If you putter around long enough in the world of Indian restaurant dining, you’ll sooner or later run into a group of dishes with the mysterious suffix of “65”: paneer 65, chicken 65, mushroom 65 and mutton 65 among them. The first thing you’d want to know, of course, is why 65? There are many stories out there but no real confirmation about what that 65 represents–although most accounts agree that it was the chicken that came first. Some say chicken 65 was first invented at a south Indian restaurant in the year 1965. Another story goes that there were 65 ingredients in the recipe (there aren’t). And yet another, and perhaps the most plausible, is that the dish featured at #65 on the numbered menu of a popular restaurant. But instead of running around in circles trying to figure out the name, let’s get down to brass tacks. All you need to really know, in the end, that this is an amazing dish. As in, it’s amazingly delicious. The sauce is a mad mix of flavors, but the overriding ones are spicy and tangy. I moderated the heat, but you can use more or less of the spicy ingredients, like green chili peppers, cayenne and black pepper according to your taste. The technique for cooking this dish also makes it rather unusual. You stir-fry the veggies, and some of the ingredients–although not all–are what you’d typically use in Indo-Chinese cooking. And yet this is not an Indo-Chinese dish; it’s really, quite uniquely Indian. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
My vegan version of Tofu “Paneer” 65 is healthier, because I don’t deep-fry the tofu, as you would the paneer. Instead, I air fry it, although you can also certainly bake it if you don’t have an air fryer.
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