Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Where does the title of this posting even come from?  I first heard the phrase from the hubs. And so of course I googled it: The exact origin of the phrase winner winner chicken dinner is disputed, but it may have come from gamblers. The most popular origin story of the term is that a chicken dinner at a Las Vegas casino used to cost $2, the same amount as a standard bet. So, if you won a bet, you won a chicken dinner.  However, David Guzman, author of a book on craps lingo, has said that the term comes from back-alley gamblers during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These desperate gamblers would bet whatever they had in hopes of winning a chicken dinner. The phrase gained mainstream popularity thanks to its frequent use in the 2008 casino heist film 21. And so I know that must've been where my husband heard the phrase, plus he used to gamble. I used to have a boyfriend who also liked Thai food, and we used to trek to Berkeley to a Thai grocery store to buy the curry paste and the tea--and that's all we cooked: some kind of chicken curry, either green or red (panang I think)and buy sweetened condensed milk to drink that orange milky tea with lots of ice cubes. Anyway I love, love, love Thai food which is not the hubs is favorite. We don't go out, and so obviously I have to make it myself at home. And I love all the complexity of sweet, sour, salty and the herbaceousness of Thai cuisine. I went to our community garden to pick Thai chili peppers and also gathered mint, Italian basil, Mrs. Burnham's basil--which has a lemongrass flavor I think, Thai basil. I'm reserving the mint for shrimp salad rolls.

And the hubs who has at times has a kid's palate, I planned on serving leftover macaroni and cheese (because he's always bugging me to consume leftovers) and chicken nuggets.

My chicken meal on the other hand was going to be a Thai soup even though I had never cooked a tom yum soup. I knew I wanted the creamier version called tom yum goong. And looked at several recipes online and bought a Thai paste along with straw mushrooms at the Filipino grocery store. And set out as many Thai-like ingredients I could find in addition to the herbs I picked that morning. Lime. Coconut oil for sautéing the shallots and garlic. Scallions. Fish sauce. Lemongrass. Coconut milk. Leftover rotisserie chicken.

Going from memory of reading the recipes I found online, I winged it by sautéing the aromatics and then adding the chopped red bell pepper and green Anaheim pepper and mushrooms. I had also bought baby bok choi and forgot all about it, but the soup still looked beautiful and vibrantly colored to me, which is why I decided to reserve the fresh herbs and lime for the very end. 

Voila! His and hers chicken dinners...

I used to get a little offended that Patrick would not share in some of my food adventures and loves, but now thank goodness I find it amusing.