The Chicken 65 you know and love is cooked and then layered with rice Biriyani style. If you love Chicken 65 and Biriyani, you will love these two together! My kids love Chicken 65, so I thought why not turn this into a biriyani format. The recipe had to be tweaked as Chicken 65 is generally a dry dish and you need gravy to steam the rice when you make a biriyani.

If you’re wondering where the strange name came from – back in the days when typesetting was done with little metal alphabets and numbers, a little canteen in south India had a chicken dish that was item no 65. At the typesetting house, some of the pieces got displaced and when it printed, it got printed as Chicken 65 and the name stuck ever since. This is really popular in South and Central India and is commonly ordered as a snack.

This recipe does have a few steps but follow the recipe from my video and you will have a great pot of biriyani in no time!

Chicken 65 Biriyani

4 from 26 votes
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Ingredients
  

Rice

  • 2 cups Basmati rice
  • 4 cups Water
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • Salt to taste

Chicken

  • 2 lbs boneless Chicken cubes
  • 1 tsp Chilli powder
  • 2 tbsps Ginger & Garlic paste
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tbsps Corn starch and I’m going to
  • 1 Egg

Masala

  • 1 cup Curry leaves
  • 2 cups finely diced Onions
  • 2 tbsps green Chillies
  • 2 tsps Chilli powder
  • 2 tsps Cumin powder
  • 1 tsp fresh cracked Pepper
  • 4 tbsps Ginger & Garlic paste
  • 4 tbsps Chilli paste or Sambal Oelek
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/8 tsp of food colouring dissolved in a tbsp or so of water
  • 1 cup blanched and pureed tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 2 tbsps Ghee

Garnish

  • 4- 5 boiled Egg halves
  • 1/2 cup Curry leaves
  • 1/2 cup sliced Onions

Instructions
 

  • Soak the rice for at least 30 mins and drain the water a few times
  • Marinate the chicken with the chilli powder, ginger and garlic paste, salt to taste, cornstarch and the egg
  • Heat oil and before you deep fry the chicken deep fry the curry leaves and onion reserved for garnish
  • Reserve a cup of that oil
  • Deep fry the pieces of chicken in batches till golden brown and drain
  • In a wok or kadai and heat up the reserved oil
  • Sauce the diced onions, green chillies and curry leaves
  • Add the chilli, cumin powder & pepper
  • Add the ginger and garlic paste followed by the chilli garlic paste or the sambar oelek
  • Add salt to taste and the food colouring, mix well and reserve half of it for the topping
  • Add the chicken to the other half and toss to coat
  • Cook till the chicken is dry and keep aside
  • Return the other half of the masala to the kadai, add the tomato puree, water and salt to taste
  • In a separate pot heat up the water add cumin seeds and salt and cook the rice till 3/4 cooked, drained and keep aside
  • In the same pot, heat the ghee and when melted, reserve half
  • Add the gravy and then 3/4 of there semi cooked rice
  • Then add all the cooked dry chicken
  • Add the final layer of rice on top
  • Add some of the reserved food colouring
  • Add the boiled egg halves, onion and curry leaves
  • Cover the pot with foil, put on the lid and cook in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 mins