Swetha's Fusion

Chicken 65 in Airfryer

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Chicken 65 a popular non-vegetarian appetizer from south-India and now it has gained popularity around the world. Many of the restaurant now offer this dish on their menu. Vegetarian version of same dish can be prepared using Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) and Cauliflower - known as Paneer 65 and Gobi 65 respectively. The dish may be prepared on a grill, oven or tandoori oven, deep-fried, Pan cooked or Airfried. I used to follow my mom's recipe for stove-top/pan-cooked version until I purchased a Airfryer. I searched online and found Ranveer Brar's Chicken 65 in Philips Airfryer YouTube video, I tried the recipe and it turned out pretty good. He also has a deep fried [Chicken 65] version, which is different from my mom's recipes which does not require deep frying - Click [here] to check out my mom's recipe cooked with pressure-cooker and then roasted.

INGREDIENTS:

2 lb - Chicken
1 cup - onion - cut into big square pieces
Oil - to spray while cooking.

Marinade:

1 cup - Thick curds or Greek yogurt
2 tsp - Red chili powder (or as per taste)
1 tsp - Black pepper powder
1 tbsp - Ginger Garlic (G Chili) Paste
1/2 tsp - Freshly roasted fennel seeds course powder
2 tsp - Coriander powder
1 - Egg
1 tbsp - Corn flour
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tbsp - Lemon juice
2 Cloves + 2 Green cardamom + 1 Black cardamom powder (optional)
1/2 tsp - Kasturi Methi (optional)
1 tsp - Oil
Salt

For Seasoning:

2 tsp - Ghee or oil
4 - Green chili - slit lengthwise
10 - curry leaves
10 - Cashew (optional)

For Garnishing:

Fresh Coriander leaves
Lemon wedges
Onion - 1 small - cut into thin long pieces

METHOD:

Clean and cut chicken into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Squeeze out the extra water.
Sprinkle salt, turmeric powder & lemon juice over the chicken. Mix all together.
Now add all other listed powders + ginger/garlic paste + egg + corn flour + curds + oil ( basically, rest of marinade ingredients)
Mix it all, cover and keep it aside to marinate for at-least 10 - 30 minutes (or overnight in refrigerator)

If you have skewers, thread the big onion pieces in between marinated chicken pieces. This will not only help infuse the flavor, it will also help prevent chicken pieces from sticking to each other. I have a air-fryer skewer-stand which is vertical. I add double layer of wide slices of onion at the end, which will end up as a bottom layer - to prevent the masala from flowing down and also to prevent chicken from sliding down and getting stuck to the stand.

After preheating the air-fryer for about 4 minutes at 395 F [200 C], place the skewer stand in the air-fryer, cook for 15 minutes in air-fryer/crisp mode.

After 13 minutes, rotate the skewers around (or flip over if it is horizontal skewer stand, or you have just laid the pieces on the air-fryer basket. Optional: at this point, you may coat the chicken pieces with additional left over ground masala and/or spread bit of oil or melted butter over the chicken pieces.
Cook for additional 7 to 8 minutes or until done.

Plate Chicken 65 as is with the skewers or remove it and spread it on a plate.
In another seasoning pan, heat ghee, roast curry leaves, cashew-nuts and lengthwise slit green chilies. Pour the whole seasoning over prepared Chicken 65.
Garnish with coriander leaves, cut onion and lemon wedges.
Serve and enjoy!