Dice the skinless and boneless chicken thighs to your preferred size, which should be ideally around an inch in size.

In a large bowl, on top of the chicken, add all the ingredients for the wet marination: ajinomoto [optional], natural full fat yogurt, ginger garlic paste, chopped curry leaves, black pepper powder, cumin powder, salt to taste, and some red chilli powder.

Mix well all the ingredients and allow the chicken to marinate for as long as possible, but for a minimum of two hours. If you can marinate the chicken overnight, ensure you store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Once ready to cook, add corn flour and rice flour to the bowl of chicken, and mix well. This should be added last minute, as you want the flour mix to coat the marinated chicken, so as to make it crispy.

On medium heat, heat a pan with vegetable oil till it is hot, but not overheated. Oil that is too hot will burn the coating of the chicken 65 and keep it raw inside.

Once the oil is hot, deep fry the chicken ensuring not to overcroud the frying pan. Frying the chicken in 2 or 3 batches so as to allow it to be crunchy and golden on the outside and well cooked inside is a good option if using smaller pans.

The smaller the chicken cubes, the quicker they will cook, so there is no set time for this step. 1 inch cubes will cook in about 4 minutes, but always ensure the deep fried pieces are thoroughly cooked before serving.

Once ready, drain the fried chicken of excess oil and allow it rest on a well spread kitchen towel or cooling rack, or any other method that will allow the excess frying oil to be removed from the chicken 65 cubes.

Next, it is time for the tempering. This chicken 65 recipe requires a simple tempering [tadka] that is enriched with yogurt and red chilli powder.

To start, in a small pan, heat oil, and, once hot, add garlic [finely chopped], slit green chilies, a dry red chili, and, once the raw smell of garlic has gone, add the curry leaves.

Reduce the heat to low.

In a small bowl, add the room temperature yogurt, corn starch, red chili powder, and ajinomoto, and mix to create a yogurt sauce. Add the food coloring if desired.

Next, add the yogurt mixture to the tempering, always keeping the flame low. Mix continuously so as to create a thick gravy and avoid the yogurt splitting.

Once the chicken 65 sauce is ready, add the chicken and toss around, allowing all the pieces of chicken to be coated.

Adjust the salt.

Serve chicken 65 immediately as an appetizer or a side dish on its own or with flatbreads such as rotis, naan, or parathas.