Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried

Deep frying

Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot oil or fat. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan; industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer may be used....

 chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

 dish popular in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

, as a bar snack, entree, or quick snack. The flavour of the dish comes from ginger

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

, cayenne pepper

Cayenne pepper

The cayenne pepper—also known as the Guinea spice,cow-horn pepper, aleva, bird pepper,or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper—is a red, hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes and for medicinal purposes. Named for the city of Cayenne in French Guiana, it is a cultivar of Capsicum annuum...

, mustard powder and vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

 although the exact recipe can vary. It can be prepared using chicken on or off the bone.

The name

While the name "Chicken 65" is universally used to refer to the dish, there are many different stories for how the name came about. It is generally acknowledged that no one knows which (if any) of these anecdotal theories are correct

• Chicken 65 is alleged to be a dish introduced in 1965 by the Buhari Hotel restaurant in Chennai
  Chennai
  Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
  
  . They also offer Chicken 78, Chicken 82 and Chicken 90, introduced in 1978, 1982 and 1990 respectively.

• The dish is said to require 65 days to prepare the marinade, but this is unlikely for reasons of freshness and flavour.

• One account claims that the dish emerged as a simple meal solution for Indian soldiers in 1965.

• Another account claims that it is a dish containing 65 chilli peppers devised by an enterprising hotelier.

• The name is also claimed to relate to a requirement for the meat to be from 65-day-old chickens.

• 65 may be the number of pieces that the whole chicken is cut up into before cooking, although an average-sized chicken cut into this many pieces would be closer to minced chicken than the chunks in chicken 65.

• Because of India's large number of chicken preparations, each preparation was given a number instead of an independent name. Chicken 65 came about as part of this numbering system.