Chicken 65 Recipe (Dry Version) – Three Ways

Chicken 65 is easily one of the more popular Indian chicken appetizers in Indian restaurants, and with good reason! Because what’s not to love about Indian spiced fried chicken pieces, tossed in South Indian style tempering? Serve it along with a main course dish like Chicken Fried Rice or even Chicken Biryani, and enjoy! Chicken 65 also works great as an appetizer to bring to potluck parties!

In this post, I share how to make chicken 65 at home, and 3 ways to do it too. So along with the traditional chicken 65 recipe, I share how to make chicken 65 in air fryer, and even how to bake chicken 65 in oven, for a (slightly) healthier version.

Jump to:

• What is Chicken 65
• Why is it called Chicken 65 / What is the meaning of 65 in Chicken 65
• Ingredients You Need
• How to Make Chicken 65
• Notes
• Serving Suggestion
• Recipe Variations
• Baked Chicken 65 Using Oven
• Chicken 65 in Airfryer
• Popular chicken recipes on the blog..
• 📖 RECIPE

What is Chicken 65

Chicken 65 (at its core) is a deep fried boneless chicken appetizer, which involves first frying the chicken pieces, and then tossing it in South Indian style tempering.

Why is it called Chicken 65 / What is the meaning of 65 in Chicken 65

When a dish has a name like this, and is so widely known (and loved), it’s obvious that people will be curious about the origin of the name. I was too. And when I did my “google research”, I came across several theories, ranging from slightly odd to kinda weird to absolutely absurd.

Some said the 65 came from the chicken being exactly 65 days old, others said the name was derived from cutting the chicken into 65 pieces. Some even said it involved using exactly 65 ingredients. *shudders*

Because honestly, as much as I love cooking, I am skeptical about ever making a dish that will require 65 ingredients. Thankfully this one doesn’t.

Anyway the most popular (and probable) theory is that this dish was simply the 65th dish on the menu of a Military Canteen in Tamil Nadu (India), and was addressed by the number because of the language barrier faced by many military officers who came into this canteen from all over the country and could not read/speak Tamil well.

Sometimes a little history is interesting, right?

Anyway, here’s my recipe for making chicken 65, shared with step by step instructions and photos.

Ingredients You Need

Ingredient notes

• For this recipe (or for any deep fried chicken dish) it’s best to use thigh meat instead of breast meat, as it is easier to over cook breast meat at high temperatures, making it dry and rubbery, while thigh meat is juicier.
  
• I cut the chicken into really small cubes, but you can cut the chicken into any shape you prefer. Just ensure the chicken pieces are (approximately) of the same size, as it will be easier to fry them evenly and well.

How to Make Chicken 65

I am using 2 pounds of chicken here, which makes enough chicken 65 to serve about 6-8 people.

If you want to make more or less quantity than what I have shared, simply use the slider in the recipe card below to adjust the quantities based on your preference.

Chicken Prep & Marination

• Take 2 pounds of boneless chicken, and cut into small bite sized chunks of approximately the same size.
  
• In a bowl, beat 2 eggs, and to it, add 3 tablespoon ginger garlic paste, 1½ teaspoon salt, 1½ teaspoon red chilli powder, 1½ teaspoon garam masala powder, 1½ teaspoon coriander powder, and 1 teaspoon cumin powder. Mix everything together to make a marinade.
  
• Now coat all the chicken pieces with this marinade, and ideally refrigerate the marinated chicken for 4-6 hours. Though if you are pressed for time, a 2 hour marination will suffice.

• Once the chicken is marinated well, take it out of the fridge, and let it thaw for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature, to ensure the chicken doesn’t go from one extreme temperature in the fridge to the other extreme in hot oil in a matter of minutes.
  
• Right before frying, add 1 tablespoon cornflour (for binding) and 1 tablespoon rice flour (for crispy coating) to the marinated chicken pieces, and mix well.

Frying The Chicken Pieces

• Heat up the oil to fry the chicken, and then fry the chicken cubes, a few pieces at a time, till they turn golden brown and crispy.
  
• Here ensure to not overcrowd the pan by adding a lot of chicken pieces at the same time, as that will bring down the temperature of the oil, which in turn will result in chicken retaining some oil on the surface, and not getting as crisp as you want the pieces to get for chicken 65.
  
• Frying time will vary depending on the size of the pan and the size of the batch, but on medium heat, it took me about 5-7 minutes per batch.
  
• As soon as you remove the chicken pieces from the oil, put them in a bowl lined with paper towel, to absorb excess oil, if any.

Chicken 65 Tadka

• Finally, in a big pan (that will hold all the chicken pieces), lightly heat up 2 teaspoon oil, and add in ½ teaspoon mustard seeds.
  
• When the mustard seeds start popping, add in 1 red chilli (slit in two) & 20 curry leaves, and lightly roast them for 1-2 minutes.
  
• Then add in the fried chicken pieces to this tadka & mix well.
  
• Now lightly roast the chicken pieces for 3-5 minutes on medium heat, and then turn off the flame.
  
• Chicken 65 is ready to serve.

Notes

1. For a spicier chicken 65, you can increase the amount of red chilli powder, and other spices, and even add in black pepper powder in the marinade. 
   
2. You can skip adding corn-flour for binding, and double up on the rice flour instead, for a really crispy chicken 65. Especially if you are using eggs, which work as a good binding agent anyway. I personally prefer the texture that I get with adding a mix of both corn flour and rice flour. 
   
3. You can also choose to add in red food coloring or even kashmiri chilli powder instead of regular chilli powder for getting that restaurant like red-colored chicken 65. I personally don’t add in food coloring if I can avoid it.

Serving Suggestion

Serve Chicken 65 as an appetizer, along with a main course dish like Chicken Fried Rice or Chicken Biryani.

Recipe Variations

If you want to make a ‘healthier’ version of this dish, you can choose to not deep fry the chicken pieces, and instead bake them in the oven or fry them in the airfryer – keeping everything else the same.

Though of-course the deep fried version tastes the best, which is why it’s best to stick to that version for parties. But then if you simply want to indulge in a close variation at home, then either baking or air-frying the chicken pieces work as good alternatives.

Baked Chicken 65 Using Oven

Instead of deep frying the chicken cubes, you can choose to bake them in the oven at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, flipping them once at the 10 minute mark.

The photo below shares how they looked when I chose to bake chicken cubes in the oven for making chicken 65.

Chicken 65 in Airfryer

You can also choose to fry the chicken pieces in an airfryer, instead of deep frying them. Just ensure to drizzle a little oil over the marinated chicken & spray the airfryer container with some oil too.

I fried the chicken at 390 degrees (the highest setting in my Philips Airfryer) for 20-25 mins, ensuring to give the chicken cubes a good shake once in between.

The photo below shares how the chicken looked when I chose to use my airfryer to fry the chicken for chicken 65.

Popular chicken recipes on the blog..

⭐️ Restaurant Style Chicken Lollipops
⭐️ Tandoori Spiced Chicken Wings
⭐️ Chicken Kali Mirch / Pepper Chicken
⭐️ Mangalorean Style Chicken Ghee Roast
⭐️ Chicken Keema / Indian Style Chicken Mince
⭐️ Kolhapuri Style Spicy Chicken Curry
⭐️ Whole Chicken Tandoori in Oven

As always, I hope you found this recipe useful. If you did, please let me know your rating ⭐️ and feedback 📲 in the comments below, or simply rate the recipe right on the recipe card. I’d really appreciate it. ❤️ 

📖 RECIPE

This recipe was first published in Feb 2020, and has been republished with updated instructions, notes & tips, step images, as well as video in Dec 2021.

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