

Stir in the chicken and remaining ingredients. All done

Here are more curry house curry favourites you might like to try!

• • Chicken Korma
  • Chicken Madras
  • Chicken Dhansak
  • Lamb Rogan Josh
  • Lamb Vindaloo
  • Chicken Chilli Garlic
  • Chicken Patia
  • Lamb Bhuna
  • Chicken Tikka Masala
  •  
    

    This chicken 65 recipe is served at all of my curry feasts!

    Yield: 4

    Chicken 65

    

    Print

    Prep Time 20 minutes

    Cook Time 10 minutes

    Additional Time 20 minutes

    Total Time 50 minutes

    Ingredients

    • 1kg (2lb 3oz) chicken breasts
    • Rapeseed (canola) oil, for deep-frying
    • 1 tsp black mustard seeds

    • 1 tsp cumin seeds
20 curry leaves

    • 3 green chillies, sliced

    • 12 garlic cloves, finely chopped

    • 10cm (4in) piece of ginger, peeled and
    • julienned
3 spring onions (scallions), roughly
    • chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
2–3 tbsp chilli sauce (optional)
    • FOR THE BATTER
    • 2 eggs, beaten

    • 2 tbsp garlic and ginger paste (see
    • page 172)

    • 3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
    • 
3 tbsp rice flour (see page 342)
    • 
1 tsp ground turmeric

    • 1 tbsp ground cumin

    • 1 tsp ground coriander
    • 
2 tsp chilli powder

    • 11⁄2 tbsp tandoori masala (see page
    • 168)
1 tsp salt
    • 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

    Instructions

    1. Slice the chicken breasts into small bite-size pieces
       (tikka). Mix all the batter ingredients into a paste, then rub it evenly into the chicken pieces. If time permits, let this marinate for about 30 minutes or overnight, but this isn’t crucial.
    2. When ready to deep-fry, heat about 10cm (4in) of oil in a
       large wok. The oil is ready when a small piece of chicken sizzles immediately upon putting it in the oil. If using an oil thermometer, aim for 190°C (375°F).
       
    3. Fry the chicken in batches until the exterior is nice and
       crispy and the meat is almost cooked through. This should take 2–3 minutes per batch.
    4. Place the finished chicken pieces on a wire rack to rest while you fry the remaining batches. The frying can be done ahead of time. Store the fried chicken covered in the fridge until ready to use.
    5. Once cooled a bit, remove all but about 3 tablespoons of the oil from the wok. Place over a high heat and toss in the mustard seeds.
    6. When they begin to pop (after about 30 seconds), reduce the heat to medium–high, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and green chillies and fry for a further 30 seconds.
    7. Stir in the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant and soft – about 1 minute should do the job.
    8. Tip in the chicken and spring onions (scallions) and stir
       well to coat. Fry over a high heat until the chicken is completely cooked through. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top and add the chilli sauce (if using).
    9. Give it all one last good stir, check for seasoning, adding a little more salt if needed, and serve.
       
       

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    If you like this authentic chicken 65 recipe, you’ve simply got to try my super spicy chicken wings!