I promised you all that I would post a food dish from my parent’s home state, Andhra Pradesh – specifically from my Mom’s home city, Hyderabad….and now here it is finally!  I would be lying if I told you that this is a dish I grew up to with my Mom’s homemade cooking.  My parents are vegetarian and although they raised me as a non-vegetarian, my Mom primarily cooked vegetarian dishes – and anything Andhra related was hence all vegetarian.

So when I went out to dinner with a few new friends of mine from the NetIP-NY board (one of them being from Hyderabad), I discovered Chicken 65.  We all went out to Nirvana, an Indian restaurant in NYC.  One of my friends, Shobha, ordered Chicken 65 and proceeded to tell me how it is from Andhra.  I could not believe that I had never heard of it before – until it later dawned on me that my Uncle always talked about Chicken 65 and how great it is – in fact at one of our recent Dasika get togethers (this past Summer 2009), my entire family discussed the origin of Chicken 65 and why it was named Chicken 65.  I myself had never tasted it until last weekend.  I immediately wanted to learn how to make it.  My friend, Sami, the Hyderabadi, asked his Mom to give me a few pointers on the recipe and voila – there you have it. CHICKEN 65!

Chicken 65 is a deep fried, spicy chicken dish mostly served as an appetizer.  It of course is a Hyderabadi dish and has many theories as to the origin of the name:

• The 65 in the Chicken 65 represents the year it was introduced by the famous hotel in Chennai called “BUHARI”. Hence the name “Chicken 65″. They also serve Chicken 78, Chicken 82, Chicken 90 which are all introduced in those years.

• The pants size of Tarul Assani, the chef that invented the dish nearly 200 years ago.
• The number 65 is variously said to be the number of days taken to prepare the marinade or the year of the dish’s creation.

I loved making this dish – it’s great for all you spicy lovers.  I have to admit that even though I eat spicy food, I actually sweated while I was eating this dish!!  Here is the recipe that I used – I improvised and added my own ingrediants too = )  I hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 tsp of cloves mixture
• 2 cloves garlic – minced
• 2 tsp ginger grated
• 2 tsp red chilies powder
• 3 tsp Sriracha red sauce
• 1 Egg
• 2 tsp All purpose flour
• 4 drops red food coloring
• 2 cups Yogurt
• 6 Green chilies
• 2 tsp Cornflour (if you don’t have corn flour you can use corn starch but it will be a little thicker)
• 3 tsp lime juice
• Vegetable/Canola oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 onion chopped
• Cilantro

Directions:

• In bowl mix corn flour, all purpose flour, ginger, garlic, chilli powder, egg, clove mixture, and salt
• Add chicken pieces to batter and marinate for 1 hour
• Deep fry chicken pieces until golden
• In sauce pan, heat oil
• Fry onions for 1 minute and set aside in a bowl
• Add fried chicken, yogurt, green chillies, Sriracha sauce, red food color, lime juice and fry for 4 to 5 minutes.
• Garnish with onions and cilantro

I am finally posting an Indian dish – yay!!  This one is probably one of the most popular Indian dishes you will see in an Indian restaurant and it is therefore not unique by any means, but I did make it and thought I might as well post the recipe.  This dish did not originate in my homestate, Andhra Pradesh, but don’t you worry, I’ll be posting dishes from my homestate very soon!  This dish is a popular North Indian dish and I believe it originated in Delhi, India.  Here is the recipe – enjoy:)

chicken makhani

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 pound boneless/skinless chicken breast cut into large chunks
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 small tomatoes chopped and de-seeded (we used tomatoes but I would recommend using tomato puree or tomato paste). 
• 1 shallot chopped
• 1/2 medium onion chopped
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• Salt/Pepper
• Chopped fresh coriander leaves
• Corn Starch

Instructions:

Chicken:

1. Heat frying pan with oil
2. Add chicken and stir-fry for 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked all the way on both sides

Sauce:

1. Heat sautee pan with oil
2. Sautee onions and shallots for 5 minutes or until golden brown
3. Add ginger, garlic, lemon juice, and all spices – sautee for 5 minutes
4. Add tomatoes and sautee for 5 minutes
5. Add yogurt, heavy cream, and corn starch and simmer for 5 minutes
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and cooked chicken
7. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

We had this with parathas, jeera rice, and red wine and it was just DE-LISH.  Couple of  notes I would like to make:

1. ***Important***If you use tomatoes please be sure to take out the seeds and as much tomato juice as possible – we did not do this and the sauce did not come out as thick as I would have liked it to come out.  The key to the sauce is to be as buttery and thick with consistency as possible .

2. Please be liberal with the amount of butter you add – it is BUTTER chicken afterall and hence butter is one of the key ingredients so don’t think about your weight or health or anything of that matter – don’t feel bashful and just add the entire stick of butter – hellz add 2 sticks!

3. Corn Starch is also key to consistency in sauce.

Please let me know if you decide to make the dish!!  and Bon App!!!