What Does the 65 Mean?

There are at least five different explanations for why this dish is called Chicken 65, and none of them can be fully verified, and all of them are interesting. The most widely accepted version says the name comes from Hotel Buhari in Chennai, where A.M. Buhari introduced the dish in 1965 and numbered it as the 65th item on his menu. A competing theory holds that the original recipe used sixty-five different chillies per kilogram of chicken. Another claims sixty-five days of marination. A fourth suggests the chicken was cut into sixty-five pieces. A fifth, offered with less confidence, traces the name to a military canteen code.

The fact that nobody can agree on the answer is itself revealing. It says something about how quickly the dish escaped its point of origin, how thoroughly it was adopted and adapted by kitchens across India that had no connection to the Chennai restaurant where it began, and how completely it became part of the collective vocabulary of Indian cooking within a few decades of its creation. By the time anyone thought to ask where the name came from, it had already been on a thousand menus and had already meant, to most of the people ordering it, simply: deep-fried spiced chicken, the red kind, the one with the curry leaves.

The Chicken 65 at Golconda Chimney on 806 Newark Avenue in Jersey City is that dish: the one the name now means, made in the tradition that has made it so enduring.

How Hyderabad Made It Its Own

If Chennai created Chicken 65, Hyderabad perfected it. The connection is not coincidental. The Andhra chilli tradition, which Hyderabad sits at the edge of and draws deeply from, is one of the most distinctive chilli cultures in India. Guntur chillies, grown in the Andhra Pradesh district of the same name, are among the hottest and most flavourful cultivars in the country. They produce a heat that is immediate and clean, not smoky or fruity, just direct and substantial, and they give a depth of red colour to anything they touch that other chillies cannot replicate.

Hyderabadi cooks took the Chennai original and ran it through this tradition. The marinade became more assertive, the chilli heat more prominent, the red deeper. Curry leaves went in generously, their aromatic character frying crisp and fragrant in the hot oil. Green chillies were added fresh, either in the marinade or fried alongside the chicken, adding a bright vegetal heat that complemented rather than competed with the Guntur base. The yoghurt marinade, which tenderises the chicken and helps the spice coat adhere during frying, was used more liberally, giving the exterior a slight tang that balanced the heat.

The result was a Hyderabadi Chicken 65 that is recognisably the same dish as the Chennai original but tastes like it belongs to a different culinary personality entirely. At Golconda Chimney, that personality is what informs the preparation. The kitchen is drawing on the Andhra-Hyderabadi tradition, not a generic deep-fry template.

The Technique That Makes It Work

The frying of Chicken 65 is not a single step. It is two, and the difference matters. The first fry cooks the chicken through at a lower temperature, allowing the marinade to set on the exterior and the interior to cook without drying out. The second fry, at a higher temperature and for a shorter time, crisps and colours the exterior so that the finished piece has a shatteringly crunchy crust around a still-moist interior. A Chicken 65 that arrives at the table without that contrast, where the coating is either soft and pale or dry and overdone, is evidence of a kitchen that skipped one of the steps.

The marinade, applied before the first fry, typically includes yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric, cornflour for crunch, and salt. Each component is doing a specific job. The yoghurt tenderises and adds tang. The cornflour creates the crust. The turmeric gives the deep gold-red colour that, combined with the chilli, produces the characteristic vivid appearance of the dish. None of these are secret ingredients. The difference between a good Chicken 65 and a mediocre one is in the ratios and the technique, not the components.

At Golconda Chimney, the pieces arrive hot and properly crisped, the curry leaves fried alongside them so they crumble into the plate with the same crunch as the chicken, the green chilli present and actual rather than ornamental. For diners at India Square and Indian Square on Newark Avenue who know what this dish is supposed to taste like, these details are not invisible.

A Starter That Can Carry a Meal

Chicken 65 is on the Golconda Chimney menu as a starter, but it frequently becomes the point of the meal for the diners who order it. The combination of heat, crunch, and the deeply aromatic curry leaf and chilli fry is satisfying in a way that makes everything else optional rather than necessary. Ordered with a cold drink and a stack of Rumali Roti, it is a complete meal at a table of two. Ordered as one of several starters before a Hyderabadi biryani, it sets an expectation of quality and spice that the kitchen is equipped to meet.

It is also, reliably, the starter that prompts the most conversation from first-time visitors to Newark Avenue and the Indo-Pakistani neighbourhood of Indian Square in Jersey City. The combination of the deep colour, the audible crunch, and the first bite of Andhra heat is an introduction to what South Indian cooking can do that is more effective than any description.

For Hudson County Events

Golconda Chimney caters events across Hudson County and the New Jersey metropolitan area, with starters available alongside soups and main course trays. Chicken 65 is one of the most requested starter items for South Asian catering events in the region, for the straightforward reason that it travels well, holds its character through a service period, and appeals to the broadest range of non-vegetarian guests. For event hosts in Jersey City, Bayonne, Secaucus, or Union City building a catering menu that needs a non-veg starter with strong crowd appeal, it is one of the most reliable choices on the menu.

To arrange catering, visit golcondachimney.com or stop by at 806 Newark Avenue, Jersey City.

The Name Still Does Not Have a Definitive Answer

The question of what the 65 means remains, officially, unresolved. Hotel Buhari still credits the year. The other theories persist in food writing and kitchen conversation. What is certain is that the number does not matter anymore in any practical sense: Chicken 65 means something specific and vivid to anyone who has eaten it, and the name has become larger than its origin. At Golconda Chimney, the dish behind the name is made with the Hyderabadi conviction that turned a Chennai invention into one of the most ordered starters in Indian restaurant cooking. That conviction shows in the plate.

Golconda Chimney is at 806 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ, in India Square on Indian Square, steps from Journal Square PATH station. Lunch and dinner seven days a week. Full menu at golcondachimney.com.