Crispy & Spicy Chicken 65 at Home (Dry Version)

Chicken 65 is a boldly spicy & tangy south indian appetizer, known for its fiery flavor and irresistible crunch. Boneless chicken is marinated in a flavorful blend of spices, yogurt, ginger, and garlic, then deep-fried to golden perfection. It's finally tossed with aromatic fresh curry leaves and green chilies to enhance its signature taste. Serve as an appetizer or a side dish with mains.

My husband is a huge fan of south indian flavors. When we got married, I didn't know much about south indian cuisine. However, over the years I have taught myself a lot of chicken dishes that he likes and this Chicken 65 recipe happens to be one of them.

Not just him, our 8 year old has now taken a liking to spicy snacks such as chicken 65 or mutton pepper fry being few of her favorites! And gladly, both of them approve this recipe! For my vegetarian readers, here's a vegetarian equivalent of chicken 65 using paneer.

Chicken 65

In southern India, from state of Andhra Pradesh to Kerala, different regions make their own versions of Chicken 65. Throughout US, you will find many chicken 65 preperations but this dry version is the most common that I have seen and that's what we prefer to order.

Bite size chicken pieces are coated in a mixture of yogurt and spices and left to marinate for a while. The longer you marinate, the better the taste is. If you have tried my homemade chicken pakora recipe, you will notice that the spices in the marinade overlap. However, unlike the gram flour in chicken pakora, we use rice flour and corn starch for coating the chicken before deep frying.

The combination of rice flour and cornstarch gives you the best of both worlds-a crispy, crackly exterior that doesn't turn soggy too quickly. More on that below!

We will temper the fried chicken in chili, garlic, vinegar, and curry leaves before serving. The chili garlic tempering adds a punch of flavor but don't worry, chicken 65 tastes very different from Indo-Chinese-style chicken because the curry leaves take center stage.

Trivia - While we are discussing tempering, I was told that the very first chicken 65 cooked at Buhari restaurant in Chennai was made with bone in chicken and it wasn't tempered! So it was just an indian style fried chicken! Interesting right?

Chicken 65 is totally amazing with drinks or indian soft drinks (such as thumbs up or limca, give it a try!)

Which Cut of Chicken to Use

I recommend using boneless, skinless chicken thighs, as their dark meat is flavorful and stays juicy during marination and frying.

Be sure to trim all excess fat, as Chicken 65 has a wet marinade and coating. Leftover fat can sometimes cause bursting while deep frying (telling you from experience).Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Bite-sized pieces are ideal since the chicken will shrink slightly when fried.

Ingredients

For Chicken Marinade

• Ground Spices - We will use basic indian spices such as cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and a dash of garam masala (a bit unconventional but its smoky warmth really elevates the taste).
• Red Chili Powder - I use a mix of kashmiri red chili powder(for color) as well as extra hot red chilli powder for heat. There's nothing like mild chicken 65, so add the heat because it is supposed to be a fiery!
• Ginger and Garlic - I stock my ginger paste and garlic paste separately. But ginger garlic paste will work beautifully!
• Yogurt - One of the key ingredients. Tenderizes the chicken and helps moisten the spices so that they do not burn while deep frying. Also adds a rich tang. I use thick plain greek yogurt. If your yogurt is slightly sour, that's good to use too.
• Unsweetened Rice Flour -I prefer purchasing my rice flour from asian grocery stores. The flour is super fine ground and crisps very well. Rice flour provides a light, crunchy texture that stays crisp for longer. It also absorbs less oil and hence prevents the coating from becoming greasy.
• Cornstarch - Adds a delicate crispness and helps create a slightly airy, lacy coating on chicken when fried.

Tadka (tempering Ingredients)

• Whole Spices - There's a restaurant in Vegas that adds mustard seeds to its Chicken 65, and I simply love the texture. I use both black mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• Fresh Garlic - Finely chop it. Think of the tempering in Chicken 65 as similar to the crispy garlic topping you will spot in Asian restaurants. Garlic gives a lovely flavor when combined with green chilies and curry leaves!
• Indian Green Chilies or Thai Bird Chillies - I find it best to slice them lengthwise so that their seeds pop in hot oil and release their kick and aroma. But you can chop them if you wish.
• Curry Leaves - Non negotiable if you ask me. You can buy them fresh at most indian grocery stores.
• Chilli Garlic Sauce - I use Ching's red chilli sauce (non affiliate link). On multiple occasiuons I have used sriracha in tempering as well. However, avoid using chilli crunch oil or sambal oelek etc because they have a totally different flavor.
• Vinegar - Adds a tang to the tadka! I use rice vinegar in my kitchen
• Sugar - We need just a little to balance out the flavors.

How to Make Chicken 65

Chicken Marination

Put all your effort into the marinade because that's where the magic happens! Since the tempering is minimal, the marinade is the key to making this dish truly shine.

Marinate for a few hours. If you are short on time, marinate for at least 1-1.5 hours. You can marinate chicken for 18-24 hours. The marinade gets its pretty red color from the use of kashmiri red chili powder. While restaurants often use red food coloring for a vibrant look, I prefer to skip it in my homemade version.

Note: Use thick yogurt or hung curd for making the marinade. Both the chicken and yogurt will release water due to salt while marinating. If the marinade is runny to begin with, by the end it will be watery. If marinade becomes runny, you will have to add a lot of rice + corn flour for coating, this takes away the actual taste of the chicken in the dish and it starts tasting of flour.

Deep Fry to Crispy Perfection

Coat the marinated chicken pieces in rice flour and corn starch and then immediately start deep frying.Rice flour adds a lot of crunch and tastes better instead of just using cornstarch.

Recipe Trials Insights- While testing the recipe, I experimented with different ratios of rice flour and cornstarch to see how they affected the texture. Interestingly, I discovered this by chance when I ran out of cornstarch and added extra rice flour to compensate. I ended up loving the result.

Here's what I found: - Using slightly more rice flour than cornstarch creates the best crispy coating. It stays light and crunchy without becoming rock-hard or turning soggy too quickly.

Deep fry in hot oil to golden brown in batches. Overcrowding the oil will make the chicken soggy and the pieces will stick to each other as well. Drain on paper towel to get rid of excess oil.

Tip:- Once you have added the chicken to hot oil, don't toss and turn until you notice that the bottoms are looking nicely golden brown. This makes sure that the coating wont peel off when you turn the chickenI recommend using a cast iron skillet or iron kadai for frying.

Note - While frying, don't add a large quantity of oil since you cannot re-use the oil. It gets flavored with spices by the end of deep frying. Simply discard it.

Air Fryer Chicken 65 - You could air fry the chicken in case you aren't inclined to deep fry. These cook up quickly as they are small in size. Fry in batches. Instructions in recipe card.

Temper For Extra Flavor

Immediately toss the deep fried chicken with curry leaves, garlic and green chilies. This step has to be done quickly so I like to prepare everything beforehand- like washing the curry leaves, chopping the garlic and slicing the green chillies. The garlic should not brown. Else it will taste bitter.

Serve this delicious chicken starter recipe with sliced red onions. You could sprinkle a little bit of garam masala powder or chaat masala right before serving. You could also serve it as a side dish with egg pulao.