The mystery of Chicken 65

So during our class dinner, after I had a dumb look on my face when Dr. Norton asked me what exactly chicken 65 is, I decided to figure out exactly where this delicious chicken recipe got its name. The history behind this fairly common Indian dish is pretty interesting. I’ll include a recipe for all those who want to try to make it at home.

The story of chicken 65 is much like a legend. According to a popular version of the story, the name originated from a “food eating contest” in a restaurant in North India. During this contest, diners would compete with each other to see how many chilies they could eat. At one point during one of these contests, the chef decided to make a dish with all the chilies he could use. He concocted a dish using 65 chilies for every kilogram of chicken, and called it chicken 65. Of course now, the dish that you buy from Indian restaurants does not nearly contain 65 different chilies. Here’s the recipe that I found for chicken 65 that my father and I are going to try and cook tonight. If you do a search online, I’m sure that alternate versions of the recipe can be found. I’ll let you know how the dish turns out.

Ingredients
Stage 1
250g skinned chicken (see notes above) cut into small bite size pieces
3-4g pulped garlic
3-4g fresh ginger peeled and pulped
1/4 tsp hot RED chilli powder or 3/4 tsp mild (kashmiri) RED chilli powder
Salt to taste

Stage 2
¾ tspn citric acid crystal or powder (available from Boots brewing section or local chemist)
1/8 tsp Tandoori red food colouring (optional but it does enhance the eye appeal.)
2 tsp corn flour
2 tsp plain flour
1/2 teaspoon chilli sauce (optional)
1 medium egg, beaten.
Vegetable oil

Stage 3
2 tsp mustard seed
12 curry leaves
2 green chillis chopped
1" ginger chopped or pulped
2 clove garlic chopped or pulped
3 dry red chillis (optional)
Set yogurt (See note)
Butter or Vegetable ghee.
Salt to taste

To serve
Coriander to garnish (optional)
Wedges of Lemon
Some warmed Nan bread

Method
1. Marinade all stage 1 ingredients in covered bowl overnight in cool place. Make sure all is well mixed together.
2. The next day mix all the stage 2 ingredients except the oil together into the chicken mixture ensuring that all pieces are well coated. Allow to stand for 1 hour. Meanwhile heat some vegetable oil in a small wok or deep sided pan. You'll need to have at least 1cm cover in bottom of pan. Don't allow to smoke. When hot, add the chicken pieces separately to pan and don't overcrowd. Cook each batch until golden and cooked. This shouldn't take long as the chicken is well marinated. Using a slotted spoon retrieve the cooked chicken and allow to drain on kitchen paper. Allow oil to regain heat and repeat till all chicken is cooked. You can now leave the chicken pieces until you are ready to serve them.
3. Clean out the wok and add a desert spoon of ghee and the mustard seed and allow to heat up. When the mustard starts to crackle add all the other stage 3 ingredients except yogurt and salt. Stir fry through on medium heat for 1 minute. Add chicken and stir fry for 1 minute. Now reduce the heat a bit, allowing to cool slightly and add the yogurt. You need 1/3 the volume of the chicken as yogurt. Continue stir frying until the liquid has reduced from the yogurt and you are left with a pretty dry mixture. Just before end, check for salt and add more if required.
4. Put onto small plates with Nan bread. Garnish with lemon wedge and chopped coriander.