gunpowder chicken

Meanings

1. A spicy Asian-style dish of chicken cooked with dried chili peppers, spring onion, peanuts, etc.

Etymology

Dishes called by this name are usually similar to those (in numerous variants) called Kung Pao chicken, which suggests that perhaps this name was coined in English-speaking countries as a fancifully anglicised (similar-sounding but generic) replacement of that name. This would compare with the choice of using the vaguer name General's chicken instead of General Tso's chicken. Such choices usually have more to do with a mere desire for familiarized names rather than the motivation behind names such as liberty cabbage or freedom fries, which involves a desire to break with the heritage of a dish's original name.