Southern Indian Recipes
Chicken 65
Chennai’s famous spicy fried chicken: boneless chicken thighs marinated in yoghurt, ginger, garlic, Kashmiri chilli and garam masala, coated with cornflour and fried until crisp, then tossed with sizzling curry leaves, green chillies and garlic.
- Serves 4
- Hands-on 30 min
- Marinate 1 hour (or overnight)
- Fry 6–8 min per batch
- Starter or bar snack
- South Indian (Chennai)
Method
Mix the chicken (600 g) with the ginger (15 g), garlic (4 cloves), chilli powder (2 tsp), turmeric (¼ tsp), garam masala (1 tsp), yoghurt (4 tbsp), lemon juice (1 tbsp), chopped curry leaves (a little) and ¾ tsp salt. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Stir the cornflour (4 tbsp), flour (2 tbsp) and egg white (1 egg white) into the chicken until every piece is coated. It should be a thick paste, not runny; add a little more cornflour if needed.
Heat the oil (750 ml) in a deep, heavy pan or wok to 175°C (a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds). Never fill the pan more than a third full. Fry the chicken in batches for 6–8 minutes, turning, until deep red-brown, crisp and cooked through (75°C). Drain on kitchen paper.
Heat the oil for finishing (1 tbsp) in a large frying pan or wok. Add the curry leaves (a little) (stand back, they spit), green chillies (4) and garlic (2 cloves) and fry for 30–60 seconds, until the leaves are crisp.
Add the fried chicken and toss over a high heat for 1 minute so it is coated with the leaves and chillies. Serve hot with lemon wedges (1 lemon) and onion rings (1 red onion).
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
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See also
Chef’s notes
- Kashmiri chilli gives the deep red colour with moderate heat. Restaurant versions often add red food colouring; we leave it out.
- Boneless thighs stay juicier than breast. The original was made with chicken on the bone.
- For a vegetarian version, use cauliflower florets (“gobi 65”) or paneer cubes and fry for 4–5 minutes.
- Dry the curry leaves well before frying: wet leaves make the oil spit hard.
Named for 1965
Chicken 65 was first served at the Buhari Hotel on Anna Salai (Mount Road) in Madras, now Chennai, and is credited to the hotel’s founder, A. M. Buhari, who regularly added new dishes to the menu. The hotel’s own account is that it was introduced in 1965, which gave the dish its name; the family later followed it with Chicken 78, Chicken 82 and Chicken 90.
Many other explanations circulate, such as 65 chillies, a 65-day marinade or the 65th item on a menu, but none is supported. Buhari never patented the dish, and it is now served across India, from smart restaurants to roadside stalls.
Sources for these notes
For the history above.
- The Hindu: “The hows & whys of our chicken 65” (introduced in 1965 by Buhari’s hotel, hence the name; Chicken 78, 82 and 90; the unsupported theories)
- The Indian Express: “Once and for all: Why is the Chicken 65 called the Chicken 65?” (added to the menu in 1965; A. M. Buhari chose not to patent it)
- Wikipedia: Chicken 65 (Hotel Buhari, Chennai; credited to A. M. Buhari)
How this recipe was developed
We compared the most-rated Chicken 65 recipe we could find, from Swasthi’s Indian Healthy Recipes, with Rinku Dutt’s on BBC Good Food.
- Yoghurt and spice marinade. Indian Healthy Recipes (5/5 from 341 ratings) marinates boneless chicken in ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli, turmeric, garam masala, curry leaves, curd and lemon; we use the same.
- Cornflour, flour, egg white. The same recipe coats the chicken with cornflour, rice flour (or plain flour) and egg white before deep-frying; we follow it.
- The tempering. Both recipes finish with fried curry leaves, slit green chillies and garlic; Rinku Dutt (BBC Good Food, 3.25/5 from 4 ratings) uses thighs, as we do.
- No food colouring. We rely on Kashmiri chilli for the colour.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):
- Indian Healthy Recipes (Swasthi): Chicken 65 Recipe (5/5, 341 ratings)
- BBC Good Food (Rinku Dutt): Chicken 65 (3.25/5, 4 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.