‘Chicken 65’ is a popular starter in most Indian restaurants plus in India. My youngest son asked me to make it as it’s his favourite dish when we eat out at our family favourite Indian restaurant in Hinckley called 7H Spices. He loves the dish that much, he has had it as a starter for the last two Christmas dinners as we’ve eaten there to celebrate the festivities.

This dish itself is similar to chicken pakoras but contains more flavour.

I have many versions of this dish due to it popularity but this recipe below is taken from the new cookbook from Nisha Katona (Mowgli) called ‘The Curry Bible’. I would recommend this book to anyone due to its simplicity!!

Ingredients-

600g skinless, boneless chicken thighs or breast, cut into 2-3cm pieces

75g full-fat thick Greek yoghurt

10-12 curry leaves, half cut into thin strips, half left whole

5cm piece of fresh root ginger (20g), peeled and finely grated

8 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg

1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder (or sweet paprika which I used)

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep-frying

2 green chillies, cut into 2cm pieces

2 whole dried red chillies, broken into 2cm pieces

1 medium red onion, sliced into eighths and separated into petals lemon or lime wedges, to serve

Method –

In a large bowl combine the chicken, yogurt, curry leaves finely chopped up, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, egg, dried spices, salt & pepper.

Mix well and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to maximise the flavours.

Once you’re ready to cook, add the cornflour and plain flour.

Mix well…..

Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy based pan. Only fill the pan a 1/3 of the way up as it’s almost like a shallow fry but deep enough for the chicken pieces to be submerged.

Fry the coated chicken pieces for 6 / 8 minutes. I always use a food probe to ensure the core temperature of the chicken is above 74C.

Cook the chicken in small batches otherwise by crowding the pan you will lower the oil temperature. Once cooked, use a slotted spoon to place the chicken on a power towel to remove the access oil.

Once all of the chicken is cooked heat a tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add a diced red onion and chillies. Fry them until the onions take on a nice colour.

Add in the cooked chicken pieces and gently toss them through the onion & chilli mix then serve.

So many flavours in this dish it’s unreal.

My youngest had his ‘chicken 65’ with oven chips. As I was dishing up and said ‘dad, this is brilliant’ and gave me a thumbs up.

At times my harshest critic so I was very happy with this ❤️

Thank you for reading my ramblings.