Chicken 65
Crisp, fiery South Indian fried chicken with curry leaves.
Ingredients
- 600 g Chicken
- 100 g Yogurt
- 60 g Cornstarch
- 1 tbsp Red chili powder
- 1 Ginger
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 15 Curry leaves
- 400 ml Neutral oil
- 1 tsp Salt
Method
- Cube the chicken and toss it with the yogurt, ginger, garlic, chili powder, cornstarch, and salt until evenly coated.
- Let the chicken rest so the marinade can set, about 15 minutes.
- Heat the neutral oil in a deep pan until shimmering and fry the chicken in batches until crisp and deep red, about 8 minutes, then drain on paper.
- Crisp the curry leaves in the hot oil for a few seconds, then toss them through the fried chicken.
- Serve hot with lemon.
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About Chicken 65
Chicken 65 is a fiery South Indian fried chicken, famous as a bar snack and restaurant appetiser across Tamil Nadu and beyond, where it is beloved for its crisp exterior and deep red, chilli-forward heat. Bite-sized cubes of chicken are marinated in yogurt with ginger, garlic, and red chilli powder, then coated with cornstarch and fried until the outside crackles and the colour turns to that signature brick-red. The dish is as much about aroma as heat: curry leaves, crisped in the hot oil, lend it an unmistakable South Indian fragrance. It is a high-protein plate that eats best hot and fresh from the pan.
What gives this version its crunch is the cornstarch in the marinade, which fries up into a thin, shatter-crisp shell, while the yogurt keeps the chicken inside tender and helps the spices cling. A short rest lets the marinade set before the chicken hits the oil, and frying in batches keeps the temperature high so every piece crisps rather than steams. The final flourish — tossing crackled curry leaves through the fried chicken — perfumes the whole dish. Serve it hot with a squeeze of lemon and sliced onion as a starter, a party snack, or an accompaniment to drinks, and expect it to disappear fast.
Chicken 65: frequently asked questions
Where does Chicken 65 come from and what does the "65" mean?
Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried chicken dish from Chennai (Madras), South India, widely credited to A. M. Buhari of the Buhari Hotel chain, where it is well established as having been invented. What the "65" means, however, is genuinely unsettled: competing explanations include the year 1965, its being item number 65 on Buhari's menu (a commonly cited theory), 65 chilies, or 65 days of marination — none is definitively documented, so no single account, including the 1965 year, should be presented as the most widely accepted. The dish is typically boneless chicken marinated in ginger, garlic, chili and yogurt, deep-fried, then tossed with curry leaves and more chili.
What does "Chicken 65" mean?
Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried chicken dish from South India, associated with the Buhari Hotel in Chennai (Madras) around 1965 — which is the most widely cited explanation for the "65." Other popular claims (that it uses 65 chilies, requires 65 days of marination, or came from item number 65 on a menu) are folklore and not reliably documented. Culinarily, it's boneless chicken marinated in a mix of chili, ginger-garlic, and spices, deep-fried, and often tossed with curry leaves and yogurt or a red chili-garlic sauce.
How many calories are in Chicken 65?
A serving has about 536 calories — 30.8g protein, 22.2g carbs, 35.6g fat, 2.8g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 30.8g of protein, roughly 23% of its calories.
Is Chicken 65 gluten-free?
Based on its ingredients, Chicken 65 has no gluten-containing components, so it's naturally gluten-free — as always, check that any packaged ingredients you use are certified gluten-free to be safe.
Is Chicken 65 dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Yogurt. Swapping it for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does Chicken 65 take to make?
About 35 minutes start to finish, but only around 20 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
How many servings does Chicken 65 make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.