Chicken 65

I have lots of fond memories about this dish. Growing up, I remember my dad used to take us out for Company picnics and one of his colleague's wife used to make this dish and get it for us to have it our way in the train. She used to make this dish so well. I have been thinking of making this dish for a long time now but always thought that it would take a lot of effort and hence simply kept forgetting about it. But, once I visited a party here in Canada, and one of the guest had made this dish. She told me a very simple way of making it and curious that I am, I immediately wanted to try it out. So, I decided to start by making a small quantity for my family and it was an instant hit. From then on, I have made this dish for several parties and have received a lot of compliments for it.

Chicken 65 is a Hyderabadi dish. It is basically a dry dish which is prepared with lots of curry leaves and lemon juice.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes + Marination time

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

500 gms. boneless skinless Chicken breasts

3 green chillies finely cut

3 tbsp hot and sweet tomato ketchup

2 tbsp oil

For the marination:

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

11/2 tsp salt

1 tsp red chilly powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

a few drops of orange food colour

For tempering:

3 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 dried red chillies

6-8 curry leaves

Method:

• Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
• In a mixing bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients together.
• Coat the chicken with the marinade. There should be plenty of lemon juice to coat all the chicken pieces.
• Mix it well and cover and let this rest for about 4 hours or overnight in the fridge.
• Grease a baking tray with a little oil and transfer the chicken pieces to the baking dish. Put this in the oven at 400 degree F for about 15 minutes in the middle rack.
• Remove it and drain and discard all the fluid - keep only the semi cooked chicken aside.
• For the tempering, in a small frying pan, heat oil.
• When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
• To this add 2 dried red chillies and fry for a minute.
• Turn the heat to low and add the curry leaves and cover the pan again.
• Allow the curry leaves to splutter.
• Once the leaves are well fried and almost dry, remove from the heat and keep the tempering aside.
• In a separate pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil and the semi cooked chicken pieces to it. Shallow fry for about 5 minutes.
• When the chicken is almost done, add the finely cut green chillies to the pan and continue frying for about a minute or so.
• Now, add the ketchup to the pan directly over the chicken and allow it to coat all the pieces well.
• Add the tempering from the other pan to the main pan and mix it well
• Do not overcook the chicken.
• Serve hot either as an appetizer or with some vegetable pulao and raita.