The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
laser chicken
 n.
    Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing chicken, peanuts, and
    hot red peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. Many hackers call it laser
    chicken for two reasons: It can zap you just like a laser, and the sauce
    has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams. The dish has also been
    called gunpowder chicken.
    In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian hackers
    have redesignated the common dish ?lemon chicken? as Chernobyl Chicken. The
    name is derived from the color of the sauce, which is considered bright
    enough to glow in the dark (as, mythically, do some of the inhabitants of
    Chernobyl).